Co-management initiatives in Argentina and Chile: the challenges and opportunities faced through community involvement

J.M. ORENSANZ; A,M. PARMA

Oaxaca, Mexico

Congreso; Tenth Biennial Conference of The International Association for the Study of Common Property; 2004

Institute of Social Research, Universidad Autónoma de México

In this presentation, collaborative initiatives among fishers, scientists and managers in Argentina and Chile are addressed. The selected examples illustrate highly contrasting cases in the management options that they present, and in the scientific support that they require: 1) Commercial divers in San Jose Gulf, Argentine Patagonia. Partnerships with "Asociacion de Pescadores Artesanales de Puerto Madryn" and the fisheries administration of Chubut Province were established to develop an incipient co-management program, mostly through a Technical Committee. There is a strong emphasis in the involvement of fishers in monitoring, surveys and management. Currently the main concerns are the details of the implementation of a limited entry program. 2) Coastal gatherers from the community of El Riacho (also in San José Gulf, who harvest mostly mussels and small octopus. A similar co-management scheme was designed with the main goal of granting territorial use rights to members of the small community (19 groups, ranging from singles to extended families). Implementation of the TURF is in an experimental stage but results have been rather impressive, particularly in providing the incentives for organization in a community widely perceived as hopelessly marginal. 3) Implementation of territorial use rights in Central-North Chile, mostly Region IV, with collaboration among Chile's Instituto e Fomento Pesquero (IFOP), the Universidad Católica del Norte (Coquimbo) and the Federation of Artisanal Fishers of Region IV (FEPEMACH). This represents an experiment on the introduction of TURFs where they were not previously established by tradition. Evaluation of the first 4 years of the implementation of this regime and modeling of the dynamics/management of the loco metapopulation are being conducted. 4) Spatial management in the sea urchin fishery of southern Chile (Region XI), which provides ca. 50% of he World´s supply of sea urchin roe. Partnerships are represented in a "Technical Round Table" (ca. 60 persons). They include scientists from the Universidad Austral, managers from the Undersecretary of Fisheries, local governments, leaders of the fisher´s federations from Regions X and XI and the processing industry (Asociación de Industriales Ericeros). Management has been contentious, occasionally punctuated by violent confrontations. We close this presentation discussing the main lessons learned from these co-management initiatives and the challenges and opportunities for involving fishers into sustainable fishing management in Argentina and Chile.