Presentacin slide 1:

InthisresearchwestudythecaseoftheornamentalfishingintheFluvialStarofInirida
(FSI)inColombia.Forthispurposeweconductedafieldworkforobtainingprimarydata
fromfishermeninthezone.InthispresentationIamgoingtopresentthecontext,the
methodologyandthemainfindingsobtainedfromthisresearch.
AsacoinvestigatorIwasaccompaniedbyMarcelaFranco,whoisalsoworkingforWWF.
This research is funded by the People of the United States of America through the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF), Colombia. These resources are provided by the Support Unit of the Initiative for
the Conservation of the Andean Amazon (ICAA) and Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF).
Slide 2:
Objective:
The objective of this research is to explain the causes of deterioration of small-scale
ornamental fishing in the Fluvial Star of Inirida (FSI).
Relevance:
According to previous investigations, in the Colombian Amazon the 52% of the regional
production is based on the artisanal fishing.
335 species are considered as ornamental, and they represent 50% of this commodity
exported from Colombia. 132 species are destined to local consumption or marketed inside
the communities
During 2005, royalties from the exportation of these species were estimated around US $
7,000,000 (INCODER, 2008; in Mancera and Alvarez-Rodriguez, 2008). INCODER is the
agency of the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture in charge of the rural development
concernings.
Besides, in July 8, 2014 the FSI was declared Ramsar wetland due to its international
importance. Becoming the sixth Ramsar site in Colombia and the first in the OrinocoAmazon region in South America.

Slide 3:
First of all, what is ornamental fishing?

According to FAO (2014) ornamental fishing and aquaculture species can be

considered as the ones captured and kept alive for decorative and pet purpose.
Data Base of United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database estimates that world
exported USD 142,734,000 million during 2012 of this commodity. South Asian countries
are the main providers with 85% of market share, whereas the remaining 15% is distributed
between Brazil, Colombia and Peru.
The 90% of this resource is harvested directly from their natural stock and mostly managed
by indigenous communities in the Amazonia. Basically, there is absence of scientific
evidence regarding biology of species and deficiencies in institutions that lead to the lack
for controlling and monitoring users of this resource.
Infigure1therearepresentedthemainspecies.Inpanela)wehavethecardinal.This
speciesiscapturedduringday.To harvest Cardinal fisherman starts at 4 am and finishes at
7 pm. This is captured with a sieve. On a good day of work, we can harvest from 30,000 up
to 100,000 cardinals. This fish is delivered to the buyers, and they pay once the fishes
arrive to their destiny. They only pay for the amount of fishes that arrive alive. Their length
is about 2 cm. Fishermen assume the mortality of this species.
In panel b) we have the Scalar. This species is captured during the night. On a good day the
average is 300 Scalar in the month of July. The rest of the year one can get harvest 20
Scalar in a day at much. This also harvest sieve, but bigger. This species is pay once is
delivered to the buyer. They capture mostly when they are little. Their have the size of a 2
euros coin.
In panel c) we have the river ray. This species is not that frequent, nevertheless is the most
profitable. It can measure up to 20 cm. They are harvested with traps and nets.

Slide 4:
To whom we work?
Thisinvestigationwasconductedinfivecommunities:Yur,SantaRosa,laCeiba,Almidon
andPlayaBlanca.Weobtaininformationfrom45malefishermen,basicallybecausethis
activityisperformedexclusivelybymen.EstimationsofWWFduring2010statethatin
this communities inhabit around 280 fishermen. Thereby the sample that we obtain is
around16%.
Theiractivitiesare:fishing(ornamental),whichisthemostprofitable;fishfood:forself
consumptionandmarket;agricultureinConucos,whicharesmallcropswhereinhabitants
produceyuccaandplatanos(bananas).
Nontimberhandicraftslikebijou.Forthistheycollecttreeleaves,seedsandflowers.They
haveapopularhandicraftmadebyaflower.Itsverytraditionalbutconditionedtothe
season.

