Abstract
The "free access" to non-timber forest products raises several critical issues for both government and industry. In this way, a sustainable management of non-timber forest products is referred as an important strategy for the biodiversity conservation as well for income generation and a life quality enhancer of rural populations. The municipality of Guaratuba is encompassed by the Guaratuba Environmental Protection Area (EPA), where the traditional population lives and carries out the extractivism activity that is intrinsic to their customs. Therefore, this work aims to identify the limiting factors for the management of the non-timber forest products in the Atlantic Forest biome, on the coast of the state of Paraná. The data collection was based on interviews with 70 families living in Guaratuba’s EPA, from the four management units: Morro Grande, Estrada do Castelhano, Caovi-Cubatão and Baia de Guaratuba. The data was submitted to SWOT analysis. Each community is heterogeneous in its productive system of use and commercialization of non-timber forest products. The evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluated production systems indicates that the region of study is suitable for the development of activities with non-timber forest products. It is concluded that the sustainability of non-timber activity in the region is far from being achieved. Conservation programs should recognize that in the Environmental Protection Areas there is a high degree of human occupation, where opportunities for training, overcoming the lack of economic and basic health and infrastructure resources must be solved as a matter of urgency. Thus, non-timber activity, in the way it is managed, cannot be considered as a development strategy for the communities, however, if the issues raised in this study are addressed, the activity can become attractive.
Keywords:
SWOT analysis; Traditional community; Critical success factors