Pirarucu management provides sustainable income to indigenous people in Amazon

Seven years ago, the indigenous people Paumari from the Tapauá River, in the southern of Amazonas state, changed their fishing habits completely from the gain of experience of pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) management. At the time, due to lack of information, they used to practice indiscriminate fishing and earned little or nothing for the product. The pirarucu, one of the world's largest freshwater fish, was on the list of endangered species. Currently, Paumari people provide income for the villages based on planned fishing, and at the same time, they preserve the fish that is now in the list of vulnerable species.

In the first count of these fish in over 60 lakes of paumari reserves in 2008, 252 pirarucus were found. At the annual count done in 2014, the indigenous people recorded a number of more than 2,500 fishes. The effort devoted to achieve that result was considerable. Paumari people stopped fishing pirarucu for five years, which is the time required to rebuild the species stocks.

The indigenous man, Jurandi Souza de Oliveira Paumari, has always encouraged the idea and ensures that it has been paid off. "This year Ibama [Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources] allowed getting 220 fish, almost the entire population count in 2008. But as we are few [people], we might get about 130 fish," he said proudly.

Jurandi states that before fisheries management, Paumari people fished in a wrong way. "We fished every pirarucu we could, no matter its size. We sold or exchanged for other goods with traders, but our product's price was very low. There was little or nothing [left] to us, in some cases it covered expenses."

The fisherman reports that there was a lot of resistance in the villages when the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Native Amazon Operation (Opan) presented to Paumari people the solution of sustainable fishery management, created by the Mamirauá Institute, linked to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. "We got suspicious. They talked about the success of the experience in other locations, and that if we started to preserve the lakes, fish would have a stronger population growth and we would be able to fish more. We didn't really believe it," states Jurandi.

According to him, the nearly 200 local residents were gradually convinced of it, when they began to realize the reserve degradation. "We conclude that if the whole community worked together, we could grow more. The way it was, sooner or later, we would be without living conditions in the area."

Paumari people were trained to make annual counts on the lakes of the region and oriented to get only fish bigger than 1.5 meters—pirarucu can reach three meters and weigh more than 200 kg. They also learned hygiene rules and how to professionally do cleaning, fishing and loading activities. "The economic benefits come with the fish market, from partnerships with unions to ensure buyers," said biologist Diogo Borges from Opan.

The main difficulty Paumari fishermen have been facing nowadays is the lack of electricity and ice, which unable storage and a possible fish processing. "We strongly need resources to buy suitable boats and to produce ice," announced Jurandi. Currently, fishermen depend on a cooperative partner of Lábrea, the neighboring municipality, to collect the fish, within three hours.

Sustainable management

In the first fishery, in 2013, the result surprised. "Everyone could see the future, then those who were out [of the project] concluded it was worth it and we embraced everybody," says Jurandi. He reports that instead of splitting the money from the fish sale only among those who participated in the fishery, they decided to share the profits with everyone over 12 years old in the reserve.

In 2014 fishery, the indigenous people began to use a point system to calculate the amount of money each one would receive based on their effort. The 2015 fishery will be at the end of this month, a week after the counting of pirarucus in the reserve, scheduled for September 20th.

The Pirarucu fishery was banned in Amazonas state in 1996. The sustainable management of the species began to be implemented 12 years ago by the Mamirauá Institute in the region of the Middle Solimões. According to the Institute, since then the production of pirarucu went from 3,200 kg to 484,900 kg. At the same time, the fish population has increased 25% per year. The revenue from fishing went from $2.8 billion in 1999 to $671,000 in 2014. Fishermen income increased 29% in the period.

Paumari people's representatives were in Brasilia this week to share the experience with the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture that has expressed interest in applying the idea to other indigenous villages. Advisor to the ministry Kelvin Lopes announced that within 40 days the Ministry and the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) have to present a mutually agreed action plan. He explains that they plan to consider each ethnic group vocation to promote the sustainable fisheries management of reserves resources. "Some have a vocation for sport fishing, others for ornamental fish or the fishery management of different species," announced Lopes.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta