Local knowledge and training towards management

The urgency of managing marine resources is based on the fact that half of the world stocks are fully exploited, excluding those stocks that are already depleted. Artisanal fisheries in Brazil, both inland and coastal, are responsible for about half of the country’s catches. Therefore, management of local artisanal fisheries is a necessity that provides an additional benefit, considering the observation that decentralization and the use of local ecological knowledge (LEK) in management have given better results than centralized, top-down management. In this study, a third system of knowledge–based on practice and training–is built from the local and scientific systems of knowledge, and a method to accomplish practical steps in local management is shown. Four elements are considered for the process of linking systems towards management: (1) an understanding of the natural environment of the fishery and on the use of natural resources by locals; (2) the knowledge of the marine area used by fishers, i.e., location of fishing spots for each species; (3) the understanding of fisher behavior, e.g., using tools from optimal foraging theory; and (4) the knowledge fishers have of the biology and ecology of species and their LEK, based on studies of the ethnobiology, ethnoecology, and ethnotaxonomy of fish. Considering the availability of publications on topics 1 and 2, illustrative cases are shown using optimal foraging models in Itaipu Beach, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo Bagre, Cananéia, São Paulo, and using common snook, Centropomus undecimalis, as an example for a target species. Finally, local programs including training courses using both scientific and local knowledge are proposed within coastal artisanal fisheries.     

Institutions and water governance in the Okavango Delta,Botswana

The goals of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) can be achieved by embracing the principles of distributive governance, which places both customary and statutory water institutions on the same pedestal in the governance of water resources. As culture and traditions constitute intangible aspects of water resources management in rural Africa, the recognition of water governance systems grounded in local norms, which correspond better with the aspirations of local water users as against the expert-knowledge systems is desirable. Following the introduction of the statutory institutions in postcolonial Africa, customary institutions, which were once effective in regulating water resources became relegated to the background in those countries, including Botswana . Adopting a critical literature review approach, this article employs the concept of legal pluralism to analyze the institutional factors that create the disharmony between cultural and statutory water governance and management institutions. Findings indicate that water has been abstracted from its social nature and transformed into a tradable economic good. Ultimately, the local meanings and images encoded in water as a nature-given resource are overlooked, thus generating conflicts in water governance. The paper recommends the adoptions of legal pluralism under which water institutions need to embrace both customary and statutory institutions.     

Ecological, cultural, and economic approaches to managing artisanal fisheries

Approaches towards the management of artisanal fisheries have been enlightening the scientific literature for approximately the last 20 years. Coming from diverse disciplines such as anthropology, biology, economy, and ecology (especially human ecology), these approaches have dealt with common theory, strategies for cooperation, decision-making models, cultural contexts, and local knowledge. Fishery management depends on an understanding of the interactions between humans and aquatic resources, and in case of indigenous or of native populations, forestry resources are also considered for livelihoods. Acquiring an understanding of the local knowledge about fish and other resources, of collective local arrangements and institutions, of market interactions, and of the decision-making processes of fishers is fundamental for the management of artisanal fisheries. This review includes historical and current approaches associated with the management of artisanal fisheries. These approaches include the following: (a) cultural and human ecological approaches, including ecological models such as optimal foraging theory; (b) institutional approaches, including processes of cooperation associated with local knowledge and institutions; and (c) current ecological-economic propositions towards fishery management, such as payments for environmental services. This revision is illustrated through examples, in particular, of data collected among coastal artisanal fisheries of the SE Atlantic Forest in Brazil.     

Artisanal fisheries of the Itaparica reservoir,São Francisco River,Brazil: socioeconomic profile,environmental dynamics,and management recommendations

Currently, artisanal fisheries in fresh water reservoirs have been losing ground to commercial fish farming and a great deal of fishery resources are being threatened by human interventions, such as reservoir management and increasing net-cage aquaculture. This study aims to understand the impacts of environmental changes on fishery resources and analyse the migratory fish breeding season as a missing link for fishery management in the semi-arid area of the São Francisco River Basin. Among the 870 fishermen operating in the Pernambuco part of the Itaparica Reservoir, 10% were interviewed and affirmed that fish stocks have been compromised due to the closed fishing period’s incoherence, exotic species insertion, and changes to the river flow caused by reservoir construction and operation. A significant correlation was observed between the Reproductive Activity Index (RAI) and precipitation (p?=?0.745) as well as between the RAI and the river’s flow (p?=??0.909). This shows how important it is to consider both the semi-arid climate setting and reservoir operation in determining the closed period which should safeguard fish reproduction. Monitoring the fish reproduction period and research on the reproductive biology of native fish species is needed in the São Francisco River Basin’s different stretches in order to guarantee valuable fish stocks and fisheries maintenance. Integrated action between the fish resource users, civil society, and federal bodies/agencies is essential in order to mitigate impacts and improve fish production systems, not only in Brazil, but in other regions experiencing a similar scenario.     

