¿Cómo perciben los pescadores de pequeña escala de la IV Región, Chile, sus áreas de manejo?: La visión de los usuarios para mejorar el funcionamiento del sistema.

A. CINTI, W. STOTZ, B. CRETTIER, F. CECCHI

Iquique, Chile.

Congreso; XXVII Congreso de Ciencias del Mar.; 2007

Sociedad Chilena de Ciencias del Mar

Comentario: La charla fue en español pero el resumen y las diapositivas estuvieron en Inglés por solicitud de los organizadores, para facilitar la comprensión de expertos extranjeros invitados. Marine tenure approaches require active participation of fishermen in order to make them work (Christy, 1982; Christy, 2000; Berkes et al., 2001). Unlike open access, Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries (TURFs) are supposed to give incentives to fishermen for complying with rules and actively participate in management decisions and actions (Christy, 1982; Christy, 2000; Berkes et al., 2001).  However, when TURFs are established de novo, weak incentives to attract fishermen and make them change their behavioral patterns is an associated risk (Christy, 1982).  To improve the performance of de novo TURF systems, Christy (1982) suggests identifying incentives and conditions that could promote committed participation of fishermen in management, so that systems can be adjusted to local realities and conditions. The implementation of a TURF system in Chile has had an effect on the regulation of several coastal benthic resources.  In a broad sense, management of main benthic resources changed from vertical to co-administration, from open to limited access to resources, and from an enforcement-dependent approach to a an incentive-based management system (Orensanz et al., 2005).  Furthermore, the implementation of the TURF system also changed the traditional working practices of small-scale fishermen from an independent (non-associative), migratory, and “free fishing” mode of living.  Before the application of this system they migrated among regions depending on resource abundances, regulations imposed on resources, and market demand (Stotz, 1997; Meltzoff et al., 2002).  Today, people inside the system live a more sedentary life and have to be members of formal fishermen organizations.  Access to fish the most valuable resources (the “loco” snail, scallops, yellow clams) is reserved almost exclusively for participants in the TURF system (Meltzoff et al., 2002). Due to the lack of systematic information regarding perception of fishermen about the Chilean TURF system, we decided to explore the advantages and disadvantages fishermen identify in the system and their incentives to join it.  We present the results of a qualitative and quantitative survey carried out in Region IV, presenting the opinions of fishermen concerning social, economic and resource aspects of their TURFs.  The main conclusions from the present work are: 1. the sole establishment of a TURF system does not necessarily produce enough incentives by its own to assure success in the maintenance of the TURF by fishermen organizations; 2. there exist conditions which force fishermen to maintain their TURF´s, even in cases with an absence of enough incentives; 3. the assignment of the TURF´s to fishermen organizations instead of fishermen communities might explain some of the difficulties observed in the implementation of the system; 4. there exist a further need of involvement of fishermen in management decisions regarding the TURF.