The management of pirarucu: conservation, market and technical transformations in ribeirinho fishing

Author(s)

José Cândido Lopes Ferreira

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2022-11-10

Examining board members

Mauro William Barbosa de Almeida; Carlos Emanuel Manzolillo Sautchuk; Nelissa Peralta Bezerra; Joana Cabral de Oliveira; Mario Blaser

• Advisor: Mauro William Barbosa de Almeida

Abstract

The participatory management of pirarucu (Arapaima spp.) is a strategy for the conservation of the species and income generation for fishing families. In a management system, pirarucus, fishers, scientists, and extension technicians interact in an Amazonian floodplain environment. Estate agents, traders, and chefs take part in the actions at other levels. The management system is an interface that brings together multiple assumptions about how to deal with fish. Participatory management is a set of protocols to control fish extraction and protect lakes that transformed traditional fishing procedures. This thesis is an ethnography of the technical processes of participatory management of pirarucu, conducted in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, Amazonas State, Brazil. The study aims to understand how this sustainable development project works, considering the point of view of the river dwellers who are part of the conservation programme. The research covered the chain of operations of pirarucu management, from lake protection activities to fish preparation in restaurants in major Brazilian capitals. It describes the processes that produce the "managed pirarucu," a fish with specific physical characteristics that incorporates values of sustainability. Also, it points to the technological transformations this new fishing model has caused. The participatory pirarucu management system is the current model of a long history of relationships between fishermen and pirarucu. Lake protection practices produce landscapes of affluence, made evident by monitoring fish populations. The collective mode of action characterizes this conservation practice and inspires institutional coalitions around community-based production. Agreements between fishermen and scientific knowledge are the base of the management system (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/10648-6 - From the fisherman to the fish: political ecology of pirarucu management in the middle Solimões River
• Grantee: José Cândido Lopes Ferreira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate