Local Development: a Dialogue Among Communities and Universities

LOCAL DEVELOPMENT: A DIALOGUE AMONG COMMUNITIES AND UNIVERSITIES

By Angela Weber (ELP 2008) and Robin Marsh

This research project started six years ago in a Bahian community called Iraporanga, also known as Parnaíba. This remote community situated near to the beautiful national park, Chapada Diamantina, founded a community cultural organization in 2003 that set as its development goal to become a successful “eco-tourist” destination while conserving their cultural identity. They committed to a development path that would sustain their fragile and precious natural resources. To achieve these goals community leaders insisted on being co-creators, beneficiaries and actors of their own development.

At this time Angela Weber (ELP 2008), was a student at CIAGS – Interdisciplinary Center for Development and Social Management, Federal University of Bahia, taking a specialization training in management and social responsibility. As part of the training, Angela participated in the Environmental Leadership Program’s summer certificate course in Sustainable Environmental Management at the University of California in 2008. At the ELP, while relating with environmental leaders from all over the world who were working in diverse fields such as conservation biology, water scarcity, fisheries management, etc., Angela came to realize that critique of the classic development paradigm, and the goal of “sustainable development”, were the common aspects of all their work. With this realization also came some interesting questions, for instance: What is the development that communities are seeking? How do they plan to achieve it? How might universities and other “expertise” be useful to communities seeking to manage their own development processes? A basic premise behind this inquiry is that, to conserve the natural environment, there must be community participation and strides toward social equity.

Angela formulated a collaborative project proposal for the Small Grants Initiative, ELP/University of California at Berkeley, together with Dr. Robin Marsh (ELP Co-director). Other collaborators were CIAGS and the Management School of the Federal University of Bahia, the Julio Cesar Mello de Oliveira Institute, and Petrobras. The project was titled: Collaborative Research to Understand and Integrate Local Community Values and Leadership for Sustainable Development. The main research objective was to test the hypothesis that local villages can start with their “traditional knowledge”, and given certain methodological tools, have the capacities to produce their own data and perspectives on their development process and sustainable model for the future. These community-based models can be compared and contrasted with dominant development models in Brazil and abroad. The action part of the project was to give the communities an opportunity to speak out for themselves in creative, innovative and transformation ways, with a focus on youth.

The project had three stages:

1– In 2009, there was a letter exchange among several dozen students of public schools from the villages of Cachoeirinha in Wagner Municipality and Iraporanga or Parnaíba in Iraquara Municipality. 2

Both are located in Chapada Diamantina, a region in the heart of Bahia state, Northeast, Brazil. Though less than an hour apart (in good weather) and with a close historical trade relationship, the young people from one town had never met anyone from or visited the other town. This exchange of letters by post became quite popular among the young people of the villages and also became an action platform for the schools to develop other learning activities associated with community and personal history, identity, partnership and future visioning. It also resulted in a co-authored article with ELP 2008 alum, Roberto Rivas, from Nicaragua, that was published in the ISTR International Society for Third Sector Research 2010 congress in Istanbul, Turkey with the name of “DEVELOPMENT – concept and impacts on community based research and researchers”.

2 – The second phase consisted of essays, posters and photographs composed by grammar and high school students from the two communities under the title: Myself and My Community. The main goal was to encourage deeper reflection and understanding of their individual and collective identities and appreciation for their community history and culture. It also gave the students an opportunity to voice the struggles they face and their dreams for the future.

3 – The last stage was the seminar named: Local Development: A Dialogue Among Communities and Universities, held May 11th 2011, in the Management School of the Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil. The half-day Seminar was attended by representatives from the two communities, professors and students from the Federal University of Bahia, and Professor Robin Marsh from the University of California, Berkeley. The main goal was to give the communities a voice and an opportunity to express the process and results of their research-action project. They chose their own representatives and came prepared to address the broad questions, “How do we want to develop?” and “What are the main challenges to achieve this path?”.

Summary of Workshop Proceedings

Parnaíba/Iraporanga was represented by Prof. Maria Neta, student Tainá and Edgar Neto, a young school coordinator. They presented first the history and location of their community, and Neta pointed out that the village is being “swallowed up by development”. Taina, the student, said that young people saw in ecotourism a way of staying in their home place. For Neto, the lack of economic opportunities, especially for the youth, has led to intense migration to the large cities, especially Sao Paolo, with loss of community values. This, despite the fact that the village has great potential for local development but this requires investment in transportation and job training.

