SERI: A new approach to measure resilience of small-scale fishers

Do you know what social-ecological resilience means?  Well, it can be a little bit tricky to understand but I will try to explain it to you. Resilience is defined as the ability of a system to cope with disturbances while maintaining its functions. For instance, the ecological resilience of coral reefs has declined because of overfishing, rising temperatures, and other factors, which has led to radical regime shifts that make them more vulnerable to natural disasters. In the social context, resilience is the capacity of human communities to absorb changes and adversities while maintaining their livelihoods. For example, fishing communities may maintain their social resilience despite transformative changes, e.g., technological or cultural, that involve regime shifts, such as a shift from a fishing economy to a tourism-based economy, if such transformations maintain or improve their livelihoods. So, when social systems are nested in ecological systems through mutual feedbacks, i.e., fisheries system, the term social-ecological resilience  (SER) is adopted.

But can we measure fishers' resilience? Yes, we can do it. A new research just published in Ecology & Society proposed a new index to measure social-ecological resilience of small-scale fishers. The SERI – Social-Ecological Resilience Index – is a practical tool based on an integrative ecosystem approach and it can be of great value to marine conservation planning.

The new approach consider the social-ecological system as a whole, that is, human and environmental systems must be considered in unison, as an integrated system. The authors believe that altering the relationship between fishers and fisheries resources could influence fisher resilience, which is likely to depend on how management strategies are delivered and perceived, how environmental changes are felt, and on the intensity of resource dependency (Fig. 1). 

Figure 1: A conceptual framework for assessing the social-ecological resilience (SER) of small-scale fishers as a function of policy, environmental, and socioeconomic changes in the system. SRi = Social Resilience at the individual level; SRc = Social Resilience at the community level; ER = Ecological Resilience. Adapted from Marshall et al. 2009.

The variables used to compose the SERI are assigned to the individual, community, and ecosystem levels of the fisheries system, because fisher resilience is influenced by fishers themselves, fisheries resources, and aspects related to resource dependency at the community level (Fig.2). 

Figure 2: Proposed components (three circles forming SERI), indicators (represented by icons), and subindicators (variables in the rectangles) to measure the SERI of small-scale fishers, where SERI = (SRi + SRc + ER)/3. SRi = Social Resilience at the individual level; SRc = Social Resilience at the community level; ER = Ecological Resilience.

The SERI was applied to fishers living in three marine protected areas located in the northeastern coast of Brazil: Extractive Reserve Batoque, Extractive Reserve Prainha do Canto Verde, and State Sustainable Development Reserve Ponta do Tubarão (Fig. 3). The results show that the social resilience at both individual and community levels and the ecological resilience are important to fisher SER. Given the high contribution of the biological sensitivity indicator to form SERI, together with the lower ecological resilience values found in the three reserves, working toward the protection, restoration, and maintenance of biodiversity may enhance SER in these marine reserves. Individual and community resilience, especially through capacity building and leadership, should also be promoted. In addition, some fisher socioeconomic aspects are crucial to defining individual resilienceamong small-scale fishers in the considered areas. For example, older fishers, fishers who depend solely on fishing, and fishers who had higher-mean CPUEs were found to be less resilient.

Figure 3: Study area located on the Brazilian northeastern coast, highlighting the reserves located in the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará. Pictures on the left, from top to bottom: the fisher association in RESEX Batoque, rafts (the main fishing craft in RESEX Canto Verde), and the estuary in RDSE Ponta do Tubarão.  

The findings of this study may provide a key to understanding the most important aspects of SER in coastal areas. By knowing the aspects that affect fisher coping strategies in response to changes to their social-ecological system, we can devise smarter management approaches that inform where conservation strategies and policy decisions are likely to be most effective. 

Besides being a feasible tool and to broaden the resilience discussion, this new index is a useful framework that can assist governments and environmental organizations to better understand SER among fishing communities. How resilient are the coastal fishing communities in your country? If you are interested in applying this index to your country, you can find all the necessary information and source data used to calculate the SERI in the supplementary materials of the research.



Silva, M. R. O., M. G. Pennino, and P. F. M. Lopes. 2020. A social-ecological approach to estimate fisher resilience: a case study from Brazil. Ecology and Society 25(1):23. 
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-11361-250123