Research

INTRODUCTION

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) are affected by economic, institutional, and environmental change at local and global scales at an increasing frequency (Pörtner and Peck 2010, Coulthard et al. 2011, Cinner et al. 2012, Villasante et al. 2022). Such change can be exogenous or endogenous and vary by type, e.g., abrupt or slow, and by nature, e.g., social, ecological, or both. Examples of social change include new access and trade opportunities in the global market (Bennett and Basurto 2018), or policy change (Daw et al. 2015). Examples of ecological change are disasters (Drury O’Neill et al. 2019) or local fluctuations in fish stocks (Elsler et al. 2021). Marine ecosystems and coastal communities that rely on them for diverse livelihoods are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of local and global environmental change (Metcalf et al. 2015). Their capacity to adapt to such change is hampered by historical human impacts that resulted in widespread unsustainable exploitation of fish stocks, and destruction of habitats. It is therefore becoming increasingly important to understand how complex interactions between diverse human and non-human elements of SSF enable fisheries to maintain their key functions, such as fishing, trading, and food supply, in the face of diverse, often interacting changes.

Past research has shown that responses of fisheries to policy or environmental change are produced not only by changes in fishers’ behavior but also by responses of traders (Crona et al. 2010). Traders are a key link between fishers and the market (Crona et al. 2010, Thyresson et al. 2011, Ferrol-Schulte et al. 2014, Nurdin and Grydehøj 2014, Wamukota et al. 2014); they can absorb or reinforce change at both ends, i.e., market change or change in the fishery (Johnson 2010, Crona et al. 2010, 2015, Truong and Ariyawardana 2015, Miñarro et al. 2016, Bennett and Basurto 2018). Routinized practices performed by traders and fishers, and relations between them influence how SSF may respond to interventions (Doddema et al. 2020). Relations between resource users and traders have also been studied beyond the SSF context, e.g., in land systems. Such research shows that, for instance, long-term and trust-based relationships between hunters and traders can influence hunting efforts, while the complexity of such relationships is of particular importance for developing effective conservation strategies (Jones et al. 2019). Reciprocal relations between hunters and traders, where traders often supply hunters with equipment to support their hunting activities can influence hunting effort and market dynamics, even irrespective of consumer demand (McNamara et al. 2016).

Such dynamics may have positive and negative short- and long-term consequences for both the individuals and the fishery as a whole. For example, traders may buffer variations in fisher incomes, making fishers less likely to adapt to fish stock fluctuations, potentially leading to overexploitation (Crona et al. 2010). Trading and loan-giving can mediate the process of recovery from disasters because they influence ecosystem dynamics through changing fishing pressure (Drury O’Neill et al. 2019). Fisher-trader relations (FTR), can thus be the source of stability in food, income, and livelihoods for both fishers and traders and the local community, yet can also set the system toward unsustainable trajectories, reinforcing overharvesting and indebtedness, increasing vulnerability of the fishery to different types of change.

Recent research on SSF has directed attention to the role of FTR and argued about existence of feedbacks that are likely to determine longer-term system trajectories (Crona et al. 2010, Thyresson et al. 2011, Ferrol-Schulte et al. 2014, Kininmonth et al. 2017). As such, fisher-trader relations have often been studied with a focus on their role in economic exchange and their place in the fisheries’ supply chain. FTR, however, can fulfill a diversity of roles beyond the actual trade of fish. FTR provide credit, set norms and rules, influence policy, exchange information, and build knowledge (Merlijn 1989, Crona et al. 2010, Fröcklin et al. 2013, Miñarro et al. 2016, Kininmonth et al. 2017). In part, such “secondary” roles of FTR can allow fisheries to mitigate potential losses and reduce the economic vulnerability of fishery actors after disasters or price fluctuations (Johnson 2010, Ferse et al. 2014, Drury O’Neill et al. 2019). However, the importance of the diversity of roles of FTR for a fishery’s response to social-ecological change, as well as the potential role of FTR as drivers of change in SSF, has received less attention.

FTR do not operate in a vacuum; on the contrary, they are deeply embedded in networks of other actor relations and their social-ecological contexts (Drury O’Neill and Crona 2017). Social norms, for example, may influence who gets to participate in FTR and may set rules for interactions between fishers and traders (Fröcklin et al. 2013). FTR may be embedded in local neighborhood and family relations (Miñarro et al. 2016) or in networks of different types of traders that are essential for dealing with fluctuations in fish availability (Gonzalez-Mon et al. 2021). Traders may rely on access to secondary financial brokers to keep lending money (Drury O’Neill et al. 2019). Thus, to understand how FTR and their diverse roles may influence fishery responses to change, they need to be studied within their social and ecological contexts, paying attention to how this embeddedness influences the “ripples” of change, spreading through FTR to the rest of the fishery.

