10.1 Beliefs, knowledge and skills among specific stakeholder groups
10.2 Cultural significance of fisheries
10.3 Attitudes towards institutions and authorities
10.4 Levels of education
10.5 Traditional knowledge
The beliefs, customs and social norms governing interactions between people in any society, and between people and their environment, are complex and dynamic. Many traditional beliefs regarding fisheries may be difficult for outsiders to understand as they have developed, and continue to develop, through long processes of association and interpretation of natural phenomena. Religious practices, perceptions of the spirit world and notions of magic, as well as detailed observation of the environment may all play a role in the development of these beliefs.
Frequently these beliefs are of central importance in dictating how people use fisheries resources, or at least in justifying and explaining how they are used. Some understanding of existing beliefs and customs regarding fisheries resources is therefore crucial if fisheries managers are to present ideas for development or management in terms which will be readily acceptable to local people.
10.1.1 Gender issues
Gender roles regarding access to fisheries resources are frequently sanctioned by religious or customary beliefs regarding women and their relationship with the resource. In many cultures, contact of women with the outside world and with other people, particularly at certain key stages such as before marriage, during menstruation, before and after childbirth and following the death of the spouse is restricted. Such taboos and restrictions are often carried over into women's contacts with natural resources such as fisheries. Efforts to change women's roles in resource exploitation or their access to resources in the face of such beliefs may meet strong resistance. The set of customs surrounding women's use of the resource therefore requires study.
Women's different roles and their different relationship with the natural resources and environment in and around their community often means that they have a very different set of knowledge and skills to those possessed by men in the same community. Frequently women will regularly exploit resources and ecological niches which men may have little or no knowledge of. This special knowledge, and women's skills in exploiting it, needs to be recognised and used in preparing fisheries management decisions.
Differences in the educational levels of men and women may also account for important differences in outlook and priorities. Such differences need to be understood and the cultural, social or economic reasons behind them clarified.
10.1.2 Age issues
The status of older people in the community is frequently linked to their position as community elders and the repositories of traditional lore. The customs and beliefs associated with old age are indicative of the status and social role of old people and may indicate to decision-makers and managers the need for special attention paid to impacts on them.
For children and youth, levels of knowledge and skills will be affected by access to schooling. Such access has to take full account of the economic roles of children and their contribution to household livelihood. Schools may be physically accessible but out of the reach of many children whose families cannot afford to release them from their other duties as wage earners, collectors of wild produce or harvest residues, fishers, cattle herders, etc. In other situations, the formal schooling, or informal knowledge and skills of children and youth may be under-utilised through lack of job opportunities.
10.1.3 The community
At the community level, the religious structure of the community may have important implications for the way in which fisheries resources are exploited. They may also affect both fishing activity and the consumption of fish products in ways which may be very significant. Religious proscriptions which forbid the consumption of shellfish, molluscs or particular types of fish may mean that fishing effort is concentrated on other species, increasing the chances of depletion of stocks.
The depth and breadth of traditional resource knowledge among resource users and stakeholders needs to be fully understood by fisheries managers. The success or failure of management measures will often ultimately depend on the extent to which those affected by them understand their function. But the ways in which artisanal fishers understand the fisheries resource and interactions between fishing activity and the conditions of the resource will often differ quite radically from scientists' understanding. Common ground often needs to sought out and ways in which "scientific" management issues translate into a locally appropriate form, investigated.
Religious beliefs may be closely tied to cultural and social status which may in turn influence involvement in fisheries. In Box 17, the importance of religion as an indicator of how different groups exploit different inland fisheries resources in Bangladesh is highlighted.
10.1.4 The household
The complex of beliefs surrounding marriage, reproduction and death often has a crucial role in determining social behaviour and economic decisions by households in rural communities. When members of a household get married, both the individual and the households involved generally take on a series of responsibilities and obligations which may affect them for many years to come. This can also affect people's decisions regarding their exploitation of fisheries resources. Patterns of investment in fishing equipment at the household level may well be affected by demands on the household economy for payments of dowry or bridewealth or to pay for ceremonies such as marriage or funerals.
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BOX 17 Up until the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1948, the
majority of people exploiting the rich inland and coastal fisheries resources of
what is now Bangladesh were predominantly Hindu caste fishermen. Strong social
taboos regarding fishing as an occupation prevented most non-fishermen from
engaging in anything other than occasional, subsistence fishing on a seasonal
basis. With the steady migration of Hindu fishermen from Bangladesh to India
over the last 40 years, many of these clear distinctions along religious lines
have broken down with more and more Muslim farmers turning to fishing for some
or all of their livelihood. But residues of the clear break along religious
lines can still be seen. Certain fisheries, particularly those requiring larger,
more complex gears, greater skill and the use of specialised fishing craft are
still, in some areas, the preserve of traditional Hindu fishermen. In specific
fisheries on certain major rivers, such as some parts of the Ganges and Meghna
systems, Hindu caste fishermen are still regarded as the "experts" although
their control of access rights and their ability to ensure proper management of
the resources on which they depend is increasingly threatened by the
ever-increasing numbers of less skilled Muslim fishers competing for the same
resources. |
The priority which parents give to education for their children will often provide a useful indicator of the fishing community's perception of the future of fisheries. Educational levels in artisanal and traditional fishing communities in many parts of the world are low, with children and youth entering the profession at an early age. But where fisheries resources are in decline, or access to fisheries is threatened, the priority given to education of children so that they can move out of the sector more easily may rise.
