Fishers knowledge role in the management of artisanal fisheries in the estuary of Patos lagoon, southern Brazil

Abstract

This paper analyses the ecological knowledge of small-scale fishers in the estuary of Patos Lagoon, obtained from interviews and questionnaire surveys, and discusses its potential role in the local co-management of artisanal fisheries. This study demonstrates that fishers' knowledge can provide a valuable set of information about the characteristics of practices, tools and techniques that led a more sustainable pattern of resource use in the past. Such knowledge can contribute to the formulation of present management plans to better adapt rules to local social and environmental conditions. However, the use of fishers’ knowledge in the co-management of artisanal fisheries was shown to be hampered by three identified factors: the low expectations among scientists and decision makers of the value of fishers’ knowledge for management; the lack of incentives for fishers to act according to their ecological knowledge due to problems in the definition of property rights; and the contradictory paradigms in place about the role of scientific and local knowledge in the management of the estuarine ecosystem.