In summary, past research indicates that FTR are diverse and can play a critical role in enabling or constraining responses to social, economic, or environmental shocks or slow-changing trends. We build on this research with the aim of enhancing our understanding of why and how diverse relationships and the actions they enable shape small-scale fishery responses to different types of change in different contexts. We address the following research question: How do fisher-trader relations shape fishery responses to different types of social-ecological change, such as gradual or abrupt social, economic, or environmental change? Specifically, we seek to understand (i) how FTR are affected by such change; (ii) how they adapt, e.g., through building new relations or intensifying existing ones, or relying on relations with other fishery actors such as government representatives; and (iii) how relations and their contexts have enabled responses that absorbed or reinforced change and hence have contributed to resilience of the fishery. We develop this understanding through a structured qualitative comparison of five case studies of small-scale fisheries in Africa, South-East Asia, and Central America. Our analysis has two stages: the first stage is an exploratory, in-depth analysis of each case using the social-ecological action situation (SE-AS) framework (Schlüter et al. 2019). In the second stage, we compare our insights across the case studies by identifying similarities and differences across a set of criteria developed to reconstruct change processes in the fishery.

We thus shift the focus from individual actor responses and their individual agency to fisher-trader relations and their role in enabling or constraining interactions that shape a fishery’s response. The importance of relations among and between actors and their biophysical environment for what actors are and how they act has recently received increased attention, leading to calls for a move toward relational ontologies in social-ecological systems (SES) research (Hertz et al. 2020, Mancilla García et al. 2020, West et al. 2020). A focus on FTR allows us to understand how change affects relations between actors rather than actors individually, and how FTR are embedded within other relations within the system to better understand their role in shaping fishery responses. Furthermore, by studying FTR across several SSF case studies from different contexts and synthesizing the insights gained, we can identify patterns and generate hypotheses that can be further explored with the help of comparative and network analysis and/or agent-based modeling. This can serve as the first step toward building middle-range theories of SSF responses to change, contextual generalizations that contain sets of causal mechanisms explaining a phenomenon within a particular set of conditions that can activate or deactivate such mechanisms or their parts (Meyfroidt et al. 2018).

METHODS

Data used in the study

For the analysis and comparison of the cases we used publications on each of the five case studies together with additional insights obtained from case experts, researchers who studied fisher-trader relations in the original cases. The publications were used to get the initial overview of the cases and later in the analysis, to supplement insights co-produced with the case experts. The case studies were selected because of their focus specifically on the relations between fishers and traders, although each original study focused on a different outcome of interest (see Table 1 for the overview of the case studies as well as the references to key publications). We also chose to include case studies that were authored or co-authored by researchers from the same institute. We did not collect empirical data through fieldwork for this synthesis, and our approach relied on co-production of insights together with the case experts, therefore their availability for workshops and subsequent in-person interviews was an important factor.

Expert insights were collected through two workshops, where case experts (Tim Daw, Laura Elsler, and Elizabeth Drury O’Neill) participated together with researchers involved in case synthesis (Laura Elsler, Kirill Orach, and Maja Schlüter), who also moderated the workshops. One of the researchers both participated as a case expert and was involved in the synthesis of the cases. Before the workshops took place, we asked the experts to identify (1) a key change in the case in question, (2) an outcome of interest for their original analysis, (3) interactions, influenced by the change, (4) causal process(es) that link the change, key interactions, and the outcome of interest. During the workshops, we used various tools, such as influence diagrams, to collect key information about each of the cases and jointly discuss the differences in FTR responses in each case. We began with individual case discussions in small groups, where case study experts and synthesis researchers produced influence diagrams, representing FTR responses to disturbances in each case. Next, using the diagrams in a discussion with the whole group, we collectively identified the pathways through which the disturbance has influenced the FTR and the outcome of interest. We also pinpointed the most relevant interactions that supported the FTR responses.

After the workshops and mapping of the case studies, we followed up with individual interviews with case study experts to collect additional input on our analysis and reflect on the comparison across cases. To discuss the cases during the interviews, we used causal loop diagrams as well as broad mappings of the cases, using the social-ecological action situations framework (SE-AS). The SE-AS framework developed by Schlüter et al. (2019) is an analytical tool for mapping ecological, social, and social-ecological interactions to better understand or explain emergent phenomena in social-ecological systems, such as transformations or regime shifts. During the workshops, the framework was used as a boundary object to integrate knowledge about the roles of FTR and their embeddedness within other relations in small-scale fishery. It is important to note that expert workshops were used for purposes beyond data collection. We used the workshops to collectively brainstorm and develop a way to map the case studies and interpret the implications of FTR responses for fisheries’ dynamics. Case experts also provided input on the framework for comparison and engaged in comparative analysis, co-producing the insights. For instance, the importance of internal FTR characteristics for how their roles may alter in response to social or environmental change was highlighted in the workshops and subsequently incorporated into the analysis.

