Climate variability and the Peruvian scallop fishery: the role of formal institutions in resilience building

Abstract

Peru experiences recurrent ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) events during which the Peruvian bay scallop (Argopecten purpuratus) undergoes substantial changes in its stock size. In the North of the country strong warm ENSO events are synonymous with floods and river discharges that negatively affect scallop biomass, while in the South increased sea surface temperatures lead to an increase in stock size. This paper explores how formal institutions respond to climate variability and resource fluctuations in the scallop fishery, and what role they play in the maintenance or erosion of resilience. The research shows that formal institutions are slow to learn, self-reorganize and respond to climate variability while fishermen's responses are spontaneous, ensuring a rapid process of individual adaptation. Institutional responses are mostly ex-post, and are not strongly shaped by past experience, thus eroding the resilience of the system. However, fishermen's responses sometimes lead to negative outcomes such as local stock overexploitation or 'invasion' of natural scallop habitats for scallop grow-out, and formal institutions play an important role in resilience building through the control of effort and entry in the fishery. In this paper causal loop diagrams are used to conceptualize the fishery system to highlight key variables and processes. The study thus provides the opportunity to Climatic Change (2009) 94:211-232 explore the usefulness of causal loop diagrams and conceptual models combined with participatory approaches in the exploration of the resilience of a system. The case study also illustrates that individual adaptation, a feature of resilience, is occurring and will occur spontaneously, changing property right regimes and responding not only to climate variability but also market forces. In order to maintain and build resilience and engender positive management outcomes, formal institutions not only need to shape fishermen decision-making, they must also contribute to knowledge building as well as the adoption of innovative approaches.

Impacts of Climate Variability on Latin American Small-scale Fisheries

“…Particularly in Peruvian beaches, the strong 1982/1983 and 1997/1998 El Niño events caused mass mortalities of surf clam (Arntz et al 1987). The same differential response to extreme events was observed for the artisanally harvested Peruvian bay scallop (Argopecten purpuratus): in the north of Peru, strong El Niño events drastically increased floods and river discharges, causing a decrease in scallop biomass, whereas increasing temperatures in the south produced a positive effect on stock size (Badjeck et al 2009). During the 1997/1998 El Niño event, Independence Bay (14ºS, Peru) showed a 10ºC increase in sea surface temperature (SST), high oxygen concentrations, and diminished phytoplankton concentrations.…”

“…Changes in climatic drivers might directly favor certain species over others, based on their latitudinal distribution and the oceanographic features of the area (Badjeck et al 2009). Indeed, a recent evaluation of the surf clam (Mesodesma donacium) in the Pacific (distribution range from 5ºS to 42º S) suggested that warm ENSO (El Niño) events negatively affected landings in Peru and northern Chile (Fig.…”

Variabilidad climática y su impacto en pesquerías de pequeña escala de invertebrados en América Latina

“…Otra respuesta diferencial a los eventos climáticos extremos se observó para el ostión o concha de abanico Argopecten purpuratus explotada artesanalmente en el norte de Perú: los eventos severos de El Niño aumentaron drásticamente las inundaciones y descargas de los ríos, provocando una disminución en la biomasa del ostión, mientras que el aumento de las temperaturas en el Sur produjo un aumento de su población (Badjeck et al, 2009). Durante el evento de El Niño 1997-98, la SST en la Bahía de la Independencia (14ºS, Perú) aumentó 10ºC y se registraron altas concentraciones de oxígeno y concentraciones reducidas de fitoplancton.…”

Co-governance of Small-Scale Shellfisheries in Latin America: Institutional Adaptability to External Drivers of Change

“…Climatic drivers, such as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), affect habitats and ecological patterns and processes of target and non-target species, causing changes in habitat suitability, biogeography and demography, as well as modifi cations to dispersal, feeding, growth and behavioral patterns (Badjeck et al 2009 ;Ortega et al 2012 ). The negative changes induced by climatic drivers (e.g., mass mortalities) are exacerbated by human drivers (i.e., market globalization and weak governance), leading to loss of resilience in small-scale shellfi sheries .…”

“…Such knowledge is important to understand how co-governance institutions and actors learn, self-organize and respond to diverse climatic and human drivers, as well as to design policies aimed at maintaining or increasing resilience in small-scale fi sheries (Adger et al 2005 ;Badjeck et al 2009 ).…”