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Institutional effects on ecological outcomes of community-based management of fisheries in the Amazon

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Communities throughout the globe are increasingly being given the responsibility of resource management, making it necessary to understand the factors that lead to success in community-based management (CBM). Here, we assessed whether and how institutional design principles affect the ecological outcomes of CBM schemes for Arapaima sp., an important common-pool fishery resource of the Amazon Basin. We quantified the degree of presence of Ostrom’s (Science 325:419–422, 1990) institutional design principles in 83 communities using a systematic survey, and quantitatively linked the design principles to a measure of ecological outcome (arapaima density) in a subset of 39 communities to assess their influence. To understand regional patterns of institutional capacity for CBM, we evaluated the degree of presence of each principle in all 83 communities. The principle scores were positively related to arapaima density in the 39 CBM schemes, explaining about half of the variation. Design principles related to defined boundaries and graduated sanctions exerted the strongest influence on the capacity of CBM to increase arapaima density. The degree to which most principles were present in all 83 communities was generally low, however, with the two most influential principles (defined boundaries and graduated sanctions) being the least present of all. Although the roles of the other principles (management rules, conflict resolution, collective action, and monitoring systems) are probably important, our results indicate that efforts aimed at strengthening the presence of defined boundaries and graduated sanctions in communities hold promise to improve the effectiveness of arapaima CBM regionally.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brazil (CNPq, processes 479434/2010-7 and 200893/2012-2), NSF-IFEWS (grant#1639115), NSF-CNH2 (BCS grant# 2009288), Instituto Nacional de Reforma Agrária, Brazil, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Applied Biodiversity Science Program (ABS/IGERT), Dissertation Fellowship and Tom Slick Fellowship from the Texas A&M University, and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, McIntire Stennis project [1026124]. A. Stronza, L. Fitzgerald, E. Ellis, E. Brondizio, B. Fulton, S. Villamayor, D. Stewart, and Ambio's anonymous reviewers and editor E. Andersson provided valuable comments to the previous versions of the manuscript. F. Sarmento and W. Rocha helped collect data.

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Author notes

  1. Caroline C. Arantes

    Present address: Davis College, Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University, 1145 Evansdale Drive, 325G Percival Hall, Morgantown, WV, 26506, USA

  2. Caroline C. Arantes and Leandro Castello contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Caroline C. Arantes & Nicole Angeli

  2. Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Caroline C. Arantes

  3. Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech, 310 West Campus Drive, Cheatham Hall, Room 106 (MC 0321), Blacksburg, VA, 2406, USA

    Leandro Castello

  4. Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, 135 Duke Marine Lab Road, Beaufort, NC, 28516, USA

    Xavier Basurto

  5. Division of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Government of the Virgin Islands, 45 Mars Hill, Frederiksted, St. Croix, USVI, 00840, USA

    Nicole Angeli

  6. Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Aby Sene-Haper

  7. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, Clemson University, Lehotshky Hall #276B, Clemson, SC, 29634-0735, USA

    Aby Sene-Haper

  8. Earth Innovation Institute, 2111 San Pablo Ave, PO Box 2739, Berkeley, CA, 94702, USA

    David G. McGrath

  9. Federal University of Western Pará, Santarém, Pará, Brazil

    David G. McGrath

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Arantes, C.C., Castello, L., Basurto, X. et al. Institutional effects on ecological outcomes of community-based management of fisheries in the Amazon. Ambio 51, 678–690 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01575-1

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