Wagepositions and gold mining are other activities. Gold mining has a problematic
involvedandinhabitantsdidntliketotalkveryextensivelyaboutthethemebecausewe
workedforWWFbythetimeandtheycouldbringsomeethicalproblems.
ThedataismeasuredinColombianPesos.Thecurrentexchangerateofcurrencyis3200
COP/and2910COP/USD.Bythedateofresearch,thecurrencyexchangeratewas2500
COP/and2000COP/USD.
Slide5:
Wherearelocatedthispopulation?
ThesepersonsareinhabitantsoftheFSI,locatedinthefrontierbetweenColombiaand
Venezuela,northAmazon.Thisnameoffluvialstarisreceivedbecausethereisameeting
offourrivers:Guaviare,Inirida,AtabapoinColombiaandVentuariinVenezuelaintothe
greatHydrographicalbasinofOrinoco,whichisthethirdmostimportantriverintheworld,
afterAmazonandCongo.ItsextensionisthesimilartoDanubiosone,althoughithas5
timestheflow.
Slide6:
Whatwasourhypothesis?
Undertheconventionalwisdomofcommonpoolresources,theopenaccessisthereason
foroverexploitation.NeverthelesswebaseonSmith(1979)whoestatesthatthelackof
alternativeincomeopportunitiesintheruralsectorintensifiesfishingeffortconducting to
reduce income levels, implying that fishermen s income is negatively related to the
exploitation.
Under this assumption, we attempt to show that in the case of FSI, economical
overexploitation of the resource is caused by the limited opportunities for obtaining
alternative incomes.
I=piQif(L) +poQof(r,K,L)
This expression indicates that the income of the fishermen is divided in two. In the right
side we have the income obtained from commercial activities like selling agricultural
products, handicrafts and labor. The other expression is a Bioeconomical expression, where
the income is obtained by the quantities of fishing harvested. This side is the expression
proposed by Shaefer (1954), expressed by some biological characteristics of the species.
Slide 7:
The graphic states that increases in effort increase the income, nevertheless, after Lmsy
(Maximum sustainable yield), the increases in effort leads to a reduction in incomes. The,
after this LMSY, the resources is considered as overexploited.

Slide 8:
The first diagnostic shows a negative relation between effort and the weekly full-income.
Slide 9:
Identification of communities: Defining the communities that were willing to work in this
investigations considering the perception of previous work performed by Marcela Franco,
who is the co-researcher in this fieldwork. She has been working since 2011 in the region.
So she knows the communities and the local leaders.
Once the communities were already selected, we performed a previous focus group with
community leaders (April, 2014). In this session, we met with community leaders and some
fishermen and asked questions about the relevant information. All this conversations are
related in the appendix section in the document.
Later on, we start to design of empirical strategy. And basically we design a questionnaire
that was applied to similar communities in order to obtain some feedback about
inconsistencies and possible misunderstandings.
The Semi-structured survey was applied during the month of August, 2014. In this
fieldwork we went to the communities and used a translator. We had copy of the survey in
native language in order to help the translator. Basically what this copy had was the
translated questions. The important issue in this interpretation was training the translator to
ask the questions with objectivity. i.e not making funny faces, or some gestures that could
bias the answer of fishermen. Particularly, this inhabitants tend to undervalue their
livelihoods, so the want the organizations to consider them poor in order to obtain subsidies
and some assistance.
Thats one of the reasons they dont talk that much about the mining because this is a very
profitable activity, plus WWF is an organization to conservation of natural resources.
Slide 10:
In table 2 we observe that the coefficient of lfhas a negative and significant at 10% relation
to the weekly full-income of fishermen. This result provides some evidence that the
resource is overexploited. This is consistent with the findings of Smith (1979), where the
income of fishermen is inversely related to their effort. Thereby, a reduction of effort
increases the income of fishermen.
The coefficient of loahas no significant effect in the weekly full-income of fishermen. This
means that the applied effort to alternative activities does not provide significant revenue to
fishermen in FSI. This result presents some evidence to consider, as Smith(1979),that the
lackofalternativeincomeopportunitiesintheFSIintensifiesfishingeffort.
Some authors stat that open access fisheries constitute a last resource for rural households
when they can not obtain alternative incomes, or access to other rural economical activities.
As a consequence they are often unlikely to subsist by other activities rather than fishing

