Deliverable 5: Proposed Management Measures and Potential Zoning Scheme for Artisanal Fisheries in the Coastal and Marine Area of Buenaventura

The region's unique geography, with multiple river mouths and a wider continental shelf, supports a diverse assemblage of bottom-dwelling, shallow-water, estuarine fish species. In contrast to the Tribugá Gulf, where a fisher can be in over 1,000 feet of water within three nautical miles of the coast, the Buenaventura area's continental shelf is much wider, with a fisher still in 100 feet of water seven miles from shore. The marine fisheries in the Buenaventura area can be separated into four general sectors: net-based gears that catch a mixed assemblage of near-shore shallow-water fish; bottom-set long lines for shallow-water predatory fish; shrimp caught using trammel nets or small powered trawls; and off-shore purse seine fishers used to selectively target single species shoals of pelagic fish. The increasing adoption of small-scale trawls, "changas," for shrimp fishing and the use of beach seines and tidal seine nets in river mouths that target and catch juvenile fish pose significant threats to the Buenaventura fisheries. To address these challenges, the proposed management measures focus on Community-Based Fisheries Management, which integrates a spatial management plan, separates areas for different fisheries, protects critical locations from fishing, and adopts a responsible fishing agreement. This approach centers around community collaboration and local participation, recognizing that community fishers have primary responsibility for managing their resources. The communities around Buenaventura are small and closely knit, making it feasible to implement locally managed marine areas to protect critical locations. Market incentives can help underpin the transition to Community-Based Fisheries Management. The COOMULPESLAB cooperative currently offers a nearly 20% price incentive to its fisher members, which needs to be connected to a specific code of conduct defining the principles, values, and commitment of the fishers that sign it. Diversifying the market chains and developing key buyers that can buffer fluctuations between supply and demand is critical to the success of this market-led approach. The analysis of available data for the COOMULPESLAB cooperative shows that there are improved profits that can benefit fishers and additional advantages by building a more resilient and stable cooperative business through establishing an agreement with CENDISMAR. The approach is replicable and scalable at a village-by-village approach, with each community having its code of conduct agreement and local management plans recognized by the community councils and the national government. The next steps should be to establish the responsible fisher code and have these agreed and adopted by the communities supplying the cooperative. Suggestions for the contents of these codes are included in this document, as well as examples used by fishing communities in other areas. An agreement between COOMULPESLAB and CENDISMAR should be made to allow the coop to continue offering price premiums to its members in return for adopting the responsible fishing code of conduct. Communities should then work on developing a spatial management plan to protect specific areas of importance to the estuarine and near-shore species that underpin their fishery and ensure ongoing monitoring to measure their success. The Buenaventura area's fisheries are dominated numerically by inshore and estuarine species of relatively small-bodied fish, such as gualajo (Centropomus medius) and pelada (Cynoscion reticulatus). Management strategies need to reflect the importance of these species by focusing on methods to promote sustainability without trying to convert fishers away from nets. Reducing the catch of juvenile fish by promoting minimum mesh sizes can be further improved by identifying and protecting locations that are critical to key stages of their life cycle, such as river mouths and known spawning sites.