Ecological and socioeconomic factors for supporting Ecosystem Management of Fisheries
Small-scale fisheries, fishery socioeconomic, value chain, Northeast Brazil, Ecopath with Ecosim.
Marine fishery resources are of great economic, social and ecological importance, as they guarantee food security and make up a significant part of the population's protein diet. They are still responsible for social integration and income generation for many fishers and workers directly and indirectly linked to Sector. Small-scale fisheries are of major importance in developing countries. However, although it occurs to a lesser extent, small-scale fisheries also exploit stocks that require proper management. It is known that the impact of fisheries goes beyond the more commercialized species, since often non-target species are caught accidentally during the activities. To date, fisheries management is still ineffective, focusing on a single target species, ignoring habitat, predators and preys of species and other components of ecosystems. In this way, the present work intends to bring updated and relevant information that can be used to subsidize the proposals of policies of ecosystem management of the fishing activity. The first chapter combines scientific knowledge and fisherman's traditional knowledge in the ecosystem modeling of fisheries. The second chapter provides modeling of the small-scale fishing value chain, identifying stakeholder participation and how the economic benefits are distributed along the chain. The third chapter has as main objective to analyze economically the relationship between income dependence of small scale fishing activity and the different degrees of influence of tourism in coastal communities. The 4th and 5th chapters present an analysis that aims to describe the characteristics of the composition of landed species, aiming at a better understanding of the dynamics of the socio-cultural system that influence the capture of natural resources, with emphasis on the coastal environment. The methodologies presented here and the results obtained open the way for the discussion of the use of the ecosystem approach to fisheries in the elaboration of management plans.