Qualla: Prainha do Canto Verde Extractive Reserve

Prainha do Canto Verde Extractive Reserve: Introduction

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Iury0545, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fishers arrived at this stretch of Ceará coast in 1870 and built a village on the thin strip between beach and dune. For a century it was just another small community on the long northeast shore, anonymous to outsiders. Then in the late 1970s the real estate speculators came with offers for the land, then with threats when the offers were refused. The community had two choices: sell and scatter, or organize and stay. They organized. A nursery they built for their children was destroyed by thugs. Families who tried to replace palm-thatch roofs with brick walls received warnings. And still they stayed.

Image: Iury0545 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Prainha do Canto Verde Extractive Reserve: The Long Fight

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Iury0545, CC BY-SA 3.0. Starting in 1991 the residents of Prainha do Canto Verde, with help from the Friends of Prainha do Canto Verde Foundation, began to formalize what had been informal resistance. They documented the ecosystem, the lifestyle, the culture, and the economy. They ran their own small ec...

Image: Iury0545 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Prainha do Canto Verde Extractive Reserve: Victory in Brasília

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. On 5 June 2009, a federal decree created the Prainha do Canto Verde Marine Extractive Reserve - 29,794 hectares of coastal plain and adjacent sea, stretching northeast from the municipality of Beberibe. The reserve sits classified as IUCN category VI, which allows sustainable use...

Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Prainha do Canto Verde Extractive Reserve: The Aftermath Lawsuit

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Iury0545, CC BY-SA 3.0. The fight did not end with the decree. The Independent Association of Residents of Prainha and Adjacencies, which represented interests opposed to the reserve, filed suit to have its creation annulled. On 16 December 2014 a federal judge rejected their action. A working group to ...

Image: Iury0545 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Prainha do Canto Verde Extractive Reserve: The Coast They Kept

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit George Vale from Mossoró, Brasil, CC BY 2.0. What the reserve protects is what the speculators wanted to replace: coral reefs and coraline algae still in good condition, dunes covered in secondary forest, estuaries that bring constant nutrients from inland, and a community that still fishes from boats, rafts, and catamarans...

Image: George Vale from Mossoró, Brasil | CC BY 2.0