Using Local Knowledge as a Research Tool in the Study of River Fish Biology: Experiences from the Mekong

River fisheries are extremely important for food-security among the rural poor in many tropical countries. The growing populations and rapid industrialisation of these countries require that appropriate action should be taken to sustain the resources for future generations. However, an incomplete understanding of river fisheries biology, at the managerial level, often hampers proper planning and management. This is partly due to the difficult access to large parts of such river basins, the complex nature of the fisheries, and in many cases a severe lack of research funds. In contrast, the thousands, or often millions of people who live along the shores of the rivers and rely on the fishery for their daily survival, have a very intimate knowledge of the behaviour and biology of the fish. In this situation, gathering the knowledge of the fishers may provide politicians or planners with baseline knowledge in a relatively quick and cheap way.This paper discusses two years of research using local knowledge in the study of fish migration and spawning in the Lower Mekong Basin. The study involves semi-structured interviews with 355 expert fishermen in four countries along 2,400 km of the Mekong mainstream. By piecing together information from fishermen in different areas, we were able to construct migration maps, and provide rough estimates of the spawning period for 50 fish species. We conclude that river fisheries research can benefit significantly from local knowledge as the basis for future research.     

Social and ecological facets of pest management in Honduran subsistence agriculture: implications for IPM extension and natural resource management

In subsistence farming systems of the developing world, adoption of resource-conserving practices such as integrated pest management (IPM) is often strikingly low. This has partially been ascribed to researchers’ limited understanding of how technologies develop at the interface of the systems’ social and ecological components. In Honduras (Central America), there exists concern about limited adoption and diffusion of IPM technologies in certain smallholder production systems. In this study, we determine social and ecological drivers of IPM adoption in subsistence maize production in the country’s hillside environment. Honduran small-scale maize production is typified by a key insect pest (the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda) being partly kept at bay through action of a diverse natural enemy complex, including ants, social wasps, carabid beetles, and spiders. Local agricultural landscapes, primarily shaped through shifting cultivation, provide key resources to maintain this natural enemy diversity. These local ecological conditions and related natural enemy abundance strongly influence farmers’ agroecological knowledge and pest management practices. In the meantime, farmer practices are also affected by local communication networks, which help validate and spread IPM concepts and technologies. Based on our findings, we advocate a holistic approach to improve IPM extension through mapping of agroecological opportunities, visualization of regional patterns in farmer knowledge, and associated priority setting. Local IPM capacity could be built through institutional strengthening and adaptive comanagement, while IPM training should be linked with natural resource management initiatives. These approaches may eventually improve the way IPM is delivered to small-scale farmers who operate in the ecologically diverse environments of the tropics.     

Beyond fishermen’s tales: contributions of fishers’ local ecological knowledge to fish ecology and fisheries management

Studies investigating the local ecological knowledge (LEK) held by fishermen about the fishing resources have indicated that fishermen’s LEK may have the potential to improve fishery management, by providing new information about the ecology, behavior and abundance trends of fish and other aquatic animals. Our major aim is to undertake a brief review of published ethnoichthyological studies with a focus on coastal Brazilian fisheries and freshwater fisheries in both Brazil and Southeast Asia. Based on such review, we provide 29 hypotheses on fish ecology based on fishermen’s LEK and compare them with what is already known from the biological literature, using an arbitrary ‘likelihood’ measure: “Low likelihood” corresponded to unexpected hypotheses, which contradict existing biological data. “Medium likelihood” corresponded to hypotheses that could not be compared to available scientific knowledge. Hypotheses that agree with scientific data were considered as “High likelihood”. We therefore discuss these three categories of hypotheses about several distinct topics, such as migration, reproduction, feeding habits, abundance patterns, ecological relationships between fish and their predators, and fishing pressure. Our results may contribute to the fisheries management and research in the studied regions and other similar places, besides raising the interest of biologists to properly include fishermen’s LEK when planning and conducting fisheries surveys. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Resilience thinking applied to fisheries management: perspectives for the mullet fishery in Southern-Southeastern Brazil

