Urban Amazonians use fishing as a strategy for coping with food insecurity

Rivero, Sergio and Almeida, Oriana and Carignano Torres, Patricia and De Oliveira Moraes, Andre and Chacon Montalvan, Erick and Parry, Luke (2022) Urban Amazonians use fishing as a strategy for coping with food insecurity. Journal of Development Studies, 58 (12). pp. 2544-2565. ISSN 0022-0388

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Abstract

Fishing provides livelihoods and food for millions of people in the Global South yet inland fisheries are under-researched and neglected in food and nutrition policy. This paper goes beyond the rural focus of existing research and examines how urban households may use fishing as a livelihood strategy for coping with food insecurity. Our study in Brazilian Amazonia is based on a random sample of households (n=798) in four remote riverine towns. We quantitatively examine the inter-connections between fishing and food insecurity, and find that fishing is a widespread coping strategy among disadvantaged, food insecure households. Fisher households tend to be highly-dependent on eating fish, and for these households, consuming fish more often is associated with a modest reduction in food insecurity risks. Fishing provides monthly non-monetary income worth ≤USD54 (equivalent to ~12% of mean monetary income), potentially reducing food insecurity risks almost as much as the conditional cash transfer Bolsa Família. We estimate that nearly half a million inhabitants of the region’s remote, riverine urban centres are directly dependent on a household member catching fish, a nutritious and culturally-preferred food. Consequently, small-scale urban fishers must be recognized in policy debates around food and nutrition security and management of natural resources.