Study design

Analysis and comparison of the five case studies proceeded in two stages:

1. Mapping the case studies to identify the key interactions that influenced how FTR responded to change and how its response influenced the rest of the fishery. Initially, we mapped the cases by simply identifying the causal pathways that linked social, economic, or environmental change and FTR response. We also listed key interactions (beyond FTR) that were involved in these causal pathways. This was done to collectively draft case mappings in the workshops with case experts. Using the initial drafts as baseline, we then mapped the cases with the help of the SE-AS framework, focusing on the interplay between FTR and other relevant interactions to better understand how they jointly contributed to the mediating role of the FTR and emergent outcomes for the fishery. SE-AS framework was used because of its advantages in (i) representing how an emergent outcome (such as fishery response to change) was generated by combinations of interactions between fishery actors, including FTR; (ii) capturing both social and social-ecological dynamics, including not only social interactions but also interactions between and among social actors and ecological entities; (iii) capturing interactions across scales (such as linking local and regional interactions). In each of the cases, we focused on change in biophysical, economic, or institutional conditions, its effects on the FTR, and outcomes for fishers, traders, and SES in general.

The framework was initially used for making sense of the processes in each case: the interactions were represented as action situations that show relations between human and non-human actors within a particular context. Emergent outcomes of each action situation then may have an effect on other action situations, and through mapping them we obtained an overview of the causal processes through which change permeates through the system. However, we used the SE-AS framework not only for mapping the cases, it was our main tool for developing the empirical hypotheses (by focusing on the relationship between FTR and most relevant interactions, producing the phenomenon of interest). With the broad overview of the processes of responses to change, we selected combinations of interactions that mattered the most for explaining how FTR responded to social, economic, and ecological change and influenced the outcomes of interest.

2. Having mapped the empirical cases, we compared how FTR responses, in combination with other interactions, have influenced the fishery response to such change. Drawing comparative insights from the cases was, on the one hand, a difficult task, as original case studies had focused on different outcomes and asked different research questions, related to the role of FTR. On the other hand, we benefited from the richness of entry points and perspectives represented within the diverse case studies. Additionally, in each of the cases, the focus was on the FTR rather than on a specific type of outcome. Quoting historian and political scientist Hugh Stretton (1969:246-247): “The function of comparison is less to simulate experiment than to stimulate imagination ... Comparison is strongest as a choosing and provoking, not a proving device: a system for questioning, not for answering.” For this purpose, we employed a variation of the structured, focused comparison (George 2019) that was originally designed to systematically study historical events using a small number of cases.

We structured our comparison, focusing on (i) the nature of change experienced by the fishery; (ii) how the change influenced actors within the FTR, the FTR itself, and its role within the fishery; and (iii) other relations that influenced FTR responses. Following this initial comparative insight, we identified two types of FTR responses: absorbing and reinforcing change. We then included another criterion for comparison: (iv) the FTR characteristics that contributed to its reinforcing and absorbing role.

RESULTS

Exploratory analysis of the cases using the SE-AS framework

Here, we document the multiple roles FTR play in the small-scale fisheries across the five case studies (Table 1) and how such roles altered in response to external change. We also discuss the mediating role of the FTR, i.e., whether it had absorbed or reinforced the preexisting dynamics. We refer to absorbing in cases where FTR responds to change in a way that reduces or negates the impact of that change on the fishery. Reinforcing in turn means that FTR response to such change increases the impact of the change on the fishery.

Kenya seine fishery

In the case of Kenya, the FTR between mama karanga (small-scale female traders) and beach seine fishers influences the supply of food to local communities. The FTR thus plays the role of filling a niche of supplying affordable, nutritious food to the local markets because mama karanga commonly bought small fish and then supplied it to the local market for affordable prices. Additionally, the FTR provides livelihoods for mama karanga.

With the adoption and enforcement of the seine ban by authorities, the FTR was altered, as beach seine crews were no longer allowed to fish and thus were not able to supply mama karanga with the large volumes of small fish previously caught by beach seines (Fig. 1A). Instead, mama karanga often had to engage in trade with fishers who used a different type of gear, e.g., spearguns, long lines, or hook and line (Fig. 1B; Matsue et al. 2014). Another important change in the FTR was the type of trade relation that came with the new fishers. At landing sites where the seine ban was not enforced, mama karanga and beach seine fisher crews engaged in collective negotiations, reducing competition between mama karanga and allowing them to better negotiate prices. Trading with non-seine fishers on the other hand involved individual, informal contracts, in which mama karanga had less collective bargaining power leading to more unequal power relations and the higher likelihood of sexual relations being used to support access to fish. Also, because seine fisheries produced large volumes of cheap fish, a ban and move to individual gears, reduced the degree to which the FTR supplied affordable fish to the local community (Daw et al. 2015). Mama karanga buying from non-seine fishers appeared to have increased vulnerability, while seine fishers were forced to switch livelihoods or lost them completely.