The mullet fishery system encompasses a complex arrange of ecological and socioeconomic factors interacting in multiple scales on the Southern-Southeastern Brazilian coast. Similarly, to other fisheries in developing countries, overfishing and poor governance have been threatening the resilience of the mullet fishery. In this paper, we explore aspects related to fisheries management from the perspective of the concept of resilience. The industrial and artisanal fishery sectors represent the different stakeholders. The main issues of concern are related to failures in the fisheries management to properly address equity in resource access and resource use sustainability among stakeholders. Asymmetry in technology and political and economic power affect food security and income generation especially for subsistence and small-scale fishing. Despite changes in rules-in-use, overfishing and conflicts between resource users are still relevant. Fishery dynamics and resource availability are greatly affected locally by forces such as pollution, urbanization, non-selective fishing, and regionally, by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and industrial (purse-seine) fishery. Considering the influence of ENSO on this fishery, a time span of at least 7 years to investigate this system could provide better answers to improve the management. Effective resilient fisheries should rely on three aspects. First, there should be a flexible fish allocation system based on ecosystem variability. Secondly, fish allocation should prioritize food security and poverty alleviation. Thirdly, a monitoring system should be implemented that takes into consideration ecosystem, fisheries and human dimensions to support a flexible and adaptive fisheries management, with resilient fisheries as an ultimate goal.     

Land Cover and Use Changes in Relation to the Institutional Framework and Tenure of Land and Resources in Eastern Tanzania Miombo Woodlands

In Tanzania, well-defined land tenure and resource protection apply in forest reserves which account for 30% of forested land, while the remaining 70% (mostly miombo woodlands) are village and general lands with very limited protection. The aim of this study was to determine local peoples ownership rights, knowledge and institutional capacity for sustainable management of resources in forest reserves and general lands. Data were collected using participatory rural appraisal, structured and semi-structured interviews, as well as aerial photographs and landsat images. In general lands, woodlands declined by 50% between 1964 and 1996, bushlands and croplands increased by 599%, and settlements and homegardens increased by 277%. These land use and vegetation structure changes are attributed to harvesting for charcoal production and shifting cultivation. The continued decline in aerial woodland cover in the general lands suggests that common property regimes do not function in the area. Local institutional capacities are weak in enforcing control mechanisms to check the overuse of resources, which tends to approximate open access conditions. The issues of land tenure and village empowerment are not only institutional, but also political in nature. Government institutions should provide and motivate for an enabling environment, including acknowledgement of traditional knowledge, well-defined property rights and operational village by-laws. In order to ensure equity and sustainable development of natural resources, the paradigm shift in management is important whereby communal goods are to be managed for the benefit of the local society.     

Questioning Community Based Coral Reef Management Systems: Case Study of Awig-Awig in Gili Indah, Indonesia

Issues and complexities arising when the fisheries and marine tourism sectors have stakes in an institution governing the coral reefs ecosystem called awig-awig are discussed, awig-awig is a colloquialism meaning ‘a local rule’. The community-based management system is commonly recognized as a better approach to governing resources, however, the success of awig-awig in the study area is questionable. Awig-awig fails to deal with the conflict of interest among stakeholders in coastal resource appropriation, despite the community being relatively culturally homogenous. The benefits of awig-awig are biased in favor of the tourism as opposed to fisheries, leading to the fishers’ resistance of awig-awig. There are critical factors to this weakness: a crisis of legitimacy within community, socio-economic inequality among actors involved in such system, high intervention from external agencies, and the institutional conflict over conservation policy. In addition, awig-awig reduces community spirit as it is perceived as not being attached to any customary law or traditional norms. Group cohesion is challenged and there is no common understanding of the problem or alternatives strategies.     

Local perspectives on regional challenges: jellyfish proliferation and fish stock management along the Israeli Mediterranean coast

The composition and abundance of marine biota in Israeli marine ecosystems are affected by natural and anthropogenic pressures, including blooms of non-indigenous jellyfish and overfishing. While overfishing is itself a major stressor of fish stocks, it appears that jellyfish may be outcompeting fish for scarce planktonic food resources. Beyond this direct impact on fisheries, jellyfish–ecosystem interactions are also important because of the disturbance they cause to multiple users of marine and coastal resources. This paper documents the concurrent changes in the composition of marine biotic communities, including jellyfish proliferation and dwindling stocks of endemic, commercially valuable fish and the rising rate of bottom trawling in Israeli fisheries. The capacity to deal directly with jellyfish is limited by lack of knowledge about their ecology. Therefore, we suggest that bolstering fish stocks and increasing their competitive advantage in the food web may be instrumental in limiting jellyfish blooms. Coordination of fishing and conservation policies is recommended, as are modifications to marine waste management and deployment of submerged artificial substrates.     

