Harvest_Pirarucu_Brazilian Amazon

Emma_Hemmerle — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 09:51:30 +0000

Harvest_Pirarucu_Brazilian Amazon Emma_Hemmerle Mon, 12/20/2021 - 09:51

Tue, 01/01/2019 - 12:00

Affiliation

IIED

Date Of Record Entry

Fri, 12/17/2021 - 12:00

Type of wild species covered by the record

Wild species used in its natural habitat

Stage of the value chain covered by the record

Primary Producer/harvester (e.g., NTFP collectors, egg collectors)

Record Source

“Grey” literature (e.g., NGO reports, case studies, non-detriment studies; project documents etc. (not necessarily peer-reviewed))

Harvest and trade of Pirarucu in the Brazilian Amazon: setting up of sustainable fishing quotas as a response to depletion of this freshwater resource.

Unknown/not recorded

Is the species endemic HIDE

Population Status

Common and wildly distributed

Formal international protection in place

International Level

CITES listing

National Level

Formal national protection in place

Brazil has adopted a pioneering approach to pirarucu management based on supporting community rights to establish rules about access, to exclude other users from protected lakes, to monitor pirarucu populations, and to fish the species under government-ap

Ban of all exploitation of Pirarucu in the state of brazilian Amazonas in 1996, but enforcement ability was very low.

Population Trend

Increasing

Sub-national Level

Formal sub-national protection in place

Name

Emma Hemmerlé

Scientific Name

Arapaima gigas

Common Name(s)

Pirarucu

Type of Use

Extractive (i.e., the entire organism or parts of the organism are removed from its environment)

If extractive, for the target species, is this use

Lethal

Does this use involve take/extraction of

The whole entire organism

Details of parts/products taken

Pirarucu provides a variety of products, with the meat, the skin, the scales and the tongue all commercialized.

How is the primary use carried out?

Targeted fishing harvesting/exploiting or collecting wild aquatic resources

Are specific characteristics/traits being targeted?

Unknown/not recorded

Purpose of Use

Basic subsistence (meeting day to day essential needs)

Income generation from trade at individual or household or community

Largescale commercial exploitation for trade

What is the main end use for any living organisms, parts or products taken/extracted?

Food for animals (including aquaculture)

Ornamentation, decoration and apparel

What is the trend in the level of offtake within the period covered by this record?

Unknown/Not Recorded

Is there a regulatory or customary regime in place to govern this use?

Yes, formal (e.g., quotas, viewing or catch-size limits) and complied with

Additional Details (if available)

Over the last 20 years, Brazil has adopted a pioneering approach to pirarucu management based on supporting community rights to establish rules about access, to exclude other users from protected lakes, to monitor pirarucu populations, and to fish the species under government-approved quotas.

Geographic Location

South America

Country

Brazil

Sub region/state

Amazonas

Is the site legally/formally protected?

Unknown/not recorded

Ownership

Unknown/Not Recorded

Management

Unknown/Not Recorded

Local people (e.g., individuals, communities, co-operatives)

Is the use part of a strategy to generate conservation incentives, to finance conservation, or to improve tolerance/stewardship?

Yes

Is there evidence that the use is affecting the conservation status of the species? HIDE

Yes – use is improving the status (e.g., population is increasing or stabilising, extraction effort OR catch per unit effort is decreasing or stable)

Is there evidence that the use is affecting natural selection?

Unknown/not recorded

Is there evidence that the use is affecting poaching of illegal wildlife trade?

Yes, positive (use is helping combat poaching or illegal wildlife trade)

Community-based management of pirarucu, based on sustainable harvest and trade, is an outstanding conservation success story. Widespread and rapid recoveries of pirarucu have taken place in areas with community management in place

Further, the establishment of the community management programme has led to previously illegal fishers abandoning illegal practices and cooperating with the pirarucu management programme.

Is there any evidence that this use of the species is having a knock-on effect on the status of non-target species

Yes, it is having a positive effect (e.g., reduced competition, reduced risk of hybridization)

Unknown/not recorded

Yes, considered sustainable

Additional Details (if available)

The conservation benefits of community-based pirarucu management go well beyond the species itself. Conserving this top predator has knock-on impacts for the health of river ecosystems generally, and has led to increases in biodiversity, including other species of fish that are also used by local communities.

