(Turfs) and the Management of Small-Scale Fisheries
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TERRITORIAL USE-RIGHTS IN FISHING (TURFS) AND THE MANAGEMENT OF SMALL-SCALE FISHERIES: THE CASE OF LAKE TITICACA (PERU). By DOMINIQUE P. LEVIEIL DEUG, Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, 1974 Ing. Agro-Halieute, Institut National Agronomique, Paris-Grignon, 1977 M.A. (Marine Affair), University of Washington, 1979 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (School of Community and Regional Planning) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA June 1987 © Dominique P. Levieil, 1987 4 6 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department The University of British Columbia 1956 Main Mall Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Y3 Date DE-6(3/81) ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate whether the Territorial Use- Rights in Fishing (TURFs) of Lake Titieaca, Peru, are effective in overcoming the common property problem of typical fisheries and therefore whether TURFs may prove valuable as part of a more formal management system. It has recently been argued that TURFs should be incorporated into small-scale fisheries management schemes since they should be effective in controlling fishing effort, in promoting a more equitable distribution of the benefits from fishing and in reducing administrative inefficiencies. To determine whether TURFs are in fact effective in controlling fishing effort, I examine Lake Titieaca fisheries in Peru. First, I demonstrate the widespread existence of Lake Titicaca's TURFs and their control over the entire shoreline, most of the littoral area and even part of the pelagic area. Second, I document how, in spite of TURFs' illegality, Lake Titieaca shore dwellers are able to combine legal and illegal means to enforce their traditional ri-ghts over their fishing areas. Third, by showing that the relative difference between the returns to labour from fishing with those from alternative activities ranges from 50 to more than 100%, I demonstrate that local fishermen capture substantial fishing rents. If one takes into account that most fishing activities are carried out when there is little else to do, this range increases to 90-180%. I thus conclude that Lake Titieaca fisheries have not reached their bioeconomic equilibrium yet and that the predictions of the common property theory do not apply to them. And fourth, I demonstrate that the origins of these rents can be traced to fishermen's membership in TURF-holding communities, their ability to restrict physical access to the shoreline, and the obligations associated with this membership. Among these obligations are the participation in communal projects and celebrations, the i i fulfillment of administrative or ceremonial responsibilities, and the undertaking of agricultural activities, all of which constrain the amount of household labour available for fishing. In the concluding section, I consider the potential role of TURFs in a formal management context. I show that, in the long term, even formally recognized TURFs would not be sufficient in themselves to prevent overfishing. I therefore propose that Lake Titieaca TURFs be incorporated into a broader, decentralized management strategy which would capitalize on their strengths and promote cooperation between members of shore communities, fisheries scientists and administrators. i i i TABLE OF CONTENTS page CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Objectives and rationale 1 1.2. Need for appropriate forms of fisheries management 2 1.3. Territorial Use-Rights in Fishing (TURFs) 6 1.4. Effectiveness of existing TURFs. 13 CHAPTER 2: CONTEXT, MATERIAL AND METHODS OF THE STUDY 19 2.1. Natural and human environment of Lake Titieaca 19 2.2. Lake Titieaca fisheries 23 2.3. Material and methods 30 CHAPTER 3: EXISTENCE, DISTRIBUTION AND DIMENSIONS OF TURFS 35 3.1. Existence and distribution of Lake Titieaca TURFs 35 3.2. Spatial dimension 44 3.3. Resources dimension , 62 3.4. Demographic dimension 72 3.5. Cultural dimension 85 CHAPTER 4: ENFORCEMENT OF TURFS 99 4.1. TURFs Legal and administrative environment 99 4.2. TURF-related forms of ownership 108 4.3. Enforcement of TURFs 114 CHAPTER 5: EVALUATION OF FISHING RENTS 121 5.1. Fishing costs and fishing returns 121 5.2. Fishing rents 123 5.3. Discussion 130 CHAPTER 6: TURFS AND THE CAPTURE OF FISHING RENTS 138 6.1. Exclusion of inland dwellers from Lake Titieaca fisheries 138 6.2. Communal constraints on individual fishing effort 139 6.3. Discussion of alternative constraints 152 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 156 7.1. Conclusions 156 7.2. Interpretation of the effectiveness of TURFs 159 7.3. TURFs and the management of Lake Titieaca fisheries 161 BIBLIOGRAPHY 169 APPENDIX A: Orestias species of Lake Titieaca watershed 187 APPENDIX B: History of Lake Titieaca fisheries 188 APPENDIX C: Research methods - 194 APPENDIX D: Calculations of fishing costs and revenues 200 i v LIST OF TABLES page Table 1. Types of Fishing Economic Units (FEUs) encountered on Lake Titicaca 26 Table 2. Distribution of answers to question: "Do you encounter difficulties when operating in other fishing areas?" 40 Table 3. Distribution of relative frequencies for the number of fishing sites by group of fishermen 40 Table 4. Shore communities of Lake Titicaca for which there is evidence of the existence of TURFs 42 Table 5. Frequency distribution of proportion of shore length to perimeter for Lake Titicaca shore communities 49 Table 6. Distribution of frequencies for the number of fishing sites per interviewed fisherman from Lake Titicaca 84 Table 7. Material and labour costs for Lake Titicaca small scale fisheries 122 Table 8. Returns to fishing and fishingrel ated labour per FEU type in Lake Titicaca small-scale fisheries 123 Table 9. Profitabiblity and availability of cashgenerating activities for the shore dwellers of Lake Titicaca 125 Table 10. Relative difference [%) between hourly returns to labour for fishing on Lake Titicaca and alternative activities available to shore dwellers according to FEU type 130 Table 11. Relative difference (%) between the return to fishing labour and its opportunity cost, with or without granting a lower opportunity cost to fishing-related activities 133 Table 12. Labour requirements for agricultural production in various shore communities of Lake Titicaca 144 v LIST OF FIGURES page Fig. 1. Basic economic model of a single species fishery 3 Fig. 2. Distribution of Lake Titieaca shore communities 20 Fig. 3. Sources of evidence of the existence of TURFs on Lake Titieaca 43 Fig. 4. Facsimile of the map of the community of Ramis, Taraco 46 Fig. 5. Facsimile of the map of the community of Requena, Taraco 47 Fig. 6. Facsimile of the map of the community of Sajo, Pomata 48 Fig. 7. Shore communities of the Lago Sur and Lago Pequeno 50 Fig. 8. Distribution of the three types of TURFs aroung Lake Titieaca 52 Fig. 9. TURF types I, II, and III 53 Fig. 10. Facsimile of the map of the totora reed beds of the communities of Huerta and Millojachi Huaraya 58 Fig. 11. Facsimile of the map of the community of LLachon 61 Fig. 12. Resource dimension of Lake Titieaca TURFs 64 Fig. 13. Access to Lake Titieaca TURFs by birth or by marriage 82 Fig. 14. Map of the "Liga de defensa de la totora de Catura Pampa" 104 Fig. 15. Changes in annual price indices of fish and fishing gear on the Peruvian Altiplano between 1975 and 1982 137 Fig. 16. Agricultural work requirements in a shore community of Lake Titieaca, Peru 145 Fig. 17. Organization of fisheries management on Lake Titieaca 167 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This dissertation study sprung from my initial involvement with Lake Titieaca fisheries while working in Peru, between 1979 and 1981, for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the Unfted Nations. I wish to acknowledge the financial support of the University of British Columbia through its Summer Fellowship and Graduate Student Fellowship programs, of the World University Services of Canada through its Franco-Canadian Fellowship program and of the Donner Foundation. I also wish to acknowledge the support of Project FAO- PER/76/022, the National Science Foundation, the CIDA/UBC/UNTA project and the Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies for the undertaking of my fieldwork during the summer of 1984. I wish to acknowledge the support and collaboration of the many individuals without whose help the completion of this project would not have been possible. I particularly wish to thank the following individuals: Homer Campbell, leader of Project FAO/PER-76/022, for introducing me to Lake Titieaca; Rene Alfaro, Eduardo Benites, Eufracio Bustamante, Charo Roncal, Julian Torres and Hugo Trevino, my Peruvian counterparts from the Peruvian Marine Research Institute in Puno (IMARPE-Puno), for their tolerance for my strange "gringo" ways; Cirilo Cutipa, Gil mar Goyzueta, Percy Paz and Pedro Quispe, my interpreters and research assistants, for sharing with me their profound knowledge of the Peruvian Al tipiano and for leading to many of the insights of this study; Tony Dorcey, Gordon Munro, Tom Northcote and Bill Rees, members of my supervisory committee, for providing the intellectual guidance necessary for the completion of my program; and my friend Ben Orlove for freely sharing his knowledge of the Andes and for making available to me the data he had gathered on Lake Titieaca fisheries.