Taking fishers’ knowledge and its implications to fisheries policy seriously

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14310%2F23%3A00130671" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14310/23:00130671 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://ecologyandsociety.org/vol28/iss2/art7/" target="_blank" >https://ecologyandsociety.org/vol28/iss2/art7/</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-14104-280207" target="_blank" >10.5751/ES-14104-280207</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Taking fishers’ knowledge and its implications to fisheries policy seriously

Original language description

Sustainable fishing is one of the most pressing challenges for mankind and requires insightful knowledge of the drivers that may foster or hinder predatory exploitation. It has been widely recognized that Indigenous and local knowledge can contribute to biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of resources, such as fisheries, worldwide. Nevertheless such knowledge continues to be marginalized and unacknowledged by a range of academic scientists and policy makers. In the present paper, we tackle this issue by discussing laws regarding closed fishing seasons, which are part of the Brazilian environmental policies for protecting marine fauna, from the perspective of artisanal fishers’ knowledge. In Brazil, these laws are typically based on governmental decisions (i.e., by administrative organizations and researchers acting as consultants) without taking fishers’ knowledge into account. Through semi-structured interviews with traditional experts of fishing villages situated along the northeast coast of Brazil, we aimed to investigate their knowledge of fish reproductive periods and analyze how it is related to the closed seasons at work in their region. We found an exact agreement between fishers’ knowledge and closed season regulations on the reproductive period of the mangrove crab (Ucides cordatus), but a conflict regarding the reproductive period of two snook species and four species of shrimps. We highlight the potential of fishers’ knowledge contributions to environmental regulations and we also explore three challenges of incorporating epistemic diversity in environmental policy. We conclude by advocating for a reflexive transdisciplinarity that highlights the potential of Indigenous and local knowledge while critically reflecting on the methodological and political challenges of transdisciplinary practices.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50404 - Anthropology, ethnology

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Ecology and Society

ISSN

1708-3087

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

28

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2

Country of publishing house

CA - CANADA

Number of pages

13

Pages from-to

1-13

UT code for WoS article

000981849400001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85159287209