10.1.5 The production unit
Local beliefs and customs may impose limits on fishing activities or on participation in fisheries. People's traditional knowledge of local resources and the skills they possess to exploit them will be put into effect largely at the level of the production unit. How this knowledge is used now and how it has adjusted to changes in methods and technology in the past can indicate possible reactions to future changes including new fisheries interventions such as management.
The attachment of fishers to the use of a particular gear may be based on long traditions and sets of beliefs, resource knowledge or skills which have often been passed from generation to generation. In these circumstances, people's attachment to the fishery on which they depend often goes beyond the economic benefits derived from it. The practice of a particular fishery may well be at the centre of people's beliefs and customs. Salmon fishing by native Americans and Canadians on the west coast of North America is a good example where the importance of the fishery for indigenous cultural values has been recognised in current efforts to manage the fishery.
Attempts to change patterns of fisheries which form an important part of local cultures can be resisted as they may be interpreted as a threat to the social and cultural independence and distinctiveness of a community. This is particularly common in traditional, artisanal fishing communities with long standing involvement in the fisheries. But even non-fishers may participate in certain seasonal fishing activities which perform important social functions and occupy a key place in their social reality.
Peoples attitudes to authority will also play a major role in shaping their responses to efforts to manage their fishing activity. Fishers the world over are renowned for being independent and suspicious of authority. This is as true in modern, industrialised fisheries as in artisanal fisheries in less developed countries.
In order to gauge what responses to different types of fisheries intervention might be, managers need to look at the history of management and assess how stakeholder communities have reacted to these interventions and also assess current opinions and attitudes towards authorities concerned with fisheries.
These attitudes towards the institutions responsible for fisheries can have a major influence on the extent to which future fisheries interventions will be observed. If a particular institution is commonly perceived by fishers as being either untrustworthy or dominated by particular sets of interests which are not necessarily sympathetic to the needs of fishers, co-operation is likely to be reduced. On occasions, the same set of fisheries interventions might succeed or fail simply depending on who it is that is seen to be enforcing them.
The long-term ability of fishers to adapt to changes in the fishery as a result of development or management will also depend on the skills and education which they command. In many parts of the developing world, fishing communities are consistently among the people with the lowest levels of education. What is more, their skills are extremely specific to the fishing profession. This can make movement out of fishing very difficult.
From assessment of educational levels and skills within stakeholder communities affected by changes in fisheries, managers and decision-makers can determine what forms of education or training might be required as part of development packages.
Many communities of resource users will have a profound empirical knowledge of the environment in which they live, not least because their survival may depend on their understanding of how different patterns of resource use will effect the sustainability of resources in the future.
Traditional knowledge of resource systems is often free of some of the conceptual limitations which "modern" science imposes, notably specialisation in particular disciplinary areas. As a result, resource users, although unversed in modern scientific technique, will often have an understanding of the environment which is closer to the conceptual basis for integrated or holistic management than many trained scientists whose knowledge and outlook is limited to their particular discipline.
Where traditional resource knowledge of this kind is still in tact, agencies intervening in resource use in the area can make use of it to explain the goals of interventions in terms that are readily understood by local people. This can be particularly important for fisheries management.
However, while numerous examples of sophisticated systems of traditional resource knowledge exist, there are many areas of the world where people's perceptions of the resource are simplistic and relatively poor in detailed knowledge of the variables which affect resource conditions. In fisheries, this is manifested in lack of knowledge of seasonal and cyclical variations in fish availability and abundance, ignorance regarding breeding periods and growth patterns in fish and a narrow focus on the exploitation of fish resources without regard for compromising future sustainability of the resource.
The variability in the depth of understanding of resource interactions among resource users can be due to numerous factors. Severe disruption of the passage of traditional knowledge from generation to generation may have occurred during the colonial period when traditional modes of education and socialisation were replaced by "modern" models which would generally have followed Western, disciplinary lines. Population movements, warfare, famine or severe epidemics can all lead to the interruption of the passage of traditional knowledge about the environment. In some cases, the pressures of commercial exploitation have led to the sidelining of traditional practices and knowledge of resource management for the sake of increased production and modernity.
