Nicolás Lucas Rovegno Arrese

Valuing Fishers' Ecological Knowledge in the North of Peru

Fisheries management decisions need to be based on the best available information, which in artisanal fisheries is usually limited. Fishing communities as resource users acquire traditional ecological knowledge through their experience and day to day activity. This knowledge is mostly not considered in fisheries management and decision making, even though in data limited fisheries it could be the only source of information. We propose to test a methodological framework to evaluate if traditional ecological knowledge from fishers could be used generate information that is useful for fisheries management.

Fieldwork will be conducted in 6 fishing communities in the north of Peru to gather traditional ecological knowledge through interviews with fishers. We expect to identify key elements of information that can have enough robustness to be considered adequate. If so, this approach could help the wide range of artisanal fisheries with data deficiencies to improve their condition, and in the long run become a cost-effective and reliable technique to collect information for research, management and conservation in fisheries, with the potential of empowering local communities and involving them as part of fisheries research.

For further information contact:

E-mail: Nicolas.rovegno@gmail.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolasrovegnoarrese/