A scattered place, in which “it is no longer known what the sailor is and what is of the administration”, and where the relations of “mutual distrust” between the State and the productive sector have been left behind. 2,074 hectares of coast that suffered the consequences of the prestige in which now, after years of breaches and bad practices, it is the fishermen themselves who control that the rest do not skip the environmental regulations that have approved among all.
The Os Miñarzos Fishing Marine Reserve (in Lira, Galicia) is one of the more than 400 examples of ‘transformative change’ that were investigated by the IPBES (the intergovernmental platform on biological diversity and ecosystems services) to try to try find the formula that would stop the planetary crisis of biodiversity. The case, beyond being indicated by this important body, has served as inspiration for Catalonia, Portugal, various Latin American countries, and even FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization).
“For there to be a positive transformative change, it has to happen to three levels: in practices (how we behave), in structures (the way of organizing and regular), and at views (the way of thinking, our values). In this case, the reservation had the ability to act at those three levels, ”explains Sebastián Villasante, scientist of the IPBES and a professor and researcher distinguished from the Cretus Institute of the University of Santiago de Compostela.
Your participatory governance system
It was the first case in Europe in which it was the fishermen themselves who led a change like this. The germ was implemented by Antonio García Allut, a doctor in Social and Cultural Anthropology, a professor at the University of A Coruña, and promoter of the Lonxanet Foundation.
The anthropologist carried fishermen’s active listening decades when he proposed the creation of a marine reserve in which they participated in their management at the same level as the administration. “They told me that this option was impossible, they were very skeptical. And I told them: ‘But for trying we don’t lose anything, “he recalls.
The management body is represented equally by the administration and by the fishermen. There is also the scientific part. And we help each other
Mariano Lago
– Major Patron of the Brotherhood of Lira
It was then that, months before the prestige tragedy, the potential reserve began to be designed, process interrupted by oil cleaning work. Precisely the village where the protected space is now located (Lira, Carnota) was one of the most affected areas. “That left many the mark of the importance of maintaining a little impacted environment,” recalls García Allut. The creation of the project, after years of much commitment, organization, dialogue, and patience, was approved in 2007.
Mariano Lago, a major pattern of the Brotherhood of Lira, where the initiative sprouted, explains that they wanted a formula to be able to self -regulate: “When rules were coming from outside, we always had the opinion that they did not have nor stab idea of our sector. Now we are a part of decision making. The management body is represented equally by the administration and by the sector. There is also the scientific part. And we help each other. ”
From a model ‘from top to bottom’ to one ‘from the bottom up’
This is what is called a governance system Top-Bottom (from top to bottom) to Bottom-Top (from the bottom up). Now fishermen provide their local ecological knowledge to make management approaches. In this way, when weaving the rules in a consensual way, fishermen respect them much more. “It is not the same as someone ‘imposes’ that you have to do something, that the conditions of that something are agreed,” says the iPbes scientist.
At first the anthropologist had to mediate a lot, because there was no true “culture of participation.” Each part had been doing things so long in the same way, with those dynamics of hierarchy, that they needed something more than to ‘degrease’, as if it were robots oxidized. That ‘something else’ was Garcia Allut, that he was going, little by little, getting fishermen to believe that they were at the same level as the administration, to which, on the other hand, it was hard for him to give power. Finally, they managed to make the leap.
It was one of the pioneer cases globally in which, for the first time, fishermen and scientists sat at the same table
Sebastián Villasante
– IPBES scientist
In addition, Villasante abounds, it was one of the global pioneers in which, for the first time, fishermen and scientists sat at the same table. “That knowledge co-construction was and is fundamental. The fishermen were not invited to almost any meeting of researchers, but that is changing, ”he explains.
A change of mentality that brought good results
The co -management body also constitutes a tool for conflict resolution with other communities, says the anthropologist, something that, in general, has improved the social climate of the area. The last time they monitored the social acceptance of the model, in 2017, they had the support of almost 80% of fishermen. So much so that an extension of the reserve was put on the table, something that has not yet been possible.
“And an important thing: there is already a local leadership. That is: there are already fishermen who believe deeply in this model. Then they are the ones who are already in charge of apology for the model, to defend it, and to influence those other fishermen who are more skeptical. I believe that civil society has a crucial role in the future of states, to deepen a democracy with a greater participation of citizenship in decision spaces is the way, ”says García Allut.
There was also a change of mentality in the area in terms of the environment, deepens villas (IPBES): “The underlying causes of the decline of nature globally are, among others, the prioritization of material and individual gains in the short term and disconnection with nature. Before the fishermen had that kind of mentality. ”
If we do not take care of ours, in the end everything goes to the garet. What is certain is that, if we now fish outstairs, we will have benefits in the present, but in the future not
Mariano Lago
– Major Patron of the Brotherhood of Lira
“Now we have a little more restrictions, but what is certain is that the sea is like the earth: if you do not take care of it, if you do not pay it and you treat it well, you will not have the same fruits. If we do not take care of ours, in the end everything goes to the garet. What is certain is that, if we now fish outstairs, we will have benefits in the present, but in the future it does not, ”says Lago, a major pattern of the Brotherhood of Lira.
A harmonic and stable “exploitation curve”
As for measurable results, a greater abundance of the species commercially exploitable, and greater average income of most fishermen was appreciated in the reserve. This, they point out, fostered greater confidence and cooperation among the actors.
An indicator of the model’s success, says the anthropologist, is that, “while in most fishing communities in Galicia, in most fishing ports ships are lost, they are discharged, in this community of Os Miñarzos, The same number of ships is maintained. Its trend is of strengthening against the tendency of other communities, which is of weakening ”.
Another of the results, he argues, is that the “exploitation curve” is much more harmonious and stable: “If a fishery lasts eight months, instead of the curve rises abruptly and then falls abruptly, within the reserve the behavior of the behavior of The curve is much more constant. ”
Lake always explains it in the same way: “I have a boat and I am always slaughtering inside the reserve. I do not need to get out of it to have the income I need to live. The difference I see is that there are other ships that do want to enter the reservation. That is: you live well of the protected area itself. ”
One of the most important messages in the report, conclude from the IPBES, is that “we all have the capacity and possibility to generate transformative changes: in our family field, in the community in which we live, in our work … we can all achieve something So”. The biggest pattern endorsed: “The mentality changed because it had to change, that is: we will end up having anything if we do not take care of ours.”
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