Marine Ecosystem-Based Management in Mexico: an idea traveling across borders

Abstract

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has gained acceptance around the world as an integrated approach to management based on science that considers the entire ecosystem, including humans. I analyze two implementation projects of EBM in the Gulf of California (GC): one focused on shrimp fisheries and the other on artisanal fisheries, both funded by The Packard Foundation. Using semi-structured interviews of key informants, I try to understand how the idea of EBM for fisheries management emerged in the GC, how is this concept understood in that region, and the challenges that this new management scheme has faced in the Mexican context. I discuss that this idea has surged as a response to the Mexican fisheries crises as well as the external influence from donors; that it is a concept regarded to be too skewed towards science and to have an environmentalist agenda; and how the challenges for EBM implementation in the Mexican context are mostly related to governance and institutional arrangements.