It´s
about time to discuss in this blog the role that people play in
fisheries management, after all, it is impossible to untangle
fisheries from their human context:
fisheries have substantial social and economic importance. Fish is
one of the most important renewable natural resources supporting
human well-being and food security.
Unfortunately,
as discussed previously here
and in multiple of our previous posts, global fisheries are currently
under-performing by the combined impacts of overfishing, degradation
of ecosystems, pollution and climate change. It is easy to see that
humans are the main, if not the sole cause of losses in our fish
stocks. We
behave as if we could take whatever we wanted out of the oceans, returning everything we do not need anymore without limits. Such
destructive interaction only grows with an increasing population of
consumers.
However,
if we depend heavily on fisheries resources, how smart are we to be
using them in such an unsustainable way? If we are so good at
destroying, could we be of any good at restoring and protecting what
is left of our fishing resources? Yes, we know, scientists know a lot
about how to restore and protect things. But sometimes
decision-makers simply do not listen to them. Or, when they do
listen, users do not, and users are the ones getting all of this fish
out of the oceans. It seems then that we need to understand the users
as well, or else we may be missing an important link between the
social and the ecological systems
Scientists
have come up with many strategies to preserve the biodiversity and
marine ecosystems, such as protected areas, quotas, gear
restrictions, closed periods, among others. In general, these
strategies are based on studies about maximum sustainable yields for
fishing stocks and lists of endangered fish species. But, in reality,
how do these strategies perform? The answer to this question depends
on multiple factors, one of them being where and under what
conditions such strategies are implemented. For instance, the poor
performance of an area subjected to fisheries management may be the
outcome of inadequate governance for a given socioeconomic context,
or lack of knowledge on resource users’ behavior and their
attitudes. Taking the social dimension into account is likely very
necessary for a better management performance.
Photo
by: Monalisa Silva
There
are, however, many examples of successful fisheries management
worldwide that included people (users) in the decision-making. Such
shared arrangements are called co-management. Among these, there are
the co-management of Pirarucu fishery in the Brazilian Amazon and the
Chilean coastal TURFS (Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries).
Co-management is an arrangement that can bring together governments,
non-profits, scientists and resource users, who share knowledge,
responsibilities and a a learning-by-doing process. A recent research
about knowledge partnership in small-scale fishery shows that the
information provided by fishers can complement current and past
information on target species and on fisheries in general (see
Damasio et al. 2015). Besides, establishing and maintaining
participative arrangements is critical for the management efficacy
because by involving the community we can increase the cooperation
with possible positive effects on monitoring and enforcement of
management rules.
Photo
by: Lorena Andrade
Photo
by: Monalisa Silva
With
this in mind, we must remember that people are different in their
values, knowledge, motivations, attitudes and perceptions. These characteristics can be affected by their livelihood, age stratus, and cultural background. Understanding and accepting that we have to
deal with a plethora of attitudes and motivations by users might put
us a step closer to proposing successful management initiatives.
That, at least, seems to be part of the successful recipe implemented
in the Amazon and in Chile. The
inclusion of social knowledge in the management process represents a
new era of natural resource management. Perhaps we will finally walk
the path that leads us to fishermen's compliance with legitimate
rules, which in turn may ensure the success of conservation
strategies.
References
Silva,
M. R., & Lopes, P. F. (2015). Each
fisherman is different: Taking the environmental perception of
small-scale fishermen into account to manage marine protected
areas. Marine
Policy, 51,
347-355.
Damasio,
L. D. M. A., Lopes, P. F., Guariento, R. D., & Carvalho, A. R.
(2015). Matching
Fishers’ Knowledge and Landing Data to Overcome Data Missing in
Small-Scale Fisheries. PloS
one, 10(7),
e0133122.
by Monalisa Silva
