Rodrigo Pereira Medeiros

Erratum to: Conditions for successful local resource management: lessons from a Brazilian small-scale trawling fishery

Acknowledgments We are thankful to the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nı́vel Superior (CAPES) for providing a postdoctoral scholarship to TZS (Edital CAPES/Ciências do Mar) linked to the project: ‘‘The Ocean Continent Interface in Estuarine and Coastal Regions: Structure, Processes, Management, and Sustainability’’. The authors are also thankful for the support and contributions of Dr. Paulo da Cunha Lana. This study was supported by the TransForMar Network (Rede Transdisciplinar em Cogestão Adaptativa para o Ecodesenvolvimento).

Socioeconomic Monitoring for Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries: Lessons from Brazil, Jamaica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Obtaining reliable socioeconomic information on small-scale fisheries for use in decision-making at multiple levels of governance remains a challenge for conventional approaches to data gathering, analysis, and interpretation on a global scale. Fisheries information is most often derived from biophysical data rather than human or socioeconomic sources. Even where socioeconomic data are used, the complexity of small-scale fisheries as adaptive social-ecological systems (SES) presents further challenges to aligning information, interventions, and objectives. This chapter presents the Global Socioeconomic Monitoring Initiative for Coastal Management (SocMon) methodology for assessing the social-ecological dynamics of small-scale fisheries. It uses case studies from the Caribbean region, where SocMon has been applied for over 10 years, and from Brazil, which recently implemented the methodology. The cases examine how three features of SocMon—comprehensive socioeconomic data gathering linked to biophysical parameters, participatory methods that include stakeholders in data collecting and management, and integrated information and knowledge mobilization for decision-making—contribute to better understanding of small-scale fisheries dynamics. The cases outline challenges to implementing SocMon from a fisheries adaptive co-management perspective. The SocMon participatory methodology for monitoring socioeconomic dimensions and dynamics was found suitable for informing adaptive co-management and developing adaptive capacity in small-scale fisheries.

Where Small-Scale Fisheries Meet Conservation Boundaries: MPA Governance Challenges in Southern Brazil

Marine ecosystem health is threatened globally by overfishing and habitat damages, among other things, creating major challenges for the sustainability and governance of aquatic environments. With a push toward increasing coastal and ocean protection through spatial management measures, an overlap between these marine protected areas (MPAs) and small-scale fishing grounds is expected to occur. Since MPAs are never established in a vacuum, there is a need to account for the ecological, social, and governance contexts into which they are being inserted. However, such considerations are not common, and the lack of integration of these essential elements in the design and the implementation of MPAs has often resulted in lowering their governability. We illustrate this tendency using a case study of the Marine National Park of Currais Islands in Southern Brazil, which was established without any consultation with small-scale fishers whose livelihoods and well-being depend on the use of the area in question. Using a governability assessment framework, we examine the diversity, complexity, dynamics, and scale issues associated with the natural, social, and governing systems. In addition to revealing that governance of this MPA is a “wicked problem,” the study shows that the MPA adds more complexity to a system where issues such as lack of trust and low governing capacity exist.

Collaborative Coastal Management in Brazil: Advancements, Challenges, and Opportunities

In Brazil, during the past 20 years, several dynamic collaborative coastal management (CCM) arrangements have emerged in response to a variety of changing social and ecological conditions. These arrangements have led to an equally large range of outcomes, such as the fishing agreements in the Amazon basin and marine extractive reserves in coastal areas. This chapter describes the evolution of these collaborative management arrangements in coastal Brazil. We begin by introducing the major policies related to environmental management in Brazil, focusing particularly on the evolution of fisheries management and protected areas management. We continue with an overview of (i) key events and issues that have shaped CCM in Brazil; (ii) the achievements for the advancement of CCM over the past years; and (iii) current challenges to the advancement of CCM. We conclude the chapter with our ideas and associated thinking about what lies ahead to promote CCM in Brazil.

Stewardship and Sustainable Practices in Small-Scale Fisheries

Humans have harvested fish and other marine resources for millennia. So why be concerned today about stewardship and sustainable practices? The answers are not simple; they are changing over time, as climate changes, and perspectives vary. In this chapter, we examine the diverse facets and factors associated with stewardship and sustainable practices in small-scale fisheries, from a transdisciplinary perspective. We look at sustainability and stewardship through different lenses and examine some of the most prominent and promising initiatives applied on different scales, at multiple levels of governance, with diverse stakeholders. It is a tour that includes ecology, socioeconomics, and governance in combination rather than from one viewpoint. Critically important instruments include the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the Small-scale Fisheries Guidelines. Topics touch on fishing gear and methods; marine protected areas; livelihoods; illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing; postharvest and trade; organizations ranging from fisher cooperatives to the Marine Stewardship Council; and the sustainable practices associated with each. Our approach is one of agency in keeping with the central theme of enhancing stewardship to make a difference.