The team led by Rodrigo Medeiros and Cristiana Seixas started activities to establish SocMon Brazil immediately after attending the “SocMon Brazil Workshop”, which was held in the Center for Marine Studies (CEM) from August 1st to August 2nd, 2013. SocMon is a globally recognized socio-economic assessment methodology for monitoring coastal and marine social-ecological systems. The workshop was coordinated by WG4 leader Patrick McConney, SocMon Global Coordinator Peter Edwards and Rodrigo Medeiros of CEM. The “Transformar Network”, acting as a facilitator for different SocMon initiatives, will coordinate establishing the Brazil node. First goal of SocMon Brazil will be to give priority to MPAs in order to support a national initiative for socio-economic monitoring of MPAs. A pilot project will be conducted with three MPAs located on the South – Southeast Coast, with participation by observers from other regions. The observers will be trained and will actively “observe” the development of the pilot project as part of the training before starting SocMon in their own regions. In early 2014, a national workshop will be held to integrate the initiative into community-based monitoring for environmental management and to offer in-depth training in the SocMon methodology assisted by the SocMon Caribbean node based at the University of the West Indies with WG4. Upon its establishment, the SocMon Brazil node will contribute immeasurably to enhancing the stewardship of SSF in that country.
