An Overview Of Our Solution
Motivating Sustainable Fishing through fishery certification in Canavieiras Reserv Bahaia-Brasil.
Who is this solution impacting?
Ecosystem
Océans/Côtes
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Amérique du Sud
Problem
Describe the problem
The main exploited resource in the Brazilian mangrove is the mangrove crab (Ucides cordtus). Every day thousands of small crabs are sold by traditional local communities, but with each passing day it becomes harder to find them, and smaller crabs are available for sale. This proposal aims to make a pre-assessment of the feasibility to develop the certification of Ucides cordatus fishery in the Canavierias Marine Extractive Reserve. This analysis is the critical first phase for the full certification process. The certification will aid value to the crab and ensure that sustainable practices will be used
Biodiversity Impact
The sustainable fishing practices are the main requirement for certification. The pre-assessment will assess the status of the fishery and will indicate the best practices to guarantee the sustainability of the species. The evaluation will investigate the status of the species and potential impacts of the ways to capture, among other information. This information will identify the minimum size for capture, the maximum amount that can support and minor impact practices. Another requirement of certification will be the permanent ecosystem health monitoring, since the effectiveness of practices implemented must be tested over time. So to implement the best fishing practices and monitor their effects on the ecosystem is to ensure attention to ecosystem health. Also noteworthy is that even if the certification will not be implemented the information collected in the pre-assessment will guide local communities on how to reduce their impact on the environment.
Solution
This initiative will be developed in the Canavieiras Marine Extractive Reserve (Resex Canavieiras), located in the south of Bahia-Brazil, is part of Abrolhos region, the most biodiverse region of the south Atlantic. An Extractive Reserve (RESEX) is a category of protected area that has been well developed in Brazil. In RESEX sustainable use of resources is permitted, but only the local traditional communities are that they can explore the natural resources. The Canavieiras reserve has 100 K ha and was created on June 2006. Seven little communities, with 2.300 families, depend on the marine resources for their support. The mangroves occupy about 8000 ha of the reserve, and the communityƒ??s main exploited resource is the Ucides cordtus. The social organization is quite developed. Ten fishermen??s associations, four environmental NGO??s and universities have been working constantly to improve the quality of the community and environmental conservation. This strong social organization contributes a lot to development of models for managing fish stocks, especially those from mangroves
Replicability
How many years has your solution been applied? 1 year // Have others reproduced your solution elsewhere? Yes // AMEX will be the manager of the proposal and CI Brazilian Marine Program will support them in both aspects as the administrative issues and technical decisions. AMEX was created in 2008, since then has developed several socio-environmental projects in the RESEX with great success. The high credibility and ability to mobilize of the AMEX leaders has been primordial to the success of initiatives like this, that depend on the effective participation of community Another important advantage is that AMEX has five years of biological data from Ucides cordatus, which will be essential for the certification process, and has already been working in the dissemination of sustainable fishing pratices
Human Well Being and Livelihood Impact
The certification of the crab fishery will add value to the product ensuring increased income in the community without increasing the stress on the resource. In addition to the direct gain to the fishermen, a part of the value added should be applied by the associations directly to the preservation of the mangroves. Approximately 700 families depend of the mangroves resources and will be directly positive impacted. // AMEX will be in charge of the proposal. This association is the result of social struggle developed during the creation of the reserve. It was created by the top leaders of each community that composed the extractive reserve. Thus all the associations will be represented in the management of the proposal. Moreover RESEX has a deliberative council which is responsible for determining the operating rules of extractive reserve, which will be very important to support and regulate the practices necessary for the certification. In addition to community representatives, council also has the participation of environmental NGOs, Universities and public sectors linked to fishing and the environment. The Amazon river fishery is the first certificated fishery in Brasil. It is certificated by an Italian NGO called Friend of the Sea. In a partner with Noronha Pescados, a seafood trading company, they guarantee the sustainability of the products. In addition, Noronha is partnering with NGOs working in the Amazon to reverse a percentage of profit from the sale of certified fishery products to preserve the Amazon rainforest (http://www.friendofthesea.org/news-doc.asp?ID=378&CAT_ID=8).