Using fishers’ knowledge for sustainable management in the artisanal gillnet fishery in Suriname Sophie Hankinson
[email protected] Msc Sustainable Development – International Development Student number 5713544 Utrecht University Supervisor: Kei Otsuki Internship: WWF Guianas, Suriname Supervisor: Hanneke van Lavieren August 2019 Summary The increasing demand for fish is putting pressure on wild fish stocks worldwide. Although artisanal fisheries play a key role for people’s livelihoods and food security, these fisheries are often overlooked or undervalued in fisheries’ policy and management. Next to the target species, fisheries also put pressure on other species that are caught in fishery operations. This so-called bycatch is an important driver of population declines in several species of elasmobranchs (sharks, rays, skates and sawfish), marine mammals, seabirds and turtles. There is an increasing interest in the local ecological knowledge of fishers about marine ecosystems. This can be associated with recent attempts of fisheries management to develop more sustainable approaches while also including a local ‘voice’. There is a limited amount of studies on the use of local ecological knowledge in fisheries in Suriname. Hence, this case study, which was part of the author’s internship at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Guianas, explored what local ecological knowledge fishers from the artisanal gillnet fishery in Suriname hold and its (potential) role in fisheries management and conservation efforts by answering the following research question: How can fishers’ knowledge be incorporated in fishery management and marine conservation efforts? All respondents are experiencing a decline in the volume in catches of most fish species and they attribute this to increased fishing effort (both artisanal and industrial).