prioritised as a way of saving time or generating an income for engaging with consumer society, rather than maintaining ecologically sustainable self-sufficiency.

examples of community owned indicators and thresholds

Indicator: People who have the knowledge about fishing practices according to the seasons and the fish population in their area.

Threshold: The majority of the popu-lation has this knowledge.

community view of the best practice

“Uncle Romeo was chosen because his skills and knowledge are excep-tional, and he is willing to talk about them. He is ’environmentally minded‘, his practices are local and traditional, he doesn’t depend on external equipment and he knows and believes these practices are sustai-nable. He is conscious of the fish population in the area. Other villages would not talk about their fishing practices because they have nets or seines. But Uncle Romeo was avai-lable, willing and interested. (…) He has a lot of knowledge and answers very precisely. (…) Growing up, he never wanted to use any other equip-ment because he didn’t know and also because of the environment. He recognises the difference of impact on the environment.”

Community researcher

The orientor Existence relates to the very basic elements a community needs to survive in

a stable, predictable environment. For remote and riverside commu-nities, fish is a crucial component of the diet, so sustainable and efficient practices are essential to keep a healthy fish population and secure this important part of the diet. “Traditional fishing practices” are a fully community owned solu-tion as they rely fully on local and traditional knowledge, selective extraction, essential local consump-tion, with no or very little external influences.

challenges this best practice addresses

The main challenge behind the Existence orientor is for communi-ties to maintain a healthy environ-ment in order to sustain the regular and predictable production of the basic resources for survival: food, water, shelter, medicine. With an increasingly unpredictable climate, and higher threats from extractive activities by local to international players, key resources are put under pressure jeopardising the Existence of the North Rupununi communities. Another challenge is to maintain, from one generation to the next, sustainable resource management. This is difficult as young people are leaving communities to pursue education or job opportunities, or simply as external equipment and/or external demand start being

Local traditional fishing practices A strategy for Existence

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Project COBRA promotes community owned solutions and successes

www.projectcobra.org Project COBRA@project_cobra

best practice for...community

sharing the best practice

The key steps to implement local sustainable fishing practices are:

• Know the different fishes’ habitats, behaviour and optimal season or time of the day in order to target appropriately. Moreover, this practice is also time efficient for the fisher;

• Use a variety of fishing techniques and equip-ment according to the fish species targeted: bow and arrow for surface water fish, rod for mid-level fish, line and hook for deep or shallow water. Fishing with gill nets and seine is presented as a bad practice, as the fishing process is not selective;

• Know how to build or where to get traditional fishing equipment (e.g. bow and arrow) and how to use it;

• Appreciate the quantity of fish needed and for what purpose;

• Make children/family/friends observe and, even better, participate in fishing trips and in the preparation and cooking of fish meals to raise awareness from a very young age about the close link between natural resources and human survival.

policy messages

• The Guiana Shield contains 10-15% of the world’s freshwater reserves, maintaining healthy freshwater ecosystems, and suppor-ting important small-scale, traditional, arti-sanal and subsistence inland fisheries.

• Local traditional fishing practices contribute significantly to many local communities in terms of diet (and associated culture and belief systems) and income, while at the same time maintaining ecological food webs, parti-cularly for top endangered predators such as Black Caiman and Giant Otters.

• Small-scale fisheries suffer from a multitude of factors from both inside and outside the communities, including mining and logging, climate change and illegal fishing. Subsequently, small-scale fisheries, in many cases, fall short of their potential to be a signi-ficant driver for development.

• There is an urgent need to incorporate sustai-nable fishing best practices of Indigenous communities into national sustainable deve-lopment planning.

Photo: Andrea Borgarello

Project COBRA is supported by a three year grant from the European Commission 7th Framework Programme

existence“The very basic elements

a community needs to survive in a stable, predictable environment“