3.2 Mangroves and Wetlands

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). 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. 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. 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).

Figure 35. Uneployment rates for Lajas municipality

Figure 36. Employment statistics for Lajas municipality.

Employment in Lajas, after a number of harsh years, started to improve—although slightly—in 2011 and 2012, after a downward trend since 2008 (Figure 36). Unemployment continued to increase from 2006 to 2009, when it stabilized, and started a minor decline in recent years. In Lajas and Guánica, most economic sectors suffered a decline in employment especially agriculture, fishing, and hunting, after 2007. Cabo Rojo was the exception to that trend, with the number of people employed in the sector increasing steadily since 2007. Employment in the retail trade increased for Cabo Rojo, Lajas and Guánica, mostly due to the expansion of stores from large-scale chain of retailers (dubbed as megatiendas in Spanish), as part of the government’s job-creation strategy in the last 8 years. La Parguera features, according to field observations and interviews, a decline in the number of business and a reduction of the overall economic activity in this town, indicated by the number of restaurants, convenience stores, gas station closing their operations in the last five years. The BLS data indicate that Lajas is suffering a drop in the number of businesses in the hospitality sector (accommodation and food services) since 2007. Guánica is an exception in terms of that sector. The La Parguera recreational service providers are still open although with limited operations. Those who provide tours to the bioluminescent bays are still in business, due to the flexibility of the labor they employ, the low-maintenance nature of their operation, and the limited capital of the sector, and because they are family operated with a safe niche in the market. Still, La Parguera is a site where most people find jobs within the limits of the census blocks that define the area, and where income opportunities are defined by government employment (school and Headstart center, municipal operations, the DNER, the Department of Marine Sciences Magueyes Station), tourism related activities (hotels and guest houses), recreational services (SCUBA Diving operations, sailing, boat rentals), charter fishing operations, small shops and property rentals. Social scientists and fisheries managers expected the number of fishers, island-wide, to increase due to the collapse of the construction sector and overall unemployment. Fishing has been categorized as a labor buffer zone, that is, an economic activity that absorbs the unemployed, providing them with subsistence and cash in difficult moments (Griffith and Valdés-Pizzini 2002). Thus, in an ideal world of accurate information and reporting, the number of fishers was expected to increase, but that has not been the case. In the past fishers had the option of getting the dole, work in odd jobs (chiripas), and fish, while being registered in a friendly system of licenses. All that changed with the Fisheries Law of 1998 and the ensuing Regulations (2004) that required fishers to identify other sources of income and engage in a complicated licensing system (and fees) that feature the full-time, part-time and apprentice categories, depending on the number of hours devoted to fishing and their economic occupational multiplicity (or pluriactivity). Arguably, the previous system was based on the occupational multiplicity and flexibility of the fishers’ households (see García-Quijano 2009), and therefore operated on their resilience. Since 2004, the number of registered fishers declined in Puerto Rico (MatosCaraballo and Agar 2010), and we suspect that a large number of them are operating without licenses. Another explanation for the changes in the population of fishers is that the number of youngsters entering the fisheries have dwindled in La Parguera, as the off-spring of wellknown, traditional fishing households have selected other occupations in recent years, as we observed. For example many young men are hired as captains, crew and maintenance to the recreational boating and fishing fleets. Agriculture, manufacturing, and construction These three activities have played a critical role in the consumption of terrestrial and coastal resources that have adversely impacted coastal and marine habitats, and imposed environmental, economic and political pressures on the coastal landscape and seascape (Valdés-Pizzini 2006). Agriculture in the 19th and 20th centuries consumed most coastal and inland forests, releasing an inordinate amount of sediments and contaminants that were either transported to the seagrasses and coral reefs, or deposited in the alluvial plains of the watershed awaiting for their deposition into the coastal waters (Warne et al. 2005). Agriculture also consumed and destroyed coastal wetlands and mangroves, reclaiming land for a more productive endeavor (Heatwole 1985, Valdés-Pizzini 2007). The mangrove forests of La Parguera, Cabo Rojo, Mayagüez and Guánica were heavily impacted until the 1970’s by agricultural activities, and the coastal vegetation heavily deforested. The impact of those activities in the modification and deterioration of critical habitats for fish have not been measured and are not part of the analysis of the decline of the fisheries, which is a travesty (Valdés-Pizzini 2007, Valdés-Pizzini et al. 2012) and a hurdle for the appropriate application of an Ecosystem-Based Approach to Fisheries (Valdés-Pizzini et al. 2012). While agriculture was changing dramatically in the Lajas Valley, and surrounding areas, as sugar cane became less important, the Guánica watershed was growing in terms or urban development, and the area—reaching the highlands—was indeed an important coffee growing region. Although research on the watershed is basically starting, it is safe to say that human activities in the watershed, and in Guánica Bay (where the largest sugar cane mill in Puerto Rico was operating until the early 1980’s) could be the source of the sedimentation and presence of heavy metals that has affected the water quality in the eastern chain of coral reefs and seagrasses of La Parguera (after Bejarano-Rodríguez 2006, Pait et al. 2009) Although manufacturing has always been a minor activity in this region, the area of Peñuelas and Guayanilla, to the East of La Parguera experimented a major transformation with the construction and operation of the Commonwealth Oil Refining Corporation (CORCO) that changed the landscape and seascape of the area, with the elimination of shoreline mangroves and coastal wetlands, and the elimination of reef areas through dredging. CORCO, who also changed the social and economic composition of the nearby coastal communities and their labor force (Pérez 2005), must have contributed to the contamination of those waters and the deposition of heavy metals. The literature on this process is almost non-existent (Hunter and Arbona 1995, Pérez 2005, see also EPA reports: http://www.epa.gov/region2/waste/corco750.pdf.) Tourism and recreation: La Parguera (and the surrounding municipalities and sites) have been, since the 1950’s, the target of small—but consistent—government efforts to promote tourism and local visitors towards the area. The nightly trips to the bioluminescent bays became the main attraction for tourists and local visitors, as the site built up its reputation to offer visitation to one of the wonders of nature. That activity, jointly with the beauty of the landscape from the hills, stimulated the development of a number of urban development construction projects, provoking erosion, and sedimentation that impacted the coastal waters and habitats directly (Ramos 2010). The outfall of the sewage water processing plant, built to absorb waste of the new residents attracted by such development, also contributed to the decline in the quality of water. This plant discharged primary treatment waters directly into the mangroves of La Parguera during decades.