Urban Amazonians use Fishing as a Strategy for Coping with Food Insecurity

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 recognised in policy debates around food and nutrition security and management of natural resources.

在全球南方地区，渔业为数百万民众提供生计保障与食物来源，但内陆渔业的研究仍存在显著缺口，且在粮食与营养政策框架中长期被忽视。本研究突破既有研究多聚焦农村的局限，探讨城市家庭如何将捕捞作为应对粮食不安全问题的生计策略。本研究在巴西亚马逊地区开展，以四个偏远沿河城镇的798户家庭为随机抽样样本（n=798）。通过定量分析探究捕捞与粮食不安全之间的内在关联，研究发现捕捞是弱势粮食不安全家庭广泛采用的应对手段。捕捞家庭往往高度依赖食用鱼类，而对于这类家庭而言，增加鱼类摄入频次可小幅降低粮食不安全风险。捕捞每月可带来价值不超过54美元的非货币收入（约相当于家庭平均货币收入的12%），其降低粮食不安全风险的潜力几乎与巴西有条件现金转移支付计划“家庭补助金（Bolsa Família）”相当。我们估算，该地区偏远沿河城镇中心近50万居民直接依靠家庭成员捕捞鱼类为生——鱼类不仅营养丰富，也是当地文化中备受青睐的食物。因此，在围绕粮食与营养安全及自然资源管理开展的政策讨论中，必须重视小规模城市捕捞从业者的地位与作用。