The Fishermen from Praia Grande, Paraty, RJ: Resilience Aspects in Their Socio-Ecological System

Abstract

Resilience, as a property of social-ecological systems, is related to the ability of such systems to adapt and deal with perturbations. This study examined the characteristics in a community of artisanal fishermen, using some of the resilience indicators (flexibility, capacity to organize and capacity to learn). The flexibility indicator represents the economic dependence on the natural resource; the capacity to organize indicator informs about participation in decision-making and in community organizations; and the capacity to learn indicator refers to the perception of environmental alterations in relation to human activity. Together, these indicators can inform about the adaptive capacity of the community and its relationship with resource management. Semi structured interviews were conducted in the months of January, April, July and August of 2012 in the community of Praia Grande and surroundings (Paraty/RJ) (n=22). As to the flexibility indicator, 59.1% of the fishermen interviewed have another source of income, being  tourism the main activity among them (36.4%). Most of the fishermen (77.2%) use more than one type of fishing technique which may either reduce pressure on the fishing resource or have an opposite effect, if it is the case of the use of more intensive techniques, such as trawling. Regarding the fishermen’s capacity to organize, it was found and discussed the low participation on decision-making regarding fishing, especially because the area of the study is situated in a context of social-environmental conflicts with conservation areas. As for the capacity to learn, the results indicate that the fishermen perceive the human activity as an agent responsible for the perturbations in the natural environment, and they suggest different solutions in face of the decrease of each target species. Through the use of the resilience indicators it was possible to identify the attributes that allow the adaptation of the community to perturbations and the ones that have the potential to reduce the pressure on the fishing resources, as well as those that have the opposite effect in relation to these resources.