Participative Management: advances and challenges of participation in the Environmental Protection Area of Piquiri-Una

Abstract

The article aims to understand the advances and challenges of participation in management in the conservation units of sustainable use in the Atlantic Forest of the Rio Grande do Norte, with the following specific objectives: verify if participatory manage ment practices were used to manage the conservation unit; identify the barriers experienced in the management of the conservation unit to establish participatory mechanisms. Theoretical reference on participation was used, focusing on the operationalizatio n of participation. The study has a qualitative exploratory and descriptive approach. The locus of the research was the APA Piquiri -Una and it was used semi-structured interviews, structured non-participant observation and questionnaires for the data colletion. It is concluded that in the unit studied there are management practices that can be configured as participative practices. However, there are essential aspects of participation that need to be advanced, such as the training of those involved in participation. Institutional capacities were perceived as a key factor for participatory management.