The FTR in this case partially absorbed the effect of the seine ban on the fishery. FTR changed in response to enforcement of the ban by involving fishers using other types of gear, and although it still supported delivery of cheap source of nutrition to the local community, the volumes were lower and the employment opportunities for fishers and traders were fewer. Additionally, the increased vulnerability of mama karanga as well as the loss of livelihoods of seine crews constituted a negative human impact of the enforcement of the seine ban.

Indonesia pelagic fishery

The central role of the FTR in the Indonesian pelagic fishery is to enable fishing in several ways. These can be divided into two categories: interactions within the FTR and relations with other fishery actors. FTR interactions include the provision of credit, boats, and equipment to fishers. These provide fishers with the ability to fish because of their often-limited financial capacity. The FTR also enables fishing through relations with other fishery actors by limiting the enforcement of rules by authorities and influencing social norms in communities and for other fishers.

An increase in demand for cheap fish drives interactions in the fishery system. Increasing fishing pressure and subsequently reduced catches meant that fishing methods needed to be increasingly effective to continue delivering to the increasing demand. Blast fishing was illegal but very effective and enabled high catches despite fish population decline. Traders played a key role in setting norms for fishing practices within communities (Fig. 2A; Elsler et al. 2023). Partially their influence was derived from the FTR, e.g., through lending to fishers, as well as to the community. Traders also had spiritual leadership through their pilgrimages to Mecca. Social norms set by traders could continue to enable blast fishing: for one, traders have been spreading the belief that fish are inexhaustible. Traders also influenced policy enforcement by relating to, supporting, and bribing authorities to protect fishers from prosecution when caught during blast fishing (Fig. 2B). There was a deeper relationship between fishers and traders that could be based on kin relations or persist over multiple generations. Therefore, fishers trusted their traders to protect them from prosecution.

Overall, FTR reinforced the effect of increasing demand on the fishery. When looking at other types of change, however, we could argue that by playing a reinforcing role in this context, FTR also absorbed the effect of ecological (decreasing fish population) and legislative change (implementation and enforcement of measures preventing blast fishing). Allowing blast fishing to persist, FTR secured the supply of fish and continued to enable fishing, at least in the short term.

Mexican squid fishery

The key role FTR plays in the Mexican squid fishery is the connection of fishers to Asian processing companies. Additionally, the FTR provides permits for fishing squid, enabling fishing.

In Mexico, La Niña and El Niño cycles drive the oceanographic and ecological conditions for the squid fishery. The high versatility of squid, including through migration and life-history strategy, allowed squid to adapt to changes in temperature and productivity. For fishers, this meant that during La Niña years squid catches were high in the Gulf of California (Fig. 3A). During the transition to El Niño years, squid had to be caught in new spots such as the Pacific coast, and in El Niño years squid catches there collapsed. In transition years, the change in fishing location altered traditional FTR roles. This occurred because new traders entered the relationship in order to buy/sell squid (Fig. 3B). The new entrant traders competed with the local squid traders and enabled the FTR to use new market opportunities. The migration of traders led to a more diverse cohort of FTR, and power asymmetries became more balanced (Elsler et al. 2021).

The emergence of new FTR due to seasonal migration reinforced the effect of fluctuations in squid catches when considering its effect on income inequality in the fishery. As traders adapted to squid migration and followed it to a different region, the price-setting power of local traders diminished, squid prices increased (because of increased competition between local and new entrant traders), and thus income inequality between fishers and traders was reduced. Additionally, more squid could be caught and processed because of new traders entering the fishery, reinforcing the link between increased availability of squid and catch/trade volumes.

Philippines reef fishery

Key roles played by the FTR in the case of the Philippines are setting prices for fish (also through competition between city traders and local traders for the available catch) and providing credit to fishers (such as funds that can be used to buy fuel, maintain the boat, help with household needs, etc.). Although the region often experiences typhoons and other disasters, the Yolanda typhoon (known internationally as Haiyan) in 2013 was particularly destructive for the regional small-scale fisheries (Drury O’Neill et al. 2019). Many fishing boats and homes were destroyed; in response to this international NGOs, among others, provided boat donations to local fishing communities. Thus, the composition of the fishery has been drastically changed; before the typhoon, it was represented by fewer larger boats, and after the typhoon and subsequent donations it consisted of a much larger number of smaller boats (Fig. 4B). More people participating in the fishery (e.g., boat crew members) could now fish independently. This meant that more fishers became reliant on the credit provision role of the FTR. In addition to supporting the growing fleet, fishers needed loans to rebuild their homes. This meant that the credit provisioning role of FTR was pressured because traders needed to find additional sources of funds to continue supporting fishers. The important context for this is the social norm influencing FTR: traders were expected to provide loans for fishers, even if they had to borrow money themselves. To borrow money traders had to take loans elsewhere, increasing their debt and making the FTR reliant on other supporting interactions, such as lending interaction between traders and loan sharks.

