The Nature Conservancy (TNC) supports local residents, traditional communities and Indigenous Peoples in securing their rights and developing capacity and resources to effectively manage freshwater fisheries — for the well-being of the billions of people who depend on them and the benefit of species rich freshwater ecosystems. A central component of TNC’s Freshwater Fisheries strategy is to deliver tools to guide the development community-led co-management models (between communities and government) of inland fisheries. In partnership with local fishers and practitioners, we developed the Inland Fisheries and Community-Based Co-Management Guide — our flagship resource that aims to advance fisheries co-management models that are responsible, adaptive, equitable, and importantly, that elevate the voices of fishing communities in decision-making.
In the Lower Amazon region, home to approximately 30,000 fishermen and women as well as an incredible diversity of fish species, concepts from TNC’s co-management fisheries guide are touching down in Brazil’s local fishing communities. TNC and partners Society for Research and Protection of the Environment (SAPOPEMA) and Lower Amazon Fishermen Movement (MOPEBAM) are convening government, stakeholders, and communities to formalize agreements concerning areas where local communities are managing freshwater fisheries. These agreements, called Ordinances when formalized by the government, are created and enforced by the communities themselves, who establish the rules of use. For example, in 2023, the State of Pará government formalized a landmark agreement that local communities maintain exclusive use of lakes in Brazil’s Arapixuna region.
The formalization entails that the State government:
- Recognizes the community's rules and traditional methods for managing water and fishing resources, and
- Commits to implement and monitor these rules. For this agreement, more than 100 fishers from 27 communities in the region provided input.
This Ordinance opens the pathway for dialogue between local, state, and federal governments to address conflicts that may arise regarding local community access to water and management and conservation of fisheries. Throughout the Amazon, TNC and partners have supported the formalization of agreements that aim to safeguard fisheries for food and cultural practices over the long term.
Read about the pioneering fishing agreement.