Can Fishers' Virtuous Behavior Improve Large Marine Ecosystem Health?

Abstract

Fish landings have been diminishing over the last decades in the Bahía de Amatique, Guatemala, following a worldwide trend in natural food production. There are several drivers for this, acting at different scales and involving different issues. Some of the most obvious causes of natural resources production decline and ecosystem damage are a direct result of human activity: overfishing and pollution. There are also other, less obvious, social, environmental, and economic drivers. Many are linked in cause-effect relationships and, taken together, they have consequences for the livelihoods of coastal populations. In this chapter, I examine how these cause-effect relations work, and how they can be altered to ameliorate the livelihoods of artisanal fishers and their communities. Following discussion of the general issue, I analyse a case study: the "Red de Pescadores Artesanales del Caribe Guatemalteco y Lago de Izabal" (Red, Network of the artisanal fishers of the Guatemalan Caribbean and of Lake Izabal) based in Livingston, Guatemala. The Red is based on the recognition by fishers of common needs and the determination to find solutions to common problems. I examine the projects and goals of the Red in relation to the changes that have taken place since its foundation, and then propose further research needs to tackle some of the bigger scale issues, such as watershed contamination.

The voice of the fishermen of the Gulf of Honduras: Improving regional fisheries management through fisher participation

“…He also noted that the process fostered local conservation processes and development of local institutions. For example, concerned fishers from Guatemala's Caribbean coast joined together to form the Red de Pescadores Artesanales del Caribe Guatemalteco y Lago de Izabal (Network of Artisanal Fishers of the Guatemalan Caribbean and of Lake Izabal) in 2004 (Hidalgo and Méndez, 2007;Gianini, 2011). The group has taken up issues presented in the documents and has been instrumental in supporting the development of a recently enacted seasonal closure for shrimp (G.o.G., 2010b).…”