Aplicación de los modelos "bottom-up" de toma de decisión en los sistemas de producción pesquera artesanal a pequeña escalael caso de las Reservas Marinas de Interés Pesquero de Os Miñarzos y Ría de Cedeira (Galicia)

Abstract

The present research takes part of the Theory of Social Change and the theoretical and procedural approach on Ecological Anthropology. From this perspective, decentralized fisheries management based on 'bottom-up' decision making, participation and co-government are useful for fighting against the actual crisis of common pool resources and the failure of conventional fisheries management systems. The introduction of an equal decision system between fishers and managers, and the use of participation mechanisms for the other stakeholders, resulting in better managed fisheries from the point of view of sustainability. Small-scale fisheries was chosen as the case study, a system with a great social, cultural and economic importance, which however has been repeatedly forgotten by governments and fisheries policies, whom have been supporting industrial fishing and promoting irresponsible and unsustainable fishing. Through a fieldwork, it was analyzed the performance of Marine Reserves of Fishing Interest in the coastal communities of Lira and Cedeira (Galicia), the only two cases in the autonomous region where design was made directly from inside of fishers’ organizations, in a way to put some light about a clear signs of overexploitation on local fisheries. The analysis of this process could be useful in reformulating the foundations for a new sustainable governance of social-ecological systems