Maria Alice Leite Lima

Pescarias artesanais em comunidades ribeirinhas na amazônia brasileira: perfil socioeconômico, conflitos e cenário da atividade

Las comunidades tradicionales localizadas al margen del Rio Madeira son influenciadas por su estrecha relacion con la naturaleza y um conocimiento profundo de sus ciclos. El pescado es uno de los principales recursos explotados para la subsistencia y la comercializacion. Esta investigacion analizo el perfil socio-economico y la actividad pesquera de dos comunidades riberenas del medio rio Madeira, Sao Carlos e Calama. Fueron realizadas 189 entrevistas con cuestionarios semi-estructurados en familias de pescadores de estas comunidades, entre abril y agosto de 2009. Las preguntas incluyeron el numero de pescadores por familia, la escolaridad, edad, tempo que actua en la pesca asociativismo, forma de comercializacion, actividades complementares e ingreso mensual por actividad productiva. A traves de reuniones colectivas con los pescadores se levantaron informaciones sobre el Conocimiento Ecologico Local (CEL) de las especies y del ambiente, conflictos pesqueros y escenarios actuales. Los resultados indicaron que los pescadores de estas localidades tiene una edad promedio de 39 anos y ejercen la actividad hace mas de 20 anos y que mas de 60% no han concluido el curso primario. Los principales conflictos estan relacionados con la fiscalizacion considerada inadecuada y la falta de area de pesca. La construccion de mapas de escenarios reflejo la expectativa de aumento de los conflictos atribuyendo la reduccion de las areas de pesca e todavia posibles migraciones de pescadores dislocados relocalizados por la construccion de las presas hidroelectricas Jirau e Santo Antonio. El conocimiento generado constituye un marco cero sobre aspectos sociales que incluye la practica pesquera y que podra subsidiar la gestion de los recursos pesqueros para garantir la sostenibilidad.

The invisibility of fisheries in the process of hydropower development across the Amazon

We analyze the invisibility of fisheries and inadequacy of fishers’ participation in the process of hydropower development in the Amazon, focusing on gaps between legally mandated and actual outcomes. Using Ostrom’s institutional design principles for assessing common-pool resource management, we selected five case studies from Brazilian Amazonian watersheds to conduct an exploratory comparative case-study analysis. We identify similar problems across basins, including deficiencies in the dam licensing process; critical data gaps; inadequate stakeholder participation; violation of human rights; neglect of fishers’ knowledge; lack of organization and representation by fishers’ groups; and lack of governmental structure and capacity to manage dam construction activities or support fishers after dam construction. Fishers have generally been marginalized or excluded from decision-making regarding planning, construction, mitigation, compensation, and monitoring of the social–ecological impacts of hydroelectric dams. Addressing these deficiencies will require concerted investments and efforts by dam developers, government agencies and civil society, and the promotion of inter-sectorial dialogue and cross-scale participatory planning and decision-making that includes fishers and their associations.

Review of Fisheries Resource Use and Status in the Madeira River Basin (Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru) Before Hydroelectric Dam Completion

ABSTRACT The Madeira River, which drains one of the major tributary river basins of the upper Amazon, contributes to small-scale fisheries in Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. This paper provides a base-line of fisheries resources and their status in six sub-basins of the Madeira River: upper Madre de Dios River basin (Peru), Beni and Mamoré River basins (Bolivia), Iténez or Guaporé River basin (Bolivia and Brazil), middle Madeira, and (two sections of the) lower Madeira River (Brazil). Data were collected between 2009 and 2011, before the completion of two hydroelectric dams in the Brazilian portion of the basin. Biophysical, social, and biological indicators were used to characterize the fisheries. The results show an overall small-scale multispecies fisheries pattern but with notorious differences between the Madeira sub-basins. The Beni and Mamoré sub-basin shows the largest flooded area, with associated higher total fisheries yields. Trophic level of the catch, diversity, and mean weight of fish caught were shown to be very sensitive to exploitation level, river water type (white or clear water), flooded area, and the introduction of Arapaima gigas in Bolivia. The Bolivian fisheries are characterized by less exploited stocks, whereas stocks in Peru and Brazil show signs of intensive exploitation, resulting in fisheries of smaller bodied, lower trophic-level species. Landing data in the upper basin show a predominant reliance on migrating fish resources, which might be vulnerable to the construction of dams. These data serve as a baseline to evaluate anthropogenic impacts on the Madeira River basin fisheries in the future.

Ecosystem indicators of a small-scale fisheries with limited data in madeira river (Brazil)

Este trabalho apresenta uma analise baseada em indicadores para pesca de pequena escala que opera no medio rio Madeira (Brasil), afluente do rio Amazonas. Foram utilizados dados de desembarques diarios da Colonia de Pescadores de Porto Velho que registrou a producao das especies (kg) capturadas entre 1990 e 2009 e o comprimento total durante cinco anos. As especies foram classificadas por nivel trofico, e foram calculados o balanco na pesca, indice L e as classes de tamanho. Alem disso, as diferencas nos desembarques totais anuais (kg) foram correlacionadas com o nivel da agua do rio Madeira (cm). A captura anual media foi de 566,5 toneladas (± 193,6), com variacao significativa entre os anos e nao correlacionadas com o nivel da agua do rio. Os indicadores do ecossistema mostraram uma tendencia estavel, com oscilacoes nos ultimos anos, refletindo maior captura de especies com maiores comprimentos e nivel trofico. Os gestores de pesca em regioes com dados pesqueiros limitados podem considerar esses indicadores para analises de estoque de peixes como de baixo custo, praticos e faceis de calcular

Hydrological controls of fisheries production in a major Amazonian tributary

Amazonian rivers are characterized by a strongly seasonal flood pulse, which is being altered by ongoing and planned hydropower development across the basin. Changes in hydrology have a cascade of physical, ecological, and social effects, and some ecohydrological changes in the Amazon are expected to be irreversible. To better understand these linkages, we investigated shared trends and causal factors driving fish catch in a major Amazonian tributary before dam construction to derive relationships between catch and natural hydrologic dynamics that can be used to assess likely post-dam fisheries impacts. We applied a time series-based dimension reduction technique (dynamic factor analysis) to investigate dynamics in fish catch across 10 commercially important species using daily fish landings and hydrological data. We found a 4-trend dynamic factor model to best fit the observed data, with fitted trends exhibiting variation representative of seasonal and longer-term hydrologic variation. We next considered 11 candidate explanatory time series and found the best dynamic factor model used 4 explanatory variables: maximum water level, flooding duration, previous years flow, and rate of change in flow; however, each species showed a unique response to this set of hydrological variables. Species-specific responses suggested that future dam operating rules need to closely mimic the natural hydrologic regime in order to maintain the biological dynamics of this and similarly diverse systems. In particular, high flows associated with increased catch the following year are important to maintain, but may be difficult to achieve in the context of reservoir regulation and energy production goals.