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COVID-19 (2022 Deadline)
Fishing for a “new normal”: potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on vulnerable fishing communities in the Brazilian Amazon
PI: Renato Silvano (renato.silvano@ufrgs.br), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
U.S. Partner: Henry Huntington, Huntington Consulting
Project Dates: April 2023 - March 2024
Project Overview
The people of the Brazilian Amazon were hit hard by the COVID pandemic, especially those living in small, vulnerable, and usually remote communities relying heavily on natural resources, such as small-scale fishers. There is a need for more empirical data on the pandemic effects on fishing communities in the Amazon and elsewhere, especially in developing countries where research capacity is limited. The goal of this PEER project was to conduct a broad and interdisciplinary analysis of the multiple pandemic effects on riverine fishing communities in the Brazilian Amazon, including the potential cascading effects on food provisioning, local economies, and aquatic biodiversity. This research was grounded in fishers’ knowledge and individual interviews with households (men and women) to provide first-hand quantitative data to evaluate how the pandemic has affected fishers’ livelihoods, fisheries, and biodiversity. The study focused on the rivers Tapajos, Tocantins, Trombetas, and Negro, which differ regarding the presence of protected areas, local biodiversity, and intensity of environmental degradation.
The PI Dr. Silvano and his team evaluated indicators related to fisheries, economics, food security, and the incidence of COVID. The project included a gender component, as the researchers conducted targeted interviews to compare COVID impacts on men versus women. The project sought to build upon the results from a PEER Cycle 4 project concluded in 2018 by the PI, which provides a pre-COVID database of interviews with fishers and records of fish landings in the Brazilian Amazon, to be compared with the post-COVID data from the current effort. The results highlighted fishers’ perceptions and concerns regarding the pandemic to inform policy actions and mitigation measures, either implemented or planned.
Final Summary of Project Activities
The PEER team included 13 researchers (4 men and 9 women) from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and two collaborators from two other Brazilian universities. During the 11 months of data collection, the researchers interviewed 705 individuals in 44 communities in four rivers in the Brazilian Amazon about fisheries and pandemic effects. While communities differed on the impact of the pandemic of fisheries, life, and work capacity, they generally expressed lower to no impacts on the availability of food. The researchers made a more detailed analysis comparing gender perceptions on pandemic effects on life and food provision in the Tapajos River, through the paired comparison of 178 interviews with 89 men and 89 women living in the same houses (husband and wife). This comparison showed that both genders shared the same perceptions and trends on how the pandemic affected their lives but not on food provision. A higher percentage of women reported effects on both life and food provision, which indicated that women may be more aware about negative effects from the pandemic.
The team also analyzed changes in two fisheries indicators, through a comparison of interviews in this time period, versus interviews done in the same communities prior to the pandemic. They asked fishers to estimate the amount (in biomass) of fish caught in a regular fishing trip, at the moment of interview (2022 and 2023), and during the pandemic period. The team then compared these data to the same estimates these fishers made in previous interviews, from before the pandemic (2016 to 2018). The biomass of fish harvested in a typical fishing trip was lower during the pandemic but similar during the periods from before and after the pandemic, indicating that even if the quantity of fish caught decreased during the pandemic, it recovered afterwards. Other indicators suggested the decrease in the biomass of fish harvested during the pandemic was possibly related to a decrease in fishing effort or fishing intensity.
The fishers provided information on abundance trends of 61 fish species (or species groups) for the three rivers. Most fishers mentioned that fish abundance was unchanged since the pandemic in the Tapajos and Trombetas rivers and for the whole dataset, whereas most fishers cited a decreased fish abundance in the Tocantins River.
The researchers disseminated their findings through posters delivered to leaders and schools in 13 communities in the Tapajos River, as well as on social media. The PI shared findings at a research conference in Seattle and in the the fishing village of Cordova, Alaska, while visiting the U.S. partner Dr. Henry Huntington in March 2024. Publications on this research are forthcoming and the team plans to present their findings at the Brazilian Society of Ethnobiology conference and the American Fisheries Society (AFS) in Honolulu.
Dr. Silvano and two of his team members participated in USAID research-to-action plan training, and the PI received two additional grants worth more than $70,000 in this period, from University of Alberta, Canada, as part of the Ărramăt project, and from Brazilian governmental institution Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico.
Back to PEER COVID-19 Grant Recipients
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