Community-based management induces rapid recovery of a high-value tropical freshwater fishery

TLDR

Tropical wetlands are threatened socio‑ecological systems where communities depend on fish for food security, and arapaima management offers a promising avenue to align sustainable resource use with poverty alleviation. The study quantifies how a community‑based “win‑win” management program drives stock recovery of the world’s largest scaled freshwater fish, Arapaima gigas, benefiting food supply and income. Using eight years of stock assessment data from 83 oxbow lakes along a ~500‑km stretch of the Juruá River, the authors evaluated the impacts of protected areas, community management, and landscape/limnological variables. Community management explained 71.8 % of variation in arapaima populations, with protected lakes averaging 304.8 fish versus 9.2 in open‑access lakes, generating an average annual revenue of US$10,601 per community (US$1,046.6 per household) and underscoring the need for policy attention and stakeholder inclusion in Amazonian floodplain conservation.

Abstract

Abstract Tropical wetlands are highly threatened socio-ecological systems, where local communities rely heavily on aquatic animal protein, such as fish, to meet food security. Here, we quantify how a ‘win-win’ community-based resource management program induced stock recovery of the world’s largest scaled freshwater fish ( Arapaima gigas ), providing both food and income. We analyzed stock assessment data over eight years and examined the effects of protected areas, community-based management, and landscape and limnological variables across 83 oxbow lakes monitored along a ~500-km section of the Juruá River of Western Brazilian Amazonia. Patterns of community management explained 71.8% of the variation in arapaima population sizes. Annual population counts showed that protected lakes on average contained 304.8 (±332.5) arapaimas, compared to only 9.2 (±9.8) in open-access lakes. Protected lakes have become analogous to a high-interest savings account, ensuring an average annual revenue of US$10,601 per community and US$1046.6 per household, greatly improving socioeconomic welfare. Arapaima management is a superb window of opportunity in harmonizing the co-delivery of sustainable resource management and poverty alleviation. We show that arapaima management deserves greater attention from policy makers across Amazonian countries, and highlight the need to include local stakeholders in conservation planning of Amazonian floodplains.