10 Sep 2007 - By Bruno
Taitson* - August was a special time for
fishermen on Lake Santo Antonio in the northwestern
Brazilian state of Acre. Three years after
a collective agreement banned fishing for
pirarucu in this Amazonian lake — a ban
intended to guarantee the reproduction and
thus survival of the species — fishermen
were back.
Thanks to the recent lifting of the ban,
fishermen caught 19 pirarucu in five days;
a total catch weighing in at 980 kilogrammes,
just slightly under a regulated one tonne
limit.
Pirarucu (Arapaima gigas), one of the largest
freshwater fish in the world, can weigh
up to 200kg and reach up to 3 metres in
length. It is one of the most sought after
food fish species in South America.
“Pirarucu were disappearing from this region,
and only three years after a management
plan was put into place, fishermen were
able to catch the fish again without threatening
the sustainability of the species,” says
WWF-Brazil’s Antonio Oviedo. “This is a
very positive development.”
The fishing agreement, along with a training
programme for the fishermen, was reached
through the Upper Purus Project (Projeto
Alto Purus) — a partnership between WWF-Brazil
and the Acre State Government, which began
in 2003 with support from the Brazilian
federal environmental agency, Ibama, and
the Fishermen’s Union of Manoel Urbano.
Worth the wait
In March 2005, there were only 56 pirarucu
estimated in Lake Santo Antonio. By May
this year, however, there were 187 — an
increase of more than 300 per cent. The
increase allowed the community, with support
from the Upper Purus Project, to decide
that it would allow the fishing of up to
27 pirarucu, or one tonne, between 6–10
August (about 30 per cent of the stock in
the lake).
“It was worth waiting for three years,”
says Geraldo Bispo, a 61-year-old Lake Santo
Antonio fisherman, who has been involved
in the fishing management initiative since
its beginning in 2004.
“Now, if we keep up the management process,
our children and grandchildren are going
to continue eating pirarucu. I have nine
children. Now I will be able to feed them
with lots of pirarucu meat.”
WWF-Brazil’s Antonio Oviedo points out
that the ratio between young and adult fish
grew from 0.43 to 1.1 in the past three
years.
“This is an important indicator that shows
the sustainability of the activity and the
success of the management plan,” he says.
Knowledge sharing
The Upper Purus Project is based on the
Varzea Project, a participatory fishery
management initiative developed in the Santarem
region of Para State by WWF-Brazil and IPAM
(Amazon Institute of Environmental Research)
in 1994. The initiative resulted in the
first fishing agreements in the Amazon Basin,
which improved productivity by 60 per cent
in some of Santarem’s lakes.
Since 2004, communities from the Acre municipalities
of Sena Madureira and Manoel Urbano were
able to conclude fishing agreements for
six lakes. The agreements are recognized
by Ibama, giving them the same effect as
laws.
Following the success in Santarem’s lakes,
pirarucu fishermen — organized under the
Varzea Project — have been able to share
their experience with fishermen in other
parts of the Amazon, including in the states
of Tocantins, Amazonas and Acre, as well
as French Guyana and Peru.
The group also came to share their experiences
with the fishermen at Lake Santo Antonio.
Juvenal da Silva, a 28-year-old fisherman
from Santarem, described how he caught a
2.4-metre long pirarucu weighing in at 140kg,
the biggest catch of his 13-year fishing
career.
“I’m very proud to share our experiences
here in Acre, and to show local fishermen
how effective fishing management can be
to assure the sustainability of the activity
and a better quality of life for our families,”
he explains.
A success story
At a recent fair held in Manoel Urbano,
pirarucu caught from Lake Santo Antonio
were being sold for the first time in a
while, a strong indication to the community
that the results of the fishing management
initiative were working.
WWF stresses, however, that fishing agreements
should be about more than just increasing
the incomes of fishermen. They should also
help achieve conservation goals.
“The success of management depends on the
environmental quality of the lakes, so that
when fishing communities implement measures
they are also developing actions for the
conservation of water ecosystems,” says
Oviedo.
“If there is overfishing, the pirarucu
will disappear. If we properly manage the
ecosystem properly, they will thrive and
so will the people who depend on them.”
The next step of Upper Purus Project is
to take the Lake Santo Antonio success story
to other parts of Acre, and then to other
parts of the Amazon.
* Bruno Taitson is a Communications Officer
at WWF-Brazil.