Although the Yolanda typhoon is the disturbance in focus, FTR was affected by both its destructive outcomes and subsequent changes to the fishery that were caused by NGO measures to mitigate such outcomes (boat donations). In both cases, FTR played an absorbing role. Through the mutual aggregation of debt by fishers and traders, FTR continued supporting the fishing activities and the growing fleet.

Zanzibar multispecies fishery

FTR in the case of Zanzibar plays two key roles: providing credit and using market opportunities, which in this case is represented by the global tourism industry (Drury O’Neill et al. 2018) Through selling catch to hotels or restaurants frequented by tourists, the FTR is linking the local, rural fishing communities and central markets, also exposing local fisheries to the global tourism market demand.

Growth in the tourism industry and subsequent high market demand for octopus and other higher-value coral reef species such as parrotfish (Scaridae) and snappers (Lutjanidae; Thyresson et al. 2011) provided new opportunities for traders to sell their fish. The use of new market opportunities was dependent on the ability of traders to deal in higher volumes and good quality of supplied fish (Drury O’Neill et al. 2018). Traders who were able to supply high volumes of fish benefitted from access to the tourism industry, increasing their incomes, whereas traders engaging in smaller volumes continued to sell to the domestic market (Fig. 5B). The tourism industry demand also increased the reliance of some traders on loans borrowed from patrons. Borrowing money from patrons allowed traders to further increase their trade volumes and benefit from access to the tourism market even more. The ability of such traders to provide high volumes of catch was also dependent on the FTR characteristics, particularly the high number of fishers with whom a single trader would engage in relationships. In contrast, low-volume traders traded with fewer fishers, where mutual loyalty was expected.

The continued access to the tourism market allowed high-volume traders to thrive but tempted some traders to rely on borrowing funds from patrons to make use of this opportunity. Responding to the increasing role of the tourism industry, the FTR in which loyalty to the trader is non-reciprocal provided better income. Traditional relations that were mainly connected to the domestic industry did not benefit from this process. This means that benefits from increased tourism could only enter the fishery through high-volume traders and specific types of FTR associated with them.

Synthesizing the role of FTR in influencing change

Across the five case studies, FTR adapted in response to disturbance or change and maintained the key processes within the fishery: trading, harvesting, and food provision. However, this often either involved trade-offs for certain groups or possible negative consequences in the long term. FTR absorbed disruptive change and reinforced the effects of opportunities, such as increased market demand. Table 2 shows how FTR shaped such absorbing and reinforcing responses across the analyzed cases.

Speed of change influences the absorbing or reinforcing role of the FTR and whether a change can become an opportunity

The type of change represents an important part of the context under which we examine the role of FTR. Abrupt change is an immediate change in conditions that can happen unexpectedly, as in the case of typhoon Yolanda, or cyclically, as in the case of El Niño. Slow change happens over a longer period, as in the case of a gradual increase in demand for fish in the tourism industry. Abrupt change has immediate consequences for the FTR in each respective case (e.g., enforcement of the seine ban in Kenya and property destruction by a typhoon followed by an influx of donated boats in the Philippines). Traders have to search for alternative sources of supply to maintain their livelihoods in Kenya, and for additional sources of income to keep supporting fishers in the Philippines. We find that abrupt change leads to major structural changes in the FTR, whereas slow change initially leads to gradual change that increases in magnitude over the long term. In Zanzibar and Indonesia, change is relatively slow, which influenced the reinforcing role FTR plays in mediating change in these two cases. In each of these cases, FTR adapt to slow change and exploit it as an opportunity. The fast speed of major, abrupt change in the other three cases manifests as a disruption for the FTR and the fishery as a whole. It is important to note that we refer to the immediate effects of abrupt change when labeling them as “disruptive.”

Outcomes of FTR adaptation to change for the fishery depend on which actors lose or benefit from change and the time scale under consideration

We evaluate change across the cases as an opportunity or disruption across cases because of how it may influence the fishery as a whole, specifically fishing, trading, and food provision. However, assessing the reinforcing or absorbing role of FTR adaptation to disturbance can be challenging, because fishery actors lose or benefit from change in different ways. For instance, in Kenya, the new legislation banning the use of seine provides an opportunity for FTR with fishers using non-seine gear. It is however most certainly a disruption in income-earning opportunities for the seine fishers. The same can be said about mama karanga traders who have to form new FTR with non-seine fishers, engaging in unequal power relations, and increasing their vulnerability. Overall, we still argue that abrupt changes presented in the cases are disruptive to the key processes within the fishery. As a result, FTR adaptation to such disruptions absorbs rather than reinforces their effect on the fishery. Relations within FTR have to change or new relations have to be formed so that key processes within the fishery would adapt, following an abrupt, disruptive change.

