Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge to Improve Holistic Fisheries Management: Transdisciplinary Modeling of a Lagoon Ecosystem of Southern Mexico

Abstract

We developed a transdisciplinary modeling approach for the Huave Lagoon System (HLS), Mexico. This lagoon was selected because it has been used sustainably in various complimentary ways by different ethnic groups since pre-Hispanic times. Over the last few years, however, the ecological impact of artisanal fisheries in the region has grown significantly, thus endangering the balance between society and nature. Because the Huaves and the Zapotecs are ancestral fishing cultures with a profound knowledge of ecosystem resources and local property rights, the aim of this study was to identify ecosystem-level management alternatives capable of diminishing fishing impacts to the HLS. We used a consensus-building process and applied the user's traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). Our counterintuitive results show that specific management strategies should be considered for each particular fishing seascape within the HLS while taking into account the differences among ecological structures and fishery dynamics. The insights from this research aid in defining holistic management policies and support spatial allocations of use rights in local fisheries

Identifying potential consequences of natural perturbations and management decisions on a coastal fishery social-ecological system using qualitative loop analysis

“…An alternative to an in-depth, quantitative description of SES and their dynamics is qualitative modeling. Qualitative modeling approaches, including fuzzy cognitive mapping (Kok 2009), causal loop diagrams (Lane 2008), Bayesian belief networks (Woolridge and Done 2004), and loop analysis (Puccia and Levins 1986), can provide practical tools for evaluating external perturbations and management strategies, particularly under circumstances of limited data availability and uncertainty in the nature and strength of relationships within and between socioeconomic and biophysical components (Fishwick and Luker 1991, Dambacher et al 2007, Espinoza-Tenorio et al 2013, Carey et al 2014. Furthermore, they can be developed using participatory approaches with multiple stakeholders and have conceptual appeal, are intuitive, and represent good communication tools.…”

“…Although loop analysis offers an analytical framework for investigating the complexity of marine social-ecological systems (Espinoza-Tenorio et al 2013, Carey et al 2014, Reum et al 2015, many applications of this approach to date have focused on the ecological elements of the system and have not included aspects of the social system and key SES linkages (but see Dambacher et al 2007). …”

“…Although these scenarios are designed to capture perturbations and management actions specific to the Vizcaino fisheries, they represent impacts faced by many coastal fishing communities worldwide and management options available to several of these communities. Because the application of loop analysis is relatively novel in the field of fisheries management (but see Espinoza-Tenorio et al 2013, Carey et al 2014, we emphasize, through the analysis of realistic scenarios in a case study system, the potential of loop analysis to evaluate complex social-ecological systems. Our analysis should provide useful insights for a suite of small-scale fisheries, in addition to the Vizcaino region cooperatives, to identify hypotheses and key variables for monitoring.…”

Consilient knowledge in fisheries: a case study of three species of wolffish (Anarhichadidae) listed under the Canadian Species at Risk Act

“…It has differing levels of detail depending on the experience of the harvester (Espinoza-Tenorio et al 2013). It differs from fishery-independent survey data on both temporal and spatial scales; fishery-independent survey data are usually taken at larger scales with a limited number of samples at fixed and very constrained times of the year, whereas LEK works on a smaller spatial scale from a far larger observational base over wider time frames.…”

Captura histórica de peces en el Sistema Lagunar Huave, Oaxaca, México

“…1), desde el año 2001, se reportó una tendencia descendente en el nivel de captura (C t ) para los recursos camarón (Cervantes-Hernández et al 2006;Cervantes-Hernández et al 2012) y peces (Fig. 2); que según diferentes autores, aquella ha sido ocasionada principalmente por problemas de índole sociocultural (Bozada-Robles, 2002;Espinoza-Tenorio et al 2010;Espinoza-Tenorio et al 2013).…”