Disentangling tourism impacts on small-scale fishing pressure

Abstract

Tourism and small-scale fisheries are two of the most important economic sectors in coastal areas around the world, yet the impact of tourism development on fisheries is understudied within the SSF literature. Studies have documented various aspects of tourism-fishery interactions, but it is not clear how they combine to impact total fishing pressure. The addition of alternative livelihoods is widely expected to alleviate pressure on fisheries resources, yet rural development transitions often accelerate exploitation of natural resources. This paper analyzes how tourism development impacts community-level fishing pressure through a comparative case study of fishing behavior and livelihood engagement in seven neighboring fishing communities in the Colombian Pacific, using space-for-time substitution to estimate change over time. Findings indicate that while tourism development leads to a decline in fishery participation, this decline can be more than offset by increases in fishing effort and improvements in fishing methods. This is related to an overall pattern of livelihood specialization and intensification that results in a divergence of household-level fishing behavior – between those that exit the fishery and those that fish more intensively – and an increase in community-wide fishing pressure. However, impacts vary from place to place due to contextual factors in the biophysical environment and socio-political systems that shape how tourism development affects fishing behavior and whether or not it is likely to benefit sustainable small-scale fisheries. These findings can be used to support place-based assessments in order to anticipate impacts, proactively design fisheries management, and inform more sustainable tourism development planning.