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Livelihood transitions and social wellbeing on the Atlantic Forest Coast of Brazil

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Abstract

Globalised change is driving transitions in small-scale tropical fisheries away from natural resource-based livelihoods towards wage labour that involves employment in the service industry and outmigration from centres of origin. In this paper, we employ a social wellbeing lens to examine livelihood transitions from the perspective of the inhabitants of Ponta Negra, a fishing community on the Atlantic Forest Coast of Brazil. Social wellbeing allows the examination of how people experience and perceive environmental change as well as how their desires and aspirations shape their adaptation preferences. In spite of a dwindling fishing economy and increased restriction to accessing lands for agriculture, older people value living in this community but expect their offspring to move to urban centres and join the regional tourism industry labour force. Formal education is seen as a strategic resource that can facilitate desirable livelihood transitions through access to better paid jobs and enabling the mobilisation of local knowledge and other resources into the local tourism economy in ways that allow individuals and households to retain their footing in the community.

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Correspondence to C. Julián Idrobo.

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Idrobo, C.J., Johnson, D.S. Livelihood transitions and social wellbeing on the Atlantic Forest Coast of Brazil. Maritime Studies 19, 67–79 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-019-00140-7

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