Where we work
Our study region encompasses a 20,000 sq km reach of the lower Amazon floodplain, and a 30,000 sq km upland buffer zone. Here, our international team (Brazil, France, UK, Canada, US) has been working for decades, doing field measurements, remote sensing, fisheries and biodiversity research, and stakeholder workshops, and collaborating in numerous projects and publications.
Pará still does not have a functional fisheries management policy and much of the fish supply chain is invisible to government fiscal, sanitary and environmental regulators. However, the new governor, Helder Barbalho, former Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, understands the potential of the fisheries and aquaculture sector of Pará and his Secretary of Agriculture and Fisheries (SEDAP), Hugo Suenaga, recently reaffirmed the governor’s commitment to developing the fish producing potential of the state.
In fact the Lower Amazon will be a pilot project for the development of a regional plan for the sustainable development of fisheries and aquaculture, building on 20 years of grassroots initiatives for the community-based management of floodplain fisheries. While the state does not have a functional plan, the Lower Amazon region has been one of the major regional experiments in the development of co-management policies derived from pre-existing community-based management agreements. Our project here will contribute directly to development of a regional plan for mitigating climate change impacts on Amazon floodplains and the conservation of floodplain and aquatic biodiversity.
