PUBLIC RECOGNITION OF COLLECTIVE STAKEHOLDERS IN NORTHEAST BRAZIL FAMILY FARMING

Abstract

In recent years, peasant communities and family farmers' organisations have developed new forms of collective action among smallholders in North East Brazil. This paper analyses the origins, emergence, and impact of these local and regional initiatives as well as their relations with peasant social movements and with public institutions. These smallholders groups constitute collective systems for the management of natural resources (water, grazing, forest, seeds and bio-diversity) and/or the production of public assets (information, training, access to innovation and to specific markets). In the Northeast, particularly in the State of Paraíba, their experience has mobilised social and professional networks among civil society and led to demands in hybrid forums for public recognition or, better, public support from State institutions. The authors analyse the first lessons from, and the limitations of, these new forms of interaction between peasant collective action and State public action. This movement is related to the decentralisation process underway in Brazil and the first inter-municipal initiatives. There is a risk that civil society might substitute for the State in the performance of its functions; but the public obligations of these collective stakeholders also ensure locally adapted responses to the complexity and specificity of public policies. The new government has staked its programs on civil society participation. But we can already observe some tensions between the government, social movements and local politicians. In a political system with elections every two years, it is difficult to maintain participatory processes that require longer periods for concrete results.