While Amazon states and regions struggle to reduce deforestation and carbon emissions from beef production, fish has been the animal protein that sustained Amazon populations for millennia. Fish are not just part of the past; they can also play an important role in the future of Amazon development. And, most importantly, the subnational governments of the basin recognize the potential of fish and many are investing in making it a reality.
Amazon jurisdictions could lead a basin-wide transition in which a fish-based low-emission development strategy gains progressively more space in the regional economy. A strategy to make this transition possible includes:
- Working with diverse local stakeholders to undertake assessments and generate baselines for aquaculture and fisheries in each jurisdiction;
- Preparing and implementing jurisdiction-wide plans that create enabling conditions for developing inclusive, modern supply chains for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture;
- Building jurisdictional capacity to develop and implement fish-based, low-emission development strategies;
- Forming a decentralized, basin-scale governance framework for the sustainable management of the Amazon’s important migratory fisheries and other aquatic resources;
- Developing marketing strategies and commercial alliances that take advantage of the branding potential of Amazon fish in national and global markets.
Through these kinds of collaborations, formal and informal, Earth Innovation Institute seeks to prepare the Amazon region for the large-scale transition from a rural economy dominated by beef production to a more diversified one in which fish gain progressively more space. Through this process, the Amazon can cease to be a major threat to the earth’s climate and biodiversity and become an important part of the solution.
Read our latest Policy Brief on the potential of fish to drive development of the Amazon bioeconomy.