The development and unraveling of marine resource co-management in the Pemba Channel,Zanzibar: institutions,governance, and the politics of scale

Marine resource management programs face conflicting mandates: to scale-up marine conservation efforts to cover larger areas and meet national and international conservation targets, while simultaneously to downscale and decentralize management authority to resource users and local communities. These conflicting goals create tensions in marine resource management. This paper explores these tensions by presenting and evaluating the outcomes of a fisheries co-management program on the island of Pemba, Tanzania, where institutions and scale were configured and reconfigured under externally funded programs to improve marine conservation through co-management. The initial institutional arrangements for co-management supported a functioning system to protect marine resources, ensure fishermen’s access, and distribute tourism revenues. However, a subsequent push to scale-up marine management reconfigured institutional arrangements and power in a more hierarchical and potentially weaker system. With the expansion of the co-management program, protected area coverage, financial resources, and the number of community organizations created for fisheries co-management expanded tremendously; however, community participation in marine management decreased, and the fishermen’s association previously involved in co-management dissolved. Several factors contributed to this outcome: inadequate time to solidify co-management institutions and arrangements, diverse resource users inexperienced with local management, a sudden and substantial new source of funding, and political pressures to restructure marine management. Rather than focusing primarily on expanding coverage and devolving authority, it is important to adapt co-management arrangements to the local contexts in which they operate.     

Constructing a policy and institutional framework for an ecosystem-based approach to managing the Lower Amazon floodplain

A regional experiment in co-management is underway in the Lower Amazon that is developing the basic policy and institutional elements for an ecosystem-based approach to floodplain management. This initiative grew out of the grassroots movement of floodplain communities who, concerned with excessive commercial fishing pressure on local fisheries, took control of local lakes and implemented collective agreements regulating fishing activity. This paper describes the main elements of the evolving regional management system. This process has focused on four main dimensions of floodplain settlement and resource use: development of sustainable management systems for floodplain resources, policies and institutions for fisheries co-management, collective agreements for grazing cattle on floodplain grasslands, and a land tenure policy consistent with the objectives of the evolving co-management system. Over the last year INCRA, the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform, has begun implementation of a comprehensive new land tenure policy that could resolve structural deficiencies in the existing co-management system and provide the basis for the ecosystem-based management of the Lower Amazon floodplain. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

People's Biodiversity Registers: Lessons Learnt

People's Biodiversity Registers (PBR) document folk knowledge of status, uses, history, ongoing changes and forces driving changes in biodiversity resources, gainers and losers in these processes and people's perceptions of how these resources should be managed. A number of PBRs have been prepared in different parts of India beginning 1995 through initiatives of NGOs and educational institutions working with local communities and village councils. These attempts have been motivated by a desire to promote decentralised systems of management of natural resources and to create the basis for equitable sharing of benefits of commercial utilisation of folk knowledge of uses of biodiversity. The documents bring together important locality specific information on biodiversity resources and ecological processes affecting them. They lead to recognition of conservation oriented local practices such as protection of sacred groves. They help mobilise local communities to prudently manage local biodiversity resources in ways that would promote social justice. It is however important to recognise that not all folk knowledge may be valid, nor all folk practices wise, and to create systems of careful assessment of the material. There are many encouraging signs globally, as well as within India, such as the coming in force of the Convention on Biological Diversity, forces promoting decentralised democratic systems of governance and institutions of co-management of natural resources which suggest that programmes like PBR will have an important role to play in promoting conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits of biodiversity resources in the coming decades.     

Managing common pool resources without state support: insights from Shisholeka community in Central Zambia

Increasingly, emphasis is being placed on the role of indigenous or locally crafted natural resources management systems in sustainable natural resources management. While it is generally agreed that their potential to sustain and protect natural ecosystems exists in large measure, such systems are increasingly facing diverse internal and external pressures that threaten their viability. These pressures include demographic and economic change, land privatisation policies, renewable energy investment projects and large-donor-driven livelihood projects. Such pressures and their complexity raise the need to understand how local communities organise to protect resources they collectively value in the face of both internal and external pressures. Based on empirical data collected through interviews, participant observations, focus group discussions and a questionnaire survey conducted with local level actors in Shisholeka village of Central Zambia, this paper shows how local actors, in the absence of state support, react to internal and external pressures to develop robust and locally suited governance and institutional arrangements that best suit their interests in order to sustain their resource base.     

Accounting for the mismanagement of tropical nearshore fisheries

The underlying reason for the mismanagement of tropical nearshore fisheries is the implementation of policies and programs based on Western models and approaches, coupled with an inability and/or unwillingness to consider non-Western alternatives of empirically proven value. Such attitudes are embedded in donor and development agency behavior, and are demonstrated by the temperate bias in conventional approaches to fisheries education and management, with a corresponding lack of understanding of tropical milieux, and in the persistence of various prejudices. Adaptive Management, The Ecosystem Approach, Local Knowledge, and Protected Areas are discussed from the perspectives of Western models and pre-existing Pacific Island systems as alternative models. Given the parlous condition of the global environment and resources, the best non-Western pre-existing models and Western approaches must be blended to provide sustainable solutions.

