Resumo

ANDRADE, João Carlos de Pádua  e  SCHIAVETTI, Alexandre. Artisanal fishing and local conflicts: the case of the ‘Pedras de Una’ fishing community, Bahia, Brazil. RGCI [online]. 2015, vol.15, n.3, pp.425-438. ISSN 1646-8872.  https://doi.org/10.5894/rgci536.

Artisanal marine fishing is practiced throughout all the coastal cities in the southern region of the State of Bahia (Brazil); it provides an economic and cultural base of support for local families. Using action-research as an investigatory method while treating traditional knowledge from the actors in the region as an indispensable information source, this study aimed to identify the main socio-environmental conflicts that exist in an artisanal fishing community located in the south of Bahia, Brazil. The research methods used in this article, starting with the action-research that allows the researcher to have access to the community with a view to jointly look for solutions to specific problems, following a cycle where there is systematic oscillation between actions in the field of practice and its investigation. In this way, it was possible for the authors to provide educational assistance which included performing diagnostics, training initiatives, productive structuring, introducing new income sources and searching for markets for the fishermen’s products, and at the same time, undertaking socioeconomic and environmental research at the heart of the community. Thus, the authors were able to verify that the local fishing environment is considered, by local fishermen and those from other regions, as one of the major fishing areas in southern Bahia. This characteristic means that the situation is dichotomous, because on the one side it is a matter of interest for artisanal fishermen in the local community, on the other hand, other fishermen from different regions of the country end up being attracted in order to catch fish, thereby generating conflict among local artisanal fishermen. The action-research method made it possible to verify six types of conflict: i) conflict with recreational amateur anglers; (ii) trawl fishing on the beach; (iii) using the net method for catching shellfish; (iv) picking up shellfish while they walk on the surface; (v) reluctance to using safety equipment; (vi) closed season for snook fishing. When focusing on the relationship with amateur fishermen it is possible to see, according to native fishermen, that these individuals can contribute to the local stock depletion due to the practices adopted by these fishermen; which therefore makes this conflict of primary importance among all the others that were analyzed. It was noticed that supervision and law enforcement by competent bodies is a rare thing in this analyzed fishing environment and thus, the fishermen seek partnerships through their association with various regional actors in order to find solutions to conflicts and to encourage community development.

Palavras-chave : south of Bahia; snook; traditional knowledge.

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