{"id":28620,"date":"2019-08-22T00:05:40","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T07:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/?post_type=custom_news&p=28620"},"modified":"2021-04-23T09:35:39","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T16:35:39","slug":"a-new-idea-to-save-endangered-fish-pay-fishermen-to-retire","status":"publish","type":"custom_news","link":"https:\/\/hakaimagazine.com\/news\/a-new-idea-to-save-endangered-fish-pay-fishermen-to-retire\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Idea to Save Endangered Fish: Pay Fishermen to Retire"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are approximately 88,000 artisanal fishers working in the Gulf of California\u2019s productive fisheries, who together catch a third of Mexico\u2019s seafood. Many of these fishers, and the 2,400 communities they help feed, are aware of the stresses this puts on the environment. Like many coastal ecosystems, the gulf is overfished\u2014only seven percent of fish species have populations at sustainable levels<\/a>. Many of these same fishers would rather retire or fish more sustainably, but don\u2019t feel like they have a choice.<\/p>\n

In Mexico, a person\u2019s employer pays a portion of their social security payments, which cover things such as healthcare and pensions. But for self-employed people, contributions are optional. Almost 80 percent of local fishers work in the informal economy and many are unable to pay into the country\u2019s social security services. Even if they are part of a cooperative, which can make payments for its members, few are profitable enough to cover the costs. Unable to rely on old-age pensions or medical coverage, many fishers are forced to catch more fish and stick at the job longer, amplifying the pressure on the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The Mexico branch of the Nature Conservancy (TNC), a charitable organization, is working on an ingenious way to address these challenges. The group is exploring using a financial tool called a debt-for-nature swap<\/a> (DNS) that would pay off fishers\u2019 social security debts if older fishers agree to retire, and younger fishers agree to fish more sustainably.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Fishers] are always telling NGOs that they really want to engage in conservation \u2026 But they have a lot of other priorities,\u201d says Meredith de la Garza Trevi\u00f1o, the oceans program director for TNC\u2019s Mexico and northern Central America program and the lead organizer for the Gulf of California project.<\/p>\n

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) first developed DNSs in the 1980s, when countries in Latin America were dealing with huge debts they could not repay. The WWF cut them a deal: the organization bought up the countries\u2019 debts and forgave them when they completed conservation work. Since then, DNSs have been primarily used for land-based projects, mostly involving protecting forests. The financial tool is now being repurposed for marine conservation.<\/p>\n

In 2018, TNC launched the Seychelles sovereign blue bond, which paid off US $22-million of the island nation\u2019s debt<\/a> in exchange for protecting a third of its marine area\u2014nearly 650,000 square kilometers. This year, the United States reauthorized the Tropical Forest Conservation Act<\/a> and included a DNS program that, despite the act\u2019s name, makes coral reefs eligible for the first time.<\/p>\n

TNC\u2019s Gulf of California program, called the Social Wellbeing and Sustainable Fisheries Fund, is unique in that it works with communities instead of governments. DNSs have been critiqued in the past for neglecting<\/a> the impacts on local populations, which are often Indigenous and poor. By involving communities directly, the project\u2019s organizers are aiming to help people and the environment at the same time.<\/p>\n

But intersectional projects can be hard to fund. NGOs and other donors worry about trying to move too many needles at once, according to Heather Tallis, the global managing director and lead scientist for strategy innovation at TNC.<\/p>\n

To change that, she helped start the Bridge Collaborative, a nonprofit designed to support projects that help people and the environment with research and activism and also provide small loans, such as the one granted to de la Garza Trevi\u00f1o. \u201cThe solutions are unlikely to come from one sector or one viewpoint if we want to make major progress,\u201d Tallis says.<\/p>\n

More projects like the Gulf of California DNS are coming. Over the past five or six years, as land-based conservation opportunities for DNSs have begun to dry up, there has been growing interest in translating the model to marine ecosystems, according to Michael Beck, a marine conservation researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became clear to a lot of people that there was both a need and an opportunity in the marine environment,\u201d Beck says.<\/p>\n

De la Garza Trevi\u00f1o says the next steps in the Gulf of California project include focusing on a few case studies to understand the feasibility of the program, assessing how willing the fishers are to participate, investigating whether the government would be open to eventually contributing resources, and studying the expected sustainability outcomes. She and her colleagues are carefully collecting data that they plan to share with others interested in similar projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this works,\u201d she says, \u201cit\u2019s going to be replicable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are approximately 88,000 artisanal fishers working in the Gulf of California\u2019s productive fisheries, who together catch a third of Mexico\u2019s seafood. Many of these fishers, and the 2,400 communities they help feed, are aware of the stresses this puts <\/p>\n

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