Elsevier

Marine Policy

Volume 41, September 2013, Pages 95-102
Marine Policy

Fishers as advocates of marine protected areas: a case study from Galicia (NW Spain)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2012.12.024Get rights and content

Abstract

After years of facing problems such as overfishing, illegal fisheries and the consequences of the Prestige oil spill, the fishermen's association (cofradia) of Lira, a small town in the coast of Galicia (NW Spain), has pioneered a co-management initiative in the region by proposing the creation of a marine reserve. The proposal was designed and developed by the fishers in partnership with biologists and social scientists, environmentalists and members of the autonomous government of Galicia in a highly participatory process. The views of different stakeholders on the implementation process for the marine reserve were assessed through a programme of semi-structured interviews. These findings were also used to analyse issues related to the implementation process employing a governance analysis framework. It was observed that the inclusion of fishers in the decision-making and the use of their traditional ecological knowledge in the design of the reserve promoted a better understanding of its benefits and an improved compliance with the fishing regulations. The effectiveness of the marine reserve was very high during the first years but it has been recently undermined due to the reduction of financial state support for enforcement in the light of the current economic recession. Whilst this marine reserve was driven by the stakeholders, the prospects depend on an adequate state enforcement capacity.

Highlights

► First Marine Protected Area in the region of Galicia (North West Spain). ► Users' participation in decision-making increased compliance with regulations. ► ‘Fishing Interest’ focus in designation title was essential to gain users' support. ► A solid legal framework has been fundamental to secure user rights. ► Reduced surveillance due to state budget cuts is likely to decrease effectiveness.

Introduction

Os Miñarzos Marine Reserve of Fishing Interest (OMMRFI) is located in north-west Spain in the Autonomous Community of Galicia. Spain is a highly decentralised country, territorially organised in 17 Autonomous Communities, each with their own regional governments responsible for education, health, social services, culture, urban and rural development. All of them have their own elected parliaments, governments, public administrations, budgets and resources. The region of Galicia is one of Spain's 17 Autonomous Communities and one of its three “historical nationalities” (together with Catalonia and the Basque country) and it has its own language, Galician, which is co-official with Spanish. It has a population of 2,778,913 people (2012 est1) and an autonomous regional government (Xunta de Galicia). The region has an extensive coastline (1295 km) which supports a large number of fishing communities. One of these is Lira, a small fishing village with a population of around 1000 inhabitants, which has decreased considerably in recent years as a consequence of a lack of generational renewal and migration to the cities. The local economy is mainly based on artisanal fisheries, agriculture and services, particularly tourism.

All the boat-based fishers are included in the local cofradía, which is defined by the Galician Fishing Act as ‘a corporation with legal jurisdiction and decision-making capacity for accomplishment of its aims and functions’. Every cofradía has defined territorial limits of action and there are a total of 64 in Galicia, representing every fishing community. Their income is provided by fees paid by the members and by a percentage from the sale of their products in the fish markets, which is approximately 3% of the value of fish sold in first-sale auctions.2 They also receive subsidies from European funds managed by the Fishery Council of the Xunta de Galicia. The cofradias act as platforms for consultation and collaboration with the regional government.

The fishing fleet of Lira consists of 30 vessels of less than 10 m used by 75 fishers. Apart from the boat-based fishers there are also 13 women who work on shellfisheries by hand, under different exploitation plans. The main species exploited in Lira are the octopus (Octopus vulgaris), spider crab (Maja squinado), velvet swimming crab (Necora puber), goose barnacle (Pollicipes pollicipes), shrimp (Palaemon serratus) and sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus). These species are harvested with traps, purse seine and by hand in the case of the sea urchin and goose barnacle.

The activity of shelfisherwomen in Galicia has undertaken a radical change in the last decade. A process of self-organisation, creating shellfishers associations integrated in cofradias all around Galicia has helped women increase their income up to four times. The fishing authorities have played a decisive role in providing the women with training, and promoting meetings where they analyse their problems and feasible alternatives [1].

In Galicia two different models for fisheries management co-exist. Whilst the majority of the marine resources are exploited according to a centralised management system, a different model has been used since the 1990s for a number of sedentary species, known as specific resources, which include goose barnacles, sea urchin, razor clams and seaweeds. In the management of the specific resources, annual exploitation plans are designed by cofradías and evaluated by fishery biologists employed by the regional government. These exploitation plans define the different components of the management system: the number of authorised fishers, fishing grounds, economic and production objectives, stock assessments, number of working days, individual quotas per day, sites for control and selling of catches and a financial programme including expected total annual incomes and expenses [2] (Fig. 1).

Section snippets

Objectives

The OMMRFI was proposed as a multiple-use MPA (IUCN Category VI), and it includes two no-take zones (NTZs) (IUCN Category Ia) of 0.79 and 0.61 km2 respectively, representing 6.75% of the total reserve area. The total size of the MPA is 20.74 km2.

The ‘Decree 87/2007 of 12th of April by which is created Os Miñarzos Marine Reserve of Fishing Interest, establishes the objectives of the OMMRFI as the following:

  • To protect and favour the regeneration of fishing resources.

  • To promote artisanal fishing and

Drivers

Rather than responding to a legal obligation or a conservation objective, the MPA was proposed by the fishing community as a solution to several problems faced in recent years, such as overfishing, illegal fisheries and the consequences of the Prestige oil spill.

The starting point in the creation of the OMMRFI was the partnership developed through teamwork between Lira's fishing community and a team of biological and social scientists from the University of Coruña (UDC). One of these scientists

Governance approach

The OMMRFI is managed under the authority of the ‘Xunta de Galicia’ regional government. The Spanish model of territorial organisation involves the decentralisation of legislative and administrative functions. Regarding the environment, and especially the protection of the marine environment, the national administration retains exclusive responsibilities in the elaboration of basic legislation but the Autonomous Communities can carry out and expand this legislation [15].

The coastal Autonomous

Effectiveness

Under the new MPA legislation the uses permitted within the MPA are the following:

  • Multiple use area: allows professional and recreational fishing with more restrictive regulations than in the open area.

  • NTZ: the only permitted activities are those of sampling with scientific or monitoring purposes. The NTZ accounts for 6.75% of the OMMRFI area (Fig. 1).

There is currently no data about the effectiveness of the reserve for biodiversity conservation as no further studies have been conducted since a

Incentives

The Table 1 summarises the specific incentives that apply to this case study and suggests others needed to improve governance of the MPA. These incentives are organised in five categories: economic, interpretative, knowledge, legal and participative.

Leadership

Some stakeholders played a key role in the success of the MPA thanks to the long-term vision, consistency and stability of their leadership. This leadership had an important role in facilitating the use of incentives and bringing good MPA governance. It was of vital importance the role of an anthropologist of UDC, a local expert trusted by the fishing community through years of common work in different initiatives (explained in section 3) who has a good understanding of their needs and

Conclusion

A participatory approach in all the stages of the implementation process and the combination of scientific and traditional knowledge resulted in the promotion of mutual respect between stakeholders, which was essential to achieving effective MPA governance. Social aspects have been paramount in the implementation process and every part of the process has been subject to careful planning and analysis. The idiosyncrasy of Galician fishing communities and their reluctance to changes were taken

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Dr Antonio Garcia Allut and Dr Juan Freire from University of Coruña, Emilio Louro and Juan Garcia from Lira's cofradia, Raul Garcia from WWF, Pablo Pita from FEGAS and all the people form Lira and neighbouring villages interviewed for this research work. I would also like to thank Dr Peter Jones from University College London for his guidance and Dr Jose Pascual from Universidad de La Laguna for his comments on a previous draft.

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