Brief conclusion

- The ethnoecology of Caiçara metapopulations (Atlantic Forest, Brazil): ecological concepts and questions

The examples given here, describing the northern coast of São Paulo State, are part of the ecological-historical processes that occurs in the rest of the Brazilian coast. In Bahia, for example, during fieldwork in January 2005, I observed the last rafts used for fishing at Porto Sauípe, a community distant about 50 miles from Salvador. At neighboring communities, such as at Baixios, raft construction, according to local fishers, was forbidden by environmental agencies because of the use of pau de jangada (Apeiba tibournou) [44] to build the rafts. Fishers were trying to build differently shaped boats to continue fishing (Figure 4). In spite of the raft maneuverability on the rocky shores of Bahia and in other NE areas of Brazil, stressed in earlier studies[45] such a resilient feature is ignored by the environmental agencies. The highway that crosses the northern coast of Bahia, named Estrada do Coco (coconut highway), is reforested in some parts by exotic species, such as by Pinus. Would it not be wiser to include fishers in the management of the raft wood (pau de jangada) by planting such trees in available and suitable sites? Summing up, metapopulation analyses can be helpful in understanding interactions within these populations, and among populations and the environment. I am leaving many questions that could serve as a guide for future studies towards the sustainability of the last remnants of the Atlantic Forest coast and their inhabitants, the Caiçaras.