Human Ecology https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-023-00449-2
Coastal Forest Fisheries, Estuarine Livelihoods, and Human Well‑being in Southern Puerto Rico Carlos G. García‑Quijano1,2 · Hilda Lloréns1,2 · David C. Griffith3 · Miguel H. Del Pozo4 · John J. Poggie1 Accepted: 18 September 2023 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023
Abstract Estuaries and coastal forests, including the coastal fisheries they support, are among the most biodiverse and productive ecosystems on Earth. In Southern Puerto Rico (SPR), there is a culturally significant emic category of estuarine/coastal forest resource utilization known as “Pesca de monte” (tropical coastal forest fisheries, TCF fisheries hereafter) that constitute a parallel activity to commercial fisheries underreported in fishery statistics. Our three years of field research revealed that SPR communities derive considerable value from TCF resources, showing multiple engagements with these environments and wide-spectrum resource dependency. The value generated by TCF use includes the social and cultural acts of production and exchange in households, neighborhoods, and communities, whether the resources are sold, bartered, given as gifts, or consumed directly. Coastal policy that fails to protect productive TCF landscapes or hinders community access to these resources risks degrading human well-being around the coast. We discuss the implication of our findings for coastal policy in TCF fishery dependent regions such as SPR. Keywords Puerto Rico Fisheries · Mangroves · Tropical Coastal Forests · Coastal Livelihoods · Food security · Reciprocity · Human Well-Being · Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) · Southern Puerto Rico
Introduction Human well-being is the fundamental objective of public policy and development, but metrics like Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Income per Capita (ICP), are inadequate * Carlos G. García‑Quijano cgarciaquijano@uri.edu Hilda Lloréns hilda_llorens@uri.edu David C. Griffith griffithd@ecu.edu Miguel H. Del Pozo miguel.delpozo@upr.edu John J. Poggie jpoggie@uri.edu 1
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA
2
Department of Marine Affairs, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA
3
Department of Coastal Studies, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
4
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico
proxies for measuring actual human well-being because they rest upon unfounded assumptions about the determinants of human well-being. This realization has motivated some to seek more holistic frameworks to understand and measure well-being (Costanza et al., 2014; Daly & Cobb, 1994; Kubiszewski et al. 2013, 2017; Jackson, 2020). Environmental social scientists have increasingly focused on understanding the foundations of well-being to inform environmental management that enhances the co-production of value in human ecosystems (Biedenweg & Gros-Camp, 2018; Charnley et al., 2017; Costanza et al., 2014; Hicks et al., 2016; O’Neill 2002; Pollnac et al., 2006; Smith & Clay, 2010; Stiglitz et al., 2010). Studies have identified multiple links between the utilization of coastal resources by human communities and aspects of human well-being such as food security, cultural identity, self-determination, life satisfaction, job satisfaction, economic resilience, enjoyment of the natural environment, and family/community relationships (Breslow et al. 2016; Coulthard et al., 2011; Donkersloot et al., 2020; García-Quijano et al., 2015; Pollnac et al., 2006; Pollnac & Poggie, 2008; Seara et al., 2017). However, the complex and critical human-environment relationships of natural-resource dependent peoples, particularly those engaging in livelihood practices to some extent outside the
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