Challenges for the Co- Management of Fisheries in the Brazilian Amazon

Marcel Bursztyn [email protected] Sustainable Development Center – University of Brasília © 2004 Antonio Oviedo and Marcel Bursztyn Abstract The problem of the non-utilization of sustainable management practices of the fishing resources in the Amazon is a result of various causes, such as the security of land tenure, inadequate public policies, the expansion of ranching into floodplains areas, the lack of technical assistance and adequate economic mechanisms. Among the effects caused by this problem are the alteration of the ecological processes of the floodplains, the reduction of the fishing stocks and the consequent product offer, and the social-environmental impacts. The greatest challenge faced by governmental bodies, which establish public policies for the environmental management of fisheries, is to assure sustainability of the fishing resources and to develop new mechanisms for the decentralization of the decision making and management processes. In response to the growth of Amazon commercial fisheries, a network of community-managed lakes has proliferated throughout the Amazon floodplain system. This approach has been widely perceived as a promising alternative for the comanagement of floodplain fisheries. Over the last decade communities, NGO’s, grassroots organizations, and the National Environmental Agency – IBAMA – have worked together to develop a co-management system for floodplain fisheries based on the legal recognition of fishing agreements. This paper examines the experience of the comanagement of fisheries in the Brazilian Amazon. Here, while considerable progress has been made in setting up a functional co-management system, it suffers from serious problems that undermine its effectiveness and threaten its long-term sustainability. Unless communities are permitted to restrict access and charge user fees, it is unlikely that the co-management system will survive once funding for project implementation terminates. There are, however, legal precedents for making the necessary design changes, thereby increasing prospects for the long term institutional sustainability of the system.