Local Institutional Responses to Global Market Pressures: The Sea Cucumber Trade in Yucatán, Mexico

Bennett, Abigail; Basurto, Xavier

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.09.006

Cited by 37 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Patron-client systems in smallscale fisheries might evolve to provide mutual benefits (FerrolSchulte et al 2014), but the remote locations, high dependence on few patrons, and increasing external market prices in the CT RESEX make this, as many other patron-client relations (Glaser et al 2015) strongly asymmetric. Small-scale fisheries have been facing these challenges for decades, often driven by the integration of fish products into global markets with complex supply chains that do not bring proportional economic gains back to rural fishers (Berkes et al 2006, Eriksson et al 2015, Bennett and Basurto 2018. Long-term sustainable exploitation is difficult to adhere to when short-term gains are needed, often driving overexploitation to meet basic needs or pay back debts (Glaser et al 2010a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mangroves, fishers, and the struggle for adaptive comanagement: applying the social-ecological systems framework to a marine extractive reserve (RESEX) in Brazil

Partelow¹,

Glaser²,

Arce³

et al. 2018

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ABSTRACT. Brazil has a network of marine extractive reserves (RESEX), a form of marine protected area (MPA) using comanagement. The RESEX program aims to bring traditionally marginalized populations with natural resource dependent livelihoods into national development processes by empowering them to participate in governance and steward biodiversity conservation. We apply the socialecological systems framework (SESF) and collective action theory to diagnose challenges for comanagement in the Caete-Teperacu marine RESEX near Bragança, Brazil, a multiuse mangrove estuary supporting a small-scale crab fishery. We conducted key informant interviews and build on over 20 years of research in the region to provide an overarching analysis of the challenges facing comanagement. We describe the variables from the SESF in the case context and find that many social and ecological variables interact in clusters over time, and these clusters can be identified as themes, including (1) social and political momentum supporting the RESEX; (2) shifting perceptions of local residents and fishers; (3) patron-client relationships and social-ecological traps; (4) challenges with institutional fit; and (5) the interactions between harvesting closures, compensation, and dependence on local natural resources. Furthermore, we use collective action theory to help explain the role that each variable plays in either hindering or enabling successful governance. Our findings suggest that institutional resilience is needed to make RESEX adaptive to shifting social and political momenta. It could do this by providing more platforms for communication, deliberation, and knowledge exchange among the relevant actors. We believe our findings reflect broader challenges facing RESEX implementation throughout Brazil, and lessons can be learned for MPAs facing difficulties with the implementation of comanagement worldwide.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mangroves, fishers, and the struggle for adaptive comanagement: applying the social-ecological systems framework to a marine extractive reserve (RESEX) in Brazil

Partelow¹,

Glaser²,

Arce³

et al. 2018

E&S

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“…In contrast, in fishing associations like cooperatives, fishers are more likely to be able to participate in shaping operational and collective-choice-level action situations, and so trust and trustworthiness generated at the constitutional-choice level can have broader effects over harvesting and financial distribution of benefits. For the cooperative in our data set, which is constituted by a high number of reliable fishers, we have documented a number of instances in which the cooperative engaged in successful collective-action to monitor access to outsiders to their fishing grounds, negotiate, and lobby the government to defend their fishing rights [46]. Overall, fishers also benefit from developing a trustworthy relationship with their fishing patrons because it increases the likelihood they will also gain access to credit for purposes beyond the fishing arena.…”

Section: Influence Of 'Reliable Fishers'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing the commons beyond harvesting: An empirical illustration from fishing

et al. 2020

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Harvesting has received most theoretical, empirical, and policy attention towards understanding common-pool resource dilemmas. Yet, pre-harvesting and post-harvesting activities influence harvesting outcomes as well. Broadening the analytical focus beyond harvesting is needed to imagine new ways of theorizing and governing the commons. Fishing-which is synonymous with harvesting-is a case in point. We contribute to a beyondharvesting research agenda by incorporating concepts from common-pool resources theory that have not received enough attention in the literature. We compare two ubiquitous selforganizing strategies (i.e., fishing cooperatives and patron-client relationships) fishers use to access means of production and analyze their effects on the distribution of benefits resulting from harvesting. We use rarely available longitudinal data of monetary loans to fishers in Mexican small-scale fisheries and find that cooperatives can deliver broader distribution of benefits than patron-client relationships. Our study highlights the importance of historically and contextually situating analyses linking the effects of pre-harvesting processes on harvesting outcomes, and the benefits of broadening the scope of inquiry beyond a narrow policy attention on harvesting to move towards a fuller understanding of commons dilemmas.

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“…On the one hand, an effective policy has to account for the local context of a fishing community and for the heterogeneity in fisher characteristics, perceptions, and behavior (Mwaipopo et al, 2010;Bennett and Dearden, 2014;Gelcich and O'Keeffe, 2016;Singh et al, 2018;Wosu, 2019). At the same time, SSF are embedded within, and interact with, larger scales such as regional and national institutions, and global markets (Crona et al, 2015;Pace and Gephart, 2017;Bennett and Basurto, 2018). An effective policy should address a specific governance problem while considering the complexity and interactions within the broader fishery system.…”

Section: Challenge 2: Developing Policies That Are Sensitive To Localmentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating Complexities: Agent-Based Modeling to Support Research, Governance, and Management in Small-Scale Fisheries

et al. 2020

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The sustainable governance and management of small-scale fisheries (SSF) is challenging, largely due to their dynamic and complex nature. Agent-based modeling (ABM) is a computational modeling approach that can account for the dynamism and complexity in SSF by modeling entities as individual agents with different characteristics and behavior, and simulate how their interactions can give rise to emergent phenomena, such as over-fishing and social inequalities. The structurally realistic design of agentbased models allow stakeholders, experts, and scientists across disciplines and sectors to reconcile different knowledge bases, assumptions, and goals. ABMs can also be designed using any combination of theory, quantitative data, or qualitative data. In this publication we elaborate on the untapped potential of ABM to tackle governance and management challenges in SSF, discuss the limitations of ABM, and review its application in published SSF models. Our review shows that, although few models exist to date, ABM has been used for diverse purposes, including as a research tool for understanding cooperation and over-harvesting, and as a decision-support tool, or participatory tool, in case-specific fisheries. Even though the development of ABMs is often time-and resource intensive, it is the only dynamic modeling approach that can represent entities of different types, their heterogeneity, actions, and interactions, thus doing justice to the complex and dynamic nature of SSF which, if ignored can lead to unintended policy outcomes and less sustainable SSF.

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Local Institutional Responses to Global Market Pressures: The Sea Cucumber Trade in Yucatán, Mexico

Cited by 37 publications

References 47 publications

Mangroves, fishers, and the struggle for adaptive comanagement: applying the social-ecological systems framework to a marine extractive reserve (RESEX) in Brazil

Mangroves, fishers, and the struggle for adaptive comanagement: applying the social-ecological systems framework to a marine extractive reserve (RESEX) in Brazil

Governing the commons beyond harvesting: An empirical illustration from fishing

Navigating Complexities: Agent-Based Modeling to Support Research, Governance, and Management in Small-Scale Fisheries

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