Among cases with such type of change, Mexico stands out in particular. Although change resulting from La Niño/El Niña can be characterized as abrupt, it is also cyclical and can to some extent be anticipated within FTR. Because it also has a different effect depending on the region (squid population decreased in some areas and increased in others because of seasonal migration), some FTR benefit while others lose from such change. Additionally, the change benefits fishers and traders in local FTR unequally. Fishers can benefit from migration to a greater extent because competition between local and migrant traders increases and as a result, better prices are paid to the fishers. It is important to note here that in this case there is no competition between local and migrant fishers because the squid population is large enough during seasonal “booms.” Thus, the goals and well-being of fishery actors may not always be aligned or codependent. Ecological as well as social components of the fishery need to be considered when determining the ways FTR responds to change, resulting in changes in the broader fishery context.

Results of our synthesis also show that the short-term and long-term effects must be considered when looking at how FTR shape the adaptation of the fishery. For example, the role of FTR in absorbing the effect of the seine ban on the supply of affordable food for the local community in Kenya greatly depends on whether such FTR are sustainable in the long term. Fisher and trader indebtedness in the Philippines FTR is a short-term absorbing response that can help prevent a collapse of the fishery but requires additional measures to be sustainable in the long term and avoid further debt accumulation. The reinforcing role of FTR in at least one of the analyzed cases can also be considered unsustainable in the longer term. In Indonesia, the exploitation of opportunities brought about by the increase in market demand depends on blast fishing. Because of its destructive nature, it can potentially lead to overexploitation and collapse of the fishery (Ferse et al. 2014).

Trust and social norms can greatly influence FTR adaptation to change toward sustainable or unsustainable outcomes

Social norms play an important role in understanding FTR responses in two cases: Indonesia and the Philippines. Norms that influence relations between fishers and traders are also linked to trust and loyalty. In the Philippines, FTR can absorb disruptive change brought about by the typhoon in part because of a deeply established norm. It is expected that traders who maintain long-term trade relations with fishers must support them by providing credit while the fishers remain loyal to the traders (Carnaje 2007). Because of this norm traders continue to support fishers, particularly with the maintenance of new boats received as a result of post-typhoon donations. In Indonesia, norm-setting is one of the key roles played by FTR for understanding its response to change because it supports acceptance of blast fishing practice by the community. In the absence of effective enforcement by the government, community norms can potentially prevent the use of harmful fishing practices. This does not happen in Indonesia in part because of traders’ influence on community norms. In Kenya societal norms around gender roles influence the potential for women traders to operate and compete with male traders.

Loyalty and trust among fishers and traders influence their flexibility and access to alternative livelihood and trade options. Indonesia, Mexico, and Zanzibar are the cases where trust and loyalty are particularly important for FTR absorbing or reinforcing change. In Indonesia, high trust between fishers and traders leads to the emergence of strong informal relationships that let the FTR fulfill other roles beyond trading. Fishers trust traders to protect them from prosecution, which allows them to continue practicing and even intensify blast fishing. In Zanzibar FTR involving low-volume traders are dependent on high loyalty and trust and thus are not influenced by the increased access to the tourism market. On the other hand, FTR involving high-volume traders are much more opportunistic in the sense that they do not rely on loyalty but on the number of fishers that could support high trade volumes necessary for access to the tourism market. In Mexico lack of loyalty allows fishers to be flexible and choose between local and migrant traders to pursue a better price. In the case of Kenya, loyalty in relations between traders and fishers becomes more important because of the seine ban. Collective access to fish and bargaining by groups of women buying the large catches from seine operations means less emphasis on FTR and more on relationships and acceptance between the women themselves. However, in the non-seine Kenyan fisheries, women need to cultivate loyalty and trust with individual fishers to ensure access to fish. This may lead to a more exploitative nature of FTR.

Relations with other actors are important for FTR to maintain its role within the fishery when absorbing or reinforcing change

Considering the role of relations between other fishery actors linked to FTR, is important for understanding its absorbing and reinforcing responses. For example, relations between traders and their patrons or loan sharks have been important for maintaining the provisioning of credit within FTR (Philippines) and high volumes of trade (Zanzibar). Relations between traders and the local community are also crucial. In Kenya, FTR are critical for the provision of affordable fish to the local market. In Indonesia, the relations between traders and the local community play a norm-setting role described in the subsection above. Relations between traders and regional policy makers are important in the same way because they provide additional security for fishers to engage in illegal blast fishing. To highlight the importance of this relation, we compare Indonesia to the case of Kenya where traders lack connections to policy makers and therefore are not able to resist the effect of the seine ban. Finally, cooperation between local traders during the La Niña cycle in Mexico and the absence of such cooperation between local and outsider traders during El Niño have been crucial for explaining differences between the price-setting roles of FTR during each cycle. Although local traders can cooperate with each other to set lower prices for squid, with the influx of outsider traders the cooperation breaks down and as a result changes the power balance between fishers and traders in price setting.

DISCUSSION

Diversity of FTR roles, characteristics, and relations with other actors generate capacities to respond to change in small-scale fisheries

A focus on relations between fishers and traders and the diversity of roles they play within small-scale fisheries allows us to better understand how fisheries change in the face of disturbances. The individual capacity of fishers and traders to respond to disruptions (such as changes in fishery policy) or seize opportunities (such as increase in market demand) is dependent on the established FTR, as well as relations with other actors within the fishery.

