Fishing spots and sea tenure: Incipient forms of local management in Atlantic forest coastal communities

Abstract

Recent work has dealt with the local management of aquatic resources as an alternative to Hardin's (1968) “tragedy of the commons.” In communities with no formal management of resources, informal ownership of fishing spots or conflicts with outside competitors may determine the basis for future local management. In this study, I analyze the use of aquatic resources by five fishing communities on the Atlantic Forest coast of southeast Brazil: Buzios Island, Puruba, and Picinguaba in Sao Paulo State, and Jaguanum and Itacuruca Islands at Sepetiba Bay in Rio de Janeiro State. Informal ownership of fishing spots, used for set gillnet fishing, is regulated by kin ties at Buzios Island. The artisanal fishers of Sepetiba Bay, especially those from Jaguanum Island, have a conflict with Bay “intruders,” such as the shrimp and herring trawlers. Two coastal communities, Puruba and Picinguaba, have conflicts with fishing regulations from a State Park (Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar),created in 1977. The transformation of populated areas of the Atlantic Forest to Extractive Reserves might be a way to avoid conflicts with intruders and with governmental agencies, and to involve local populations in management. Kinship rules at Buzios Island and the territorial behavior of fishers at Sepetiba Bay may form a basis for local organization.