Community-managed mangroves with Don Goyo Mangrove Community Participatory Management Board / Junta de Manejo Participativo Comunitario – Jumapacom Manglares Don Goyo

Cerrito de los Morreños, Guayaquil, Ecuador

The organization and local perspectives on conservation and stewardship

Map of the concession and part of the Ramsar site, Manglares Don Goyo. Click here to view a larger version of this image in a new tab.

Jumapacom is a Community Participatory Management Board located in the centre of the Gulf of Guayaquil on several islands. Ancestral community-based management received official legal recognition in the year 2000, when a request from the first fisher’s association (Association of Mangrove Users of Cerrito de los Morreños / AUMCM) to obtain a mangrove concession from the government was approved. The concession territory now covers 10.869 hectares of mangrove forests on several islands, and since 2017, Jumapacom also manages Manglares Don Goyo (a Ramsar-designated wetland) which overlaps with the concession area. Don Goyo now is the integration of six small fisheries associations. (about 250 artisanal fishers and crab recolectors). The presidents of the six member associations make up the board, which meets monthly to discuss activities in compliance with the ten year management plan. The area has 4 small ancestral communities and several hamlets. The total population is approximately 1 700 people, who are traditional fishers and their families. The main sources of income include harvesting red crab and fishing in the estuary. Their catches are brought by themselves to the main crab market, Caraguay in Guayaquil. The inhabitants govern their communities by themselves, establishing basic social infrastructure and services, such as health, education, potable water, electricity and other community aspects. Not so long ago they were seminomadic mangrove dwellers on the intricate estuarine water system. The community-based integral management is defined by their territorial management plan, which encompasses six programms with subprogramms in the fields of conservation, custody, fisheries, governing, social-environmental services, investigation and communication.

The mangrove concession and Ramsar site stewardship is based on the sustainable use of the mangrove ecosystem. So, it is seen as a basic responsibility to maintain the territory and the source for community subsistence, particularly seeing as the communities have to import potable water and all food except fisheries products. As such, locally caught fish form an essential foundation for food security and nutrition. This area (Gulf of Guayaquil) is also the home of the historical magic realistic figure Don Goyo, described by the Ecuadorian writer Demetrio Aguilera Malta a hundred years ago as the first mangrove protector of Ecuador.

Stewardship experience: Community managed mangrove forests, development of sustainable artisanal shrimp ponds to diversify fishing pressure

Old pier, Cerrito de los Morreños

The issue or problem being addressed

The very important need is to diversify production and to reduce pressure on over-collected red crab. The red crab represents not only the people’s main subsistence activity, it is very important for the mangrove forests’ health too.

The conservation/stewardship activities

The communities have established small familial ponds some decades ago and so many already had the basic infrastructure in place. The Bellavista community organization, with the more recently established fishers association, made the negotiation process for sustainable fisheries viable.

Through scientific studies, the Polytechnic University, ESPOL, in Guayaquil achieved artisanal organic shrimp breeding without biotopes, which three-folded production. Although this organic production is a great success, secondary problems still reduce its potential. There remain basic logistic problems, as well as the provision of the right larvae and access to marketing at fair prices. As this activity matures, Don Goyo will work on addressing these challenges. For managing fisheries this success means that further diversification is suitable, such as breeding of mussels and improvement of fishing gear. The managing use of aquatic areas, including ecosystem-based management, was a good step forwards.

Mangrove Youth, Jumapacom Manglares Don Goyo

This experience is important for broader-scale engagement and collaboration in other mangrove areas. Scientists and technicians have learnt about local ancestral knowledge, which was essential to this success, and local people learnt technical aspects of artisanal shrimp breeding and gained management capacity. Monitoring was a key challenge for this experience and lack of internet made it more difficult. Monitoring devises were specifically built with 3D printing by students in the Faculty of Electricity and Computing of ESPOL. They developed excellent digital dispositives, cheap, sturdy and precise, for local participative monitoring. This was done within the scientific project MANCRAB for the recovery of the red crab (Ucides Occidentalis). One tool is to measure the width of captured crabs, the other to measure temperature and pH of estuaries. As described before, a severe handicap in the Manglares Don Goyo is the irregular satellite communication, which challenges outreach and supporting activities. Also pirating make the access insecure, but the personnel have behaved very bravely.

Crab collectors, Jumapacom Manglares Don Goyo

The benefits/impacts including sustainability/environmental effects

The sustainable impacts are positive and the benefits are threefold. There are still studies to come, but the organic breeding is by itself helpful for maintaining local biodiversity. As a result of these efforts, we have seen local infrastructural improvement, capacity building and significantly increased production.

Diversifying fisheries through sustainable organic production has been found to be an effective way to strengthen sustainable livelihoods and food security. More production of shrimps also means more protein. The knowledge gathered through monitoring practices and devices is a basic necessity for future experimenting on other species to obtain the sustainable use of mangrove ecosystems. The community member’s involvement throughout this project has helped unite them with a common goal of protecting these environments, and has equipped them with the skills and knowledge to do so.

The success and significance of the activities

It is significant for strengthening local artisanal production and to scientifically demonstrate that organic breeding of shrimps without biotopes is feasible and productive on a small scale basis. Ongoing experiments with local fish species and mussels are taking place to potentially expand this activity and further diversify the fishery. The community is proud to be receptionists of advanced adapted sustainable technology.

A young fisherman, Jumapacom Manglares Don Goyo

Some lessons learned or words of wisdom

We found it was beneficial to first recommend a local conversation followed by an invitation to the locals to visit the nearby community of Bellavista to talk about their experience with fishery stewardship. Then, when local needs and interests were clear, an invitation to visit ESPOL and talk with the technicians was shared. Through this process, locals were able to gain a better understanding and become involved in project planning from the beginning, which enhanced a sense of ownership and a commitment to the activity.

It is necessary to enforce the value of local ecologic knowledge and do collaborative investigations.