The insights from our synthesis can serve as building blocks for theorizing about the role of FTR as well as other actor relations in influencing how small-scale fisheries respond to change. Previous research that looked at how FTR influences adaptation in small-scale fisheries did so by focusing on the diverse roles of traders and trade relationships’ structures (González-Mon et al. 2019), diversity of self-governance arrangements (Frawley et al. 2024), the diversity of actor attributes (e.g., based on gear type, culturally bound knowledge, and belief systems; Frawley et al. 2019), and diversity of shared social practices (Doddema et al. 2020). Our contribution focuses on the other three “diversities” that can contribute to the capacities of FTR in response to change: the diversity of FTR roles within the fishery, their characteristics, and supporting relations with other key fishery actors.

FTR carry out many roles within fisheries. Although trading catch for money is an obvious one, our analysis of cases shows that borrowing, price- and norm-setting roles can also enable alternative responses to change. Previous research has also highlighted social and financial support provided by traders to fishers as critical for fishers’ responses (Drury O’Neill et al. 2019), which is represented here as one of the diverse roles. FTR are also reliant on other interactions within the fishery to support these roles. For example, the trading role of FTR can rely on the support of fishing activities through lending money. Increasing trade volume when demand increases can depend on loans obtained in interactions between traders and other patrons.

It is also important to look beyond the typical trading and lending roles and interactions between actors within a value chain. Although these are no doubt crucial for understanding change processes in small-scale fisheries (Satizábal 2018, Nyiawung et al. 2023), paying attention to other types of roles and related supporting interactions can provide important insights. For example, interactions between traders, fishers, and the local community can enable adaptive responses through the norm-setting role of the FTR.

Finally, the internal characteristics of FTR, specifically trust and norms that influence the relations, can also affect the FTR capacities to respond to change. High level of trust between traders and fishers can ensure stable relations, where traders may support fishers through lending money if their livelihoods are threatened. At the same time such relations may make it difficult to form new relations to maintain trade in the face of disturbances or make use of opportunities presented by a growth in demand.

It is important to mention that the diversity of FTR roles and supporting social and social-ecological interactions can be vast even within small-scale fisheries (Arthur et al. 2022). The selection of key interactions within SE-AS depictions of case studies in this paper was influenced mainly by our aim of understanding FTR responses to particular disturbances and how such responses link back to the fishery, resulting in absorbing or reinforcing outcomes. Next to these aims, our choices were also influenced by the aims and initial framing of the authors of the original case studies. Access to case experts through the series of workshops has provided us with greater awareness of the original framing used by the authors, as well as allowed us to reflect on these choices. The importance of links between FTR and specific supporting interactions is highly contextual, and we acknowledge that some interactions may be “dormant” in the context of some disturbances, but still provide important adaptive capacities for responses to others. Finally, our insights on reinforcing versus absorbing outcomes shaped by the FTR are also heavily context- and scope-dependent.

Reinforcing and absorbing responses

When considering the role of FTR in shaping the fisheries’ response to change, we did not aim to do so normatively or provide a thorough assessment of the positive or negative outcomes of such responses for the fishery. A small-scale fishery consists of diverse actors with diverse aims, with interactions deeply shaped by power relations (Nunan et al. 2020). Considering the case of Kenya, the switch from seine fishers to a different type of fishers in the FTR has absorbed the effect of the seine ban for maintaining the trade and provision of cheap, easily accessible fish to the local community. However, it could also be argued that this switch has reinforced the effects of the ban on seine fishers who are struggling to find an alternative livelihood. At the same time, although maintaining the provision of cheap food to the local markets can be considered a positive outcome of this adaptation, female traders had to do so at the cost of engaging in unfavorable power relations and potentially increasing their own vulnerability. Thus, from our perspective, we consider that change was absorbed in relation to the maintenance of the three key processes within the fishery, trading, fishing, and food supply. From the perspective of some individual actors, this may not be the case because they may end up bearing the cost of such adaptation.

Another important factor is the temporal scope of the case study. This is very prominent in most “disturbance” cases; absorbing outcome is clear in the short-term, but because of the costs borne by fishers or traders and impacts on the ecosystem, the longer-term consequences may erode the resilience of the fishery to further disturbances. Increased vulnerability of female traders in the Kenya case is one example (although we also have to consider a potential positive long-term outcome from the seine ban to the local ecosystems). In the Philippines, absorbing the impact of the typhoon and subsequent boat donation was possible through mutual debt aggregation within the FTR. In “opportunity” cases where FTR has contributed to a reinforcing outcome, the long-term effects are more difficult to outline. We could argue that in the case of Indonesia, the increase in the use of dynamite fishing brought about by FTR response to market demand will likely lead to erosion of resilience, poor rule enforcement, and overexploitation of local fisheries. In Zanzibar, benefits from increased demand from the tourism industry have mostly affected high-volume FTR. This could contribute to growing inequality and indebtedness within the fishery in the longer term.