(Dunn 1989). Besides, according to Payne (2000), Mackenzie (1979), Bailey (1988) and
Cunningham (1993), both marine and inland small-scale fisheries tend to include nonskilled, poor, and landless people; thereby fishermen tend to rely their livelihood only on
fishing (Bailey, 1988).
The latter sentence arise some possible explanations to the non-significant relation between
effort in alternative activities and the weekly full-income of fishermen. According to Sachs
and Warner (2001), the full dependence on the natural resources tend to crowd out other
economical activities that could promote economical growth. The authors define the
situation the ResourceCourse, and base on the criterion that a population dedicated to
exploit natural capital tends to neglect other activities because the high revenues obtained
from exploitation.
This situation in FSI can be observed in table 3, where the average income from fishing and
other activities is presented. This table shows that ornamental fishing provides almost twice
the income than the alternative activity with the higher income. Furthermore, table 4 shows
that fishing as a principal activity, measured by fpa, provides around 39% more to the
average weekly full-income, which is 231.000 COP.
The opportunity cost of fishing for most fishermen is very low, thereby the opportunity cost
of other activities is relatively higher than fishing, this way they rely less on other activities
remaining them underdeveloped or for sporadic dedication. Itisalsonecessarytoremarkin
the context of schooling illustrated in figure 3. This figure presents that the most of
fishermenhavenonfinishhighschool.Thismeansthat42of45havenotcompletedthe
officialbasicschoolingof11grades.Asanexplanationitisassumedthatduetoschooling
coverageinthecommunitiesofFSIreachesonly5grades,fishermenhavetodisplaceto
urbanzoneofIniridainordercontinuetheirschoolingatahighopportunitycost;therebya
highabandonmentofschoolingisplausible.Takenintoaccountthisabandonment,possible
consequences are low human capital accumulation, no skills formation, and lower
specializationintechnicalactivities.AccordingtoGylfason(2001),populationinvolvedin
exploitationofnaturalresourcestendtohavelowschoolingenrolmentratesduetothey
fullyrelyontherevenuesfromthisactivity.Asaconsequence,lowerlevelsofgrowthand
developmentarepresented.ThisislinkedtofindingsfromSachsandWarner(2001),where
populationinvolvedinnaturalresourceexploitationfacesacurse.
Theresultsoftheestimationsaboutschoolingaremorecomplextoexplain.Firstly,the
resultspresentthatindividualsincategoriesNFHS,FHSandTShavesignificantmore
incomethatthoseincategoryNFES.ThoseinFEShaveanincreaseinincomecomparedto
NFS, but nonsignificant. These findings not necessarily indicate that moreschooled
fishermen apply less effort on fishing. Nevertheless, it is observed in the correlations

betweenthesevariablesandthefishingsomeparticularities. FishermenincategoryNFES
arenegativelycorrelatedwith lf and fpa; thismeansthatthesefishermenareengagedin
alternativeactivities.Moreover,thesefishermenarepositivelycorrelatedtothenontimber
manufactures, which is the activity that provides the lowest weekly income. Those
fishermeninNFHSarenegativelyrelatedtofpa,howevertheyareengagedinsellingfish
food and wagedpositions, which provide the higher incomes between the alternative

activities.InthecaseofFHScategory,thereisinformationforonlyonefisherman,which
his principal activity is fishing. Inthis case is presumed that his increasing in income
compared to the others is one exception despite this coefficient is significant. Finally,
althoughfishermeninTShaveasignificantincreaseinincome,islowerthantheother
categoriesofschooling.Curiously,thesefishermenarenegativelycorrelatedtotheeffort
appliedinfishingdespiteistheirprincipalactivity.
Finally, the coefficient of variable cs indicates that those fishermen who are head of
householdobtainhigherincomethanthosethatarenotheadofhousehold.Itispresumed
thattheexplanationforthissituationisbecausethisvariableisnegativelycorrelatedtolf
andfpa;therefore,insteadofrelyingtheirlivelihoodsonfishingtheydistributetheireffort
amongdifferentactivities.