信息论方法在水资源系统工程中的应用

水资源系统工程是水资源科学与系统科学相互交叉形成的一门新兴综合性工程技术学科，在人口、资源、环境、经济与社会区域可持续发展战略研究中具有重要意义。其中的一个重要研究问题是如何有效挖掘实际水资源复杂系统中各种不确定性信息。为此。在阐述信息论基本概念和主要方法的基础上。对信息论方法在水资源系统工程中的应用研究按照水资源系统工程的理论框架进行了划分。详细论述了近年来信息论在水资源系统建模、优化、模拟、预测、评价、决策中的应用，探讨了信息论方法用于水资源系统工程中存在的问题和相应对策．展望了信息论方法在水资源系统工程中的应用前景，指出了建设基于信息论的水信息学学科的必要性。这些信息论方法在资源系统工程、环境系统工程和管理系统工程等应用系统工程研究中具有一定参考应用价值。     

大江大河流域水资源管理问题讨论

世界范围内水危机的日益严重,越来越显现出流域水资源管理的重要性。从分析国内外大江大河水资源研究的热点入手,介绍了国内江河流域水资源管理思路的转变和实践;系统分析了大流域水资源存在问题的根本原因,认为是由于对人水关系和流域生态演化规律,河流、湿地的生态功能、流域的整体性管理重视不够造成的。从河流的生态整体性出发,以生态学为理论基础,提出了考虑社会—经济—环境复合生态系统,以生态和谐行为、协调发展、因地制宜、流域整体性调控体制和生态文化建设等维持大流域水资源可持续利用和保护的生态可持续性的保障措施。     

A Hierarchy of Groundwater Management, Land-Use, and Social Needs Integrated for Sustainable Resource Development

The pyramid of human needs developed by Abraham Maslow is based upon the presumption that until a person's lower level needs are fulfilled, higher level needs remain irrelevant. Groundwater and land-use management can likewise utilize such a hierarchy in integrating plans and operations with the needs of the society. Only once a region's population has fulfilled more basic concerns can higher-level groundwater and land-use management needs be effectively achieved. Attaining the ultimate goal of resource sustainability would certainly require considerable public backing, both for financial support and minimizing ambient pollution. For efficient water management to supply a society's water needs for future generations, sustainable groundwater management will require the full support of an educated society. The objective of the authors is to point out how essential it is to integrate operational strategies into regional hierarchies of needs applicable to groundwater management, land-use, and social planning. The situation of groundwater resources in Israel's Sharon Coastal aquifer region is taken as a case in point. Remedial groundwater activities have been undertaken in the management program for this aquifer. But it appears that maximal management efficiency cannot be achieved until the public's basic concerns are satisfactorily addressed and water resources planners reach consensus and a working partnership with the society in question. Operational measures must be clearly shown to benefit the region's population as regards their social, economic, and environmental concerns. This can only be achieved through public education, promoting awareness of the issuesbreak involved.     

Redressing cultural erosion and ecological decline in a far North Queensland aboriginal community (Australia): the Aurukun ethnobiology database project

Traditional environmental knowledge (usually imparted orally) is being lost from many regions of the world, requiring novel forms of transmission if this situation is to be redressed. Loss of this knowledge may be a significant contributory factor towards ecological decline. Undoubtedly, disruption to ecosystems and societies that depend on these has impacted on traditional land management practices, with negative ramifications for biodiversity. From an environmental perspective, scientists in northern Australia need to understand traditional Aboriginal methods of ‘caring for country’, such as burning regimes, so that these can be incorporated into strategies today for maintaining Australia’s rich biodiversity. However, information exchange should be two-way: as well as learning from local people, science can in turn benefit people who may have little experience of, for example, invasive species. The challenge is how can the complexity of biological knowledge from within different ontologies be represented and integrated in a way that it can be of use to scientists and local people, in order to ensure a sustainable future? The main aim of this study was to record existing local knowledge of biodiversity for the community of Aurukun (far north Queensland), integrating this knowledge with scientific data, while giving parity to both knowledge systems and protecting intellectual property rights. A cross-cultural collaboration between community members and ethnobiologists resulted in development of the Aurukun Ethnobiology Database. An interdisciplinary approach was taken to effectively model autochthonous biological knowledge and scientific data to create a database with a number of practical applications.