Cachoeirinha representatives presented an historic overview when the village was the most important urban center in the municipality, with a hospital, post office, and strong commerce. They lost this status when Wagner became a municipality and transfer red its urban center to a place named Ponte Nova. Prof. Sandra and the student Rosani showed the many important aspects that they were able to understand with a simple project like a letter exchange. The students improved their grammar and writing as well as social communication skills. They also pointed out that the young people don’t have future opportunities in the village and that in order to study beyond middle school they have to leave. The Cachoeirinha school does not go beyond 8th grade. 3

Their presentation was done with Power Point and showed beautiful photos of their village, natural surroundings, and what they believe to be considered tourist and eco-tourist potential.

Prof. Robin Marsh from UC Berkeley shared that all over the world rural villages with few opportunities for their youth eventually transition to be abandoned places inhabited by the older population. This economic-demographic model can be questioned. For her there is a need in each community, and among communities in their common territory, to form a new participatory institution - a multi-stakeholder platform for articulating demands , seeking support, and implementing community/territory goals. Universities can play an important role in the platform ensuring that the knowledge construction process is a mutual “community-university” project, and communities have access to the latest and most relevant knowledge for their development. The university can also share methods and models for local leadership development.

Prof. Carlos Etchevarne from PPGA - Post Graduation Anthropological Program, Federal University of Bahia shared the details of a historic conservation project in the region that his group has developed. In this archeological project, communities play the most important role because, “they are the real keepers of their natural as well as constructed inheritance.” They are the “inheritance agents.” The project’s success is due to the ongoing participation and enthusiasm of the local communities. The recent designation of Parnaiba as a “historic cultural site” will encourage the development of a tourist circuit and villages now, “worth visiting.”

Prof. Claudio Pereira, from CEAO – Center of East African Studies, Federal University of Bahia started his remarks by deconstructing the workshop name. He pointed out that it was not relevant to have a merely theoretical discussion but to think about the multiple dimensions of the concept of development: progress, effort, conformity, social welfare, quality of life. That the local, the particular, the community are different forms taken by groups of people with a shared spirit of identification. They may ask three key questions: Who are we? Why are we are the way we are? What is our place in the future? To enable the desired development process these communities must depend on their social capital, that is, their values, social norms, institutions and common goods, and on their ability to develop strategies for designing effective networks. The university partnership is an important one for communities to learn knowledge skills, access resources, and most importantly, to promote local leadership and empowerment. This project has supported the two communities to conduct an analytical process and inquiry into possible development paths, and the partnership should continue.

Prof. Suzana Moura, from CIAGS, Federal University of Bahia, pointed out the importance of participatory processes and understanding own identity as keys to personal development , and, to creating the capacity to broaden perspectives to wider levels – community, regional, and territorial. Ultimately these wider perspectives generate the need and capacity for change. She mentioned the many riches in these communities - artistic, culinary, ecological, cultural, and the great importance of identifying and recognizing these strengths for imagining local development, and influencing public policy to support local processes of development. This project has helped these communities take a major step forward in this process, and toward the potential establishment of regional networks and regional governance. 4

Angela Weber facilitated final reflections by the community representatives. These reflections indicated the workshop was a turning point in their lives. For the first time they were being able to express themselves before a wider audience and share their concerns and what they seek for their own future. What strikes us as the most important result of the project is that, in giving the communities a voice, the most salient outcome becomes the process of discovery itself; when they can be part of a participatory process the response is overwhelming and can take on dimensions that we cannot imagine. Thinking about this methodology, we realize that this work should continue and, as requested by the communities, as a first step broaden the letter exchange to other municipalities with similar challenges. Also, we realize that the next stage of the project should incorporate workshops where the communities will not only be able to express themselves, but also, to share and exchange core competencies to strengthen their collective development potential.

Next Steps

Prof. Robin Marsh from UC Berkeley and Angela Weber will submit a proposal for a second stage of this project. In this phase the goal will be:

- Expand the methodological approach through invitation and opportunities to new communities;

- Capacity building, identification of local leadership in these communities;

- Develop collective approaches to local development and territory.

This proposal will be submitted to all partners and new ones are being invited. Besides UC Berkeley, Federal University of Bahia and Petrobrás, among others, the TAMAR Project in Praia do Forte will contribute with its long term knowledge of communities and conservation projects.