Social-Ecological System of La Parguera and building on this conceptual common ground can result in increased knowledge sharing and collaborative management with fisheries scientists and government ecosystem managers.
5.4 The DPSIR framework for the La Parguera fishery Undoubtedly, small-scale commercial fishers are the stakeholder group for which we have the largest amount of socioeconomic data, as shown in this SES analysis (see ValdésPizzini 1990, Griffith and Valdés-Pizzini 2002, Griffith et al. 2007, Valdés-Pizzini and García Quijano 2009). Fishers are the main target of regulations in the governance system, as they are perceived as having a critical role in the status of a number of marine resources, through fishing pressure or overfishing, which responds to a number of socioeconomic drivers. Regardless of the array of pressures and problems that coral reef resources face, fishers are the quintessential culprit of the decline in the health of the ecosystem, despite the identification of severe problems with sedimentation, turbidity and pollution produced by other human activities on a large socio-temporal scale (see for example Pittman et al. 2010).
Social-Ecological System of La Parguera Unemployment: Puerto Rico is undergoing a major economic crisis due to lack of productivity in the manufacturing sector, as well as low levels of production in the agricultural and service sectors. A large debt is debilitating the government’s ability to recruit civil servants (it has been one of the key employers in the last 20 years), and the reduction in the number of government employees, and early retirees has compromised the government retirement funds (Marxuach 2012). Although economic growth in 2012 maintained a level similar to 2011, the downward trend in the last 10 years, and the massive capital and labor drain to the United States in the last decade (Duany 2011) has undermined the territory’s economic capabilities and its credit, to sustain services and build infrastructure. The real-estate bubble forced the halt of the construction sector that was, since the 1990’s the most important sector in the economy (Valdés-Pizzini 2006), one that fueled the financial market and banking sector. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that unemployment in Lajas and Guánica kept constant levels throughout the last decade, although a small increase is shown towards the end of the timescale (Figure 35).
Nevertheless, it is true that fishers (all types, including recreational and sport fishers) have a direct impact on the structure and function of the ecosystem that may affect its ability to provide adequate ecological and economic services. In this section of the report, we follow the lead of the efforts by Stephen C. Mangi, Callum M. Roberts and Lynda D. Rodwell in the preliminary assessment of the DPSIR for the Kenyan coral reef fisheries (Mangi et al. 2007). Also, we are employing Simon Jennings’ outline on the potential indicators for the analysis of drivers, pressures and impacts in fisheries, from the perspective of the EBFM (Jennings 2005). The application of a DPSIR focuses on the components of the ecosystem (in the case of fisheries, habitats, water quality, species, species groups). Indicators provide a “good coverage” of the components of the system and their attributes (their properties). Indicators are “variables, pointers, indices of a phenomenon” that serve as a proxy for the attributes, which in turn provide us with a picture of the state of the environment and the processes that are the source of change (Jennings 2005). Similar to our analysis of the bioluminescent bays, and the coral reef ecosystems, we provide here a diagram showing the DPSIR connections for fisheries in La Parguera. However, we are following here a modified outline of the discussion presented by Mangi et al. (2007), on those critical processes and their indicators, for the coral reef fisheries.
Figure 35. Uneployment rates for Lajas municipality
Socioeconomic drivers Population: Usually an increase in the population—at the national level—is viewed as an important driver, since it serves as a proxy for an increase in the demand for fresh fish, and an encroachment of coastal habitats through urban development; a process that impacted La Parguera from 1980 to 2000. However, population increase is a problematic indicator for the driver for many reasons: (1) Puerto Rico lost population in the last decade, (2) Lajas, and the nearby municipalities’ constant levels of population, (3) The demand for fish (fresh, frozen and salted) remains the same (see Griffith et al. 2013). The number of fishers in Puerto Rico, as stated in the previous section diminished in the past decade, and therefore, fishing pressure could have declined. Figure 36. Employment statistics for Lajas municipality.
76
77