Details of assessment carried out

evidence of Pirarucu population size increase in six different community-managed areas

Has a valuation of financial flows from this use at the site/national/international level been recorded

Contribution to GDP

Unknown/not recorded

Food

Energy

Medicine/healthcare

Education

Training/Skills

Land/Resource Rights

Decision Making

Conflict- people

Conflict- wildlife

Climate Change

Key livelihood benefits for rural communities from involvement in management and trade of pirarucu are food security and income. Food security has been improved through the widespread recovery of pirarucu stocks, and the opening up of avenues to legally harvest them. (Before establishment of community-based management, communities could not legally harvest pirarucu for food.)

Trade in pirarucu products generates critically needed income and provides the main means of the communities to meet their non-food needs, such as medicine and school expenses.
Pirarucu sales also generate emergency funds, which can be used to meet urgent emergency needs of travel and medical care at urban centers in the case of serious illness or accidents.

Trade in pirarucu products generates critically needed income and provides the main means of the communities to meet their non-food needs, such as medicine and school expenses.
Community-based management has also strengthened traditional knowledge and its passing on to younger generations. Management has also brought dignity to the members of the community, since it allowed them to legally trade the fish with authorization from IBAMA.

fishers’ specialized skills, acquired through years of experience in fishing, was key to establishing a monitoring methodology to enable monitoring of the resource and establishment of sustainable quotas.

Has any assessment of socio-economic sustainability been recorded

No assessment recorded

Has the use of the species been recorded as resulting in changes to human health in this record?

Yes, recorded as positive

Has the species in use been noted as being of particular disease risk to humans?

Unknown/not recorded

Has the use of the species resulted in changes to animal welfare in this record?

Unknown/not recorded

Are there particular practices which have increased the risk to human or animal health or welfare in the use of this species?

Unknown/not recorded

Does the use of this species increase susceptibility to pathogen spread?

Unknown/not recorded

Trade in pirarucu products generates critically needed income and provides the main means of the communities to meet their non-food needs, such as medicine and school expenses.
Community-based management has also strengthened traditional knowledge and its passing on to younger generations. Management has also brought dignity to the members of the community, since it allowed them to legally trade the fish with authorization from IBAMA.

Unknown/not recorded

Strong community governance/institutions/rights for wildlife management

Present

Supportive policy and legislative framework

Present

Adequate capacity to implement and enforce governance arrangements

Absent

Good alignment of legal protections with local cultural values and traditional

Present

Support from NGOs

Absent

Support from Government

Present

High financial returns from use

Present

Abundant population of target species

Absent

Biological characteristics of target species

Present

Capacity building of community

Present

Establishment and implementation of species and/or area management plan

Present

Effective private sector approach engagement through certification

Absent

Good Market Strategies

Absent

Is this use legal or illegal?

Legal under national law

Source Reference(s)

CITES (2019) CITES & Livelihoods Case Study 2019: Harvest and trade of pirarucu in the Brazilian Amazon.

By the 1980s, widespread declines and local extinctions were apparent. Overexploitation was primarily due to large-scale commercial, relatively unselective fishing boats, which often traveled far afield to exploit unprotected lakes.

How many people or households are involved in the use?

5010

Who is involved in the use?

Men

Unknown/Not Recorded

Women

How are local community members involved?

involved in the monitoring, setting of quotas, and harvesing of pirarucu.

Is there any gender/age specificity in the various roles

Yes

Women are involved in pirarucu management in terms of collecting and recording biological and biometric data, and handling fish for cleaning and cooling.

How many of these local jobs accure to the following categories?

How many people outside the local area are employed

Is there any evidence of other economic benefits associated with this use beyond direct income and jobs

Yes

Scale of Assessment

Sub-national

IUCN National Red List Category

Not Evaluated (NE)

IUCN Global Red List Category

Data Deficient (DD)

Green Status Global Category

Indeterminate

Yearly Financial Flows

Country reference

Brazil