The Forum of the Patos Lagoon: local lessons, national challenges and implication
for conservation of natural coastal resources
Daniela Kalikoski1,2 & Les Lavkulich2
1. Institute for Resources and Environment, UBC, Vancouver, Canada
2. Federal University of Rio Grande, R.S., Brazil
e-mail: danielac@interchange.ubc.ca
Adjusting to change: the crafting of a co-management arrangement
in the estuary of Patos Lagoon
Artisanal fisheries in the estuary of Patos Lagoon
The poster focuses on fisheries co-management in the estuary of Patos Lagoon. It addresses the need
for an alternative institutional arrangement to deal with the local sustainability of fisheries CPRs.
The importance of understanding institutions is related to their close relationship to both cause and
solution of environmental problems.
The Forum of Patos Lagoon was established in 1996, redefining rules and rights, to manage
fisheries resources. It is composed of 21 governmental and non-governmental institutions to
discuss and develop action plans to resolve the problems of the fishers and the crisis in the
artisanal fisheries sector.
% participation
0
20
40
60
80
100
Fishers Colony Z2
Fishers Colony Z3
Fishers Pastoral
EMATER
IBAMA/ CEPERG
Fishers Colony Z1
FURG
Municipality Rio Grande
Municipality Pelotas
Fishers Colony Z8
NGOs
Municipality S.J. Norte
UCPel
PATRAM
State of RS
Municipality S. Lourenço
Fishers Union Rio Grande
Total
50000
Mullet
Catfish
40000
Croacker
Shrimp
Tons
30000
20000
10000
0
1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995
In the estuary of Patos Lagoon, located in the Southern
Brazilian coastal zone, artisanal fisheries are going through a
tragedy of the commons. Fisheries resources are decreasing
compromising the livelihood of more than 10,000 small-scale
fishers. The recognition of this local reality as a result of both
local and global pressure has resulted in the evolution of
governance structures. In the case of the Patos Lagoon this
reality have brought forth a co-management regime, the
Forum, and an innovative institutional arrangement to deal
with the issues of sustainability of local fisheries CPRs that
has wide application.
Local knowledge-based management practices in a dynamic ecosystem
Port Authority
Public Ministry
Fisheries Industry Sindicate
Analytical criteria
1. Problem of Fit
1.1. Extent to which boundaries and roles can be
defined
- Actions taken to limit entry and establish boundaries
- Boundaries are blurred limited
- Fisheries considered open access by Constitution
1.2. Congruence between rules and local resource
conditions
- Scaling mismatch between the structure/dynamics of
the resource and management systems
- Rigid regulations controlling fishing calendars
- Mismatch between rules on paper and rules in use
1.3. Existence of collective choice arrangements
- FORUM as the first initiative in participatory
management
- Lack of knowledge about informal organizations
2.1. Representation and power relationship
-
2.2. Regulation
- Low enforceability results in unrealistic management
plans
2.3. Legal recognition & legitimacy
- FORUM a model to be applied in other states
- Decree 171 locally devised to regulate use and rules
based on combined scientific and traditional
knowledge
- Bureaucracy slows down the process of approving
rules locally designed
- Economic interests and political power may hinder
the process
1960s
0.5
Poor representation
Efforts to make joint decisions
Willingness to collaborate
Common vision
3. Science and Institutional Learning
0.4
Catfish
Mullet
Croacker
Shrimp
0.3
0.2
Renewal
spawning &
recruitment
Conservation
growth &
reproduction
3.1. Role of science
- Transition of management approaches
- Rethinking and redefining management models
- Recognition of the importance of local knowledge
3.2. Precautionary approach
- Principle present in management intentions
- Actions do not conform with the intentions
- Precautionary principle gives bargain power to
fishers in environmental management decisions
3.3. Adaptive learning
- FORUM: starting point for management learning
- Lack of commitment of participants slow down the
institutional learning
0.1
Climatic
conditions
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
0.5
1990s
0.4
Proportion total catch
Case study: Forum of Patos Lagoon
2. Decision Making for Joint Use
Traditional fishing practices were observed up to the early 1960s. The technologies and rules in use
limited resources exploitation in both time and space while mantaining a productive fishery.
A large proportion of the species habitat in the southern Brazilian shelf worked as a de facto marine
protected area since fishing was restricted to the estuary of Patos lagoon and adjacent coastal shallow
waters.
The fishing calendar and technologies allowed fishers to benefit from the most abundant resources in
the season while limiting fishing pressure over a particular species and/or a critical period.
Proportion total catch
UFPel
Catfish
Mullet
Croacker
Shrimp
0.3
0.2
fish & shrimp
enter estuary
adults leave the
estuary
Exploitation
Release
artisanal fisheries
0.1
0
Institutional barriers and opportunities to co-management in the estuary of
Patos Lagoon
- Forum of Patos Lagoon co-management lacks a mechanism to lend credibility to local fishers
knowledge and to incorporate this knowledge into the decision making process. Illiteracy and socioeconomic marginalization creates low expectations among scientists and decision makers of fishers
knowledge value for management
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
The changing governance of common pool resources (CPRs)
Fishers management in the estuary of Patos lagoon has been changing over time in response to changes in technology,
resources condition and institutional transformations. Local informal institutional arrangements lost their importance and
resources were overfished when management became centralized. Historically, Brazilian policy has been to develop one
standard set of regulations for the entire coast. Crisis in fisheries, the increasing pressure from the community and nongovernmental organizations, influenced by a global tendency of international environmental management regimes toward
community-based coastal zone management have triggered a move towards decentralization. The Forum of Patos Lagoon
was created as a framework to implement small-scale fisheries co-management.
The main focus here is to analyze how the attempt to reverse this situation of decentralizing decisions in artisanal fisheries
through the establishment of a co-management arrangement has met with some success in the estuary of Patos Lagoon. The
work focuses on the analysis of the process of implementing local based co-management and to recommend ways to
strengthen the co-management process and to overcome future challenges.
- lack of involvement and support of sectors with conflicting interests in a participatory management
(e.g. port activities) compounded by the historical weak institutional arrangement to deal with a
diversity of interests and types of activities in the governance of coastal resources
- support for decentralization is not shared by other government sectors with mandate over fisheries
management (e.g., Ministry of Agriculture)
- support of environmental agency to decentralize fisheries management decisions
- Forum of Patos Lagoon is providing the means for cross-scale linkages between local and higher level
institutions to empower local fishers communities
- Forum of Patos Lagoon is creating a mechanism for shared governance of fisheries
Up to 1960’s
Government intervention
Fisheries industrialization
Technological changes
Overfishing
Resource collapse
?
Local rules
Fishing calendar
1970s - 1990s
Centralized
management
1996 - present
Co-management
Fórum Patos Lagoon
Methodology
Document analysis
Interviews
Questionnaire
Participatory research
Acknowledgements
To the members of the Forum of Patos Lagoon, the fishers communities of the estuary of
Patos Lagoon and to the members of the Coastal Management Lab. at the Federal University of
Rio Grande. This project was supported by UBC Hampton Award. The author thanks IAI for a
travel scholarship.