Taking care of what we have : participatory natural resource management on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua

Together, rapid population growth, increased commercialization and exploitation of aquatic resources, deforestation and pollution, and encroachments on communally owned resources by national and transnational private interests are placing the world's coastal regions under enormous pressure. One example is the Pearl Lagoon estuary, the main basin on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. This book provides detailed insight into the problems of the Pearl Lagoon and presents alternatives for more effective management of its natural resources. It documents anew approach to the study and future management of a complex resource system in a politically demanding environment. The authors argue for earlier and greater involvement of community groups. They emphasize the need for persistence and the importance of interdisciplinary research in developing sustainable solutions to natural-resource-management problems. Taking Care of What We Have will interest researchers, scholars, and students in natural resource management and development studies; donors, development organizations, and development practitioners working in the areas of natural resource management and participatory action research; and community leaders and NGOs in developing countries that work on natural-resource-management issues. Contents 4 Foreword 8 Acknowledgements 10 1. The setting, issues, and research methods 14 Focusing on the Caribbean coast 14 The study area 16 Pressure on people and resources 17 A project is born 19 Participatory action research 20 Objectives of participatory action research 21 Assessing practice: key factors determining success or failure 23 Structure of this book 24 2. The people and natural resources of Pearl Lagoon 30 Ethnicity and demographics 31 The population of Pearl Lagoon 33 Formal and informal organizations 34 The landscape 35 Waterways 36 Principal ecosystems 37 Tropical lowland rainforests 37 Pine savannas 39 Swamp forests 40 Mangrove forests 41 The lagoon 42 The fish population 43 Recent changes in the lagoon 45 Land and sea tenure 46 Resource use 48 Fisheries 48 Agriculture 53 Forestry 54 Toward a better understanding of critical linkages 57 3. No life without fish: a local history of fisheries resources and their use 60 Artisanal and commercial exploitation 61 Changes 63 The impact of fishing practices 66 Women's roles 68 Acopiadoras 70 Growing concerns 71 Local knowledge about the protection of fisheries resources 73 The need for a management plan 73 4. "Going far to catch a fish": local perceptions of the dynamics and impacts of a changing resource base 78 A shift toward the market 78 Documenting local perceptions 80 Changes in the Pearl Lagoon fishery 81 Abandoning agriculture 81 Changing women's roles 83 Changing attitudes of youth 85 Impact of the war 87 "Farming going waste:" a synthesis 87 Decreases in fish stocks 89 Negative impacts on women 90 Role of the gill net 91 Stock decline: a synthesis 91 "Now everything is money": changes in distribution patterns 92 Decline in available fish 94 Increasing social differentiation 95 Reactions to changes 96 Limits on exploitation 97 Limits on outsiders 98 Avoiding wasteful practices 100 Conclusions 101 Annex 1: Interview guide 1 104 Annex 2: Interview guide 2 105 Annex 3: Participants in first set of interviews 107 Annex 4: Participants in the second set of interviews 108 5. CAMPlab: the Coastal Area Monitoring Project and Laboratory 112 Early stages: building a team, defining the agenda 112 Emergence of the CAMP committee 115 Monitoring fish catches 118 Catch per unit effort for the southern Pearl Lagoon fishery 121 The process matures and expands 128 A growing team 130 Toward CAMPlab–DIPAL cooperation 130 Focusing on the management plan 132 Conclusions 134 6. Walking a fine line: the dynamics of the participatory action research process 140 Historical context 140 Taking care of the natural resource base 141 Insecurity and tensions 142 Demanding accountability 145 Aspiring for "autonomy" 147 Shared concerns, common action 149 Discord 151 Other limiting factors 153 Conclusions 154 7. Working with the people: lessons learned 158 Achieving PAR goals: moving toward critical consciousness 159 Strides forward 160 Enabling and constraining factors 162 Changing the institutional approach 165 A continuing struggle 166 Bibliography 168 This book provides a case study of the management of coastal resources, both terrestrial & aquatic, in & around Pearl Lagoon on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. The first chapter presents a profile of the study area and an introduction to the participatory action research approach described & assessed in the rest of the book. Chapter 2 contains a detailed description of the demographics, ethnicity, social organization, landscape, ecology, and types of natural resource tenure & use in the area. Chapter 3 presents a local history of fishery resources & their use, giving rise to a number of themes that are the subjects of the following chapters. Chapter 4 focusses on people's perceptions of the impact of changes in the fisheries due to increasing commercialization of natural resources. Chapter 5 focusses on the organizational component of the participatory action research initiative, the Coastal Area Monitoring Project & Laboratory (CAMPlab). Chapter 6 addresses the dynamics, strengths, and constraints of the research process. The final chapter reflects on what was learned in terms of methodology, its effectiveness in empowerment & social change, capacity-building, and natural resource management; and addresses factors that enable or constrain the use of a participatory action research approach. It also summarizes the CAMPlab contribution to a new way of problem solving and policy making on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast Together, rapid population growth, increased commercialization and exploitation of aquatic resources, deforestation and pollution, and encroachments on communally owned resources by national and transnational private interests are placing the world's coastal regions under enormous pressure. One example is the Pearl Lagoon estuary, the main basin on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. This book provides detailed insight into the problems of the Pearl Lagoon and presents alternatives for more effective management of its natural resources. It documents a new approach to the study and future management of a complex resource system in a politically demanding environment. The authors argue for earlier and greater involvement of community groups. They emphasize the need for persistence and the importance of interdisciplinary research in developing sustainable solutions to natural-resource-management problems. Taking Care of What We Have will interest researchers, scholars, and students in natural resource management and development studies; donors, development organizations, and development practitioners working in the areas of natural resource management and participatory action research; and community leaders and NGOs in developing countries that work on natural-resource-management issues. The Caribbean or Atlantic (east) coast of Nicaragua is a complex mosaic of interrelated coastal and terrestrial ecosystems and multi-ethnic communities that extends approximately 500 km from Honduras to Costa Rica.