Theorizing about the role of FTR in small-scale fishery responses to change

Building on our insights about the importance of the three “diversities,” we take the first step in proposing a set of building blocks for theorizing about SSF responses to different types of change. In Figure 6 we show possible explanations of how FTR responses to different types of disturbances may result in either absorbing or reinforcing dynamics. The capacities of the FTR to respond to disturbances are influenced by the diverse roles played by the FTR (such as trading or loan-giving), and enabled by other key relations in the fishery (such as trader relations with the authorities or fisher relations with fish). The figure identifies combinations of relations, with the FTR in its core, that can arise in response to abrupt, slow, or cyclical change, reinforcing or absorbing its effects:

1. When faced with abrupt, disruptive change, FTR can rely on relations with alternative suppliers and outside patrons (e.g., loan sharks) to maintain and re-engage in trading and providing loans for fishermen. These activities support FTR’s capacity to maintain livelihoods within the fishery, despite the disruptive change, absorbing its impacts as a result.
2. Responding to slow change that presents an opportunity, particularly a growth in demand, FTR can maintain and grow existing trade relations, supporting the increase in trade by loans from outside patrons, and by influencing norms through relations with the authorities and the local communities. Such combinations of relations support FTR capacity to increase supply in response to a growth in demand.
3. In case of cyclical change that causes a temporary reduction in fish availability, the ability of traders to find other sources through, e.g., moving to a different location or switching species, maintains the role of the FTR. At the same time, the appearance of new FTR can affect the older FTRs by, for example, influencing price-setting relations between traders. Such responses support the capacity to build new relations and maintain livelihoods within the fishery in the face of cyclical disturbances that influence the availability or supply of fish.

It is important to note that the above “typology” represents the early steps in developing a theory of SSF responses to change, with FTR at its core. We aimed to show that constellations of relations that shape capacities to respond to change can be diverse and highly dependent on the internal characteristics of the FTR and the nature of such change. The relations represented here are not exhaustive and can vary depending on the social or ecological context of the studied SSF. For example, the role of norm-setting and policy-influencing supporting relations in response to slowly emerging opportunities was crucial because of the illegal type of fishing that was associated with the response. Lobbying the authorities and influencing social norms have been important for maintaining illegal fishing activities and growing trade. The nature of change or disturbance can also to a great extent determine which of the supporting relations may play an important role. For example, some of our case studies focused on the abrupt change associated with disruption (policy or disaster-related). However, abrupt change could also represent an opportunity, for example, fishery “booms” that may engage a different set of supporting relations and FTR roles.

Finally, despite the diversity of roles played by the FTR and the supporting relations present in the fishery and contributing to a response, we were able to identify patterns of relations that are relevant across the case contexts, for example, the norm-setting role of FTR and its dependence on trader relations with authorities, or the loan-giving role and the link to the relations with outside patrons. To develop these insights further as a middle-range theory, future research could investigate how these patterns of relations manifest in fisheries exposed to different types of change and disturbances commonly faced by SSF, as well as different socio-cultural or social-ecological contexts that shape internal characteristics of the FTR, such as the social norms that govern them.

Policy implications

The above theoretical insights show that focusing on relations between fishers and traders instead of their individual responses has implications for the design of sustainability policies. This is relevant for policies that could potentially become a source of disturbance (e.g., the seine ban in Kenya case) or could seek to support adaptive processes in a fishery or to increase its resilience to potential disturbances. For instance, to enhance the resilience of a fishery to socio-environmental change it may be useful to consider which roles played by the FTR generate capacities to respond to such change. Additionally, it is important to take into account how such capacities are generated with the support of other relations within the fishery, and which other actors, apart from fishers and traders could be crucial for this process. Thus, policies aiming to support such capacities and their implementation may need to be broader, to take into account, e.g., the relations between traders and the local community, government actors or loan providers as well as social-ecological relations between fishers and their target fish species (Elsler et al. 2023). Finally, such policies must also consider the important role of characteristics of fisher-trader relations, such as trust or social norms that can potentially influence the FTR responses. For example, some FTR may be more responsive to an increase in market demand and can potentially incorporate more fishers within the relation to increase supply. FTR with high mutual trust and well-established relations between traders and a small group of fishers may not be as responsive to market opportunities, but could potentially provide an important buffer, supporting the trading role of the FTR during disruptive change.

FTR are embedded in social and ecological relations between a great diversity of fisheries actors that may influence their responses to disturbance. Short et al. (2021) previously highlighted the diversity of actors in small-scale fisheries and its importance for policy making and ensuring the adaptability of such systems. Our research identifies several key patterns of relations among this diversity that can shape fishery responses to disturbance through various constraining and enabling roles played by relations between fishery actors. Policy for small-scale fisheries needs to not only consider how such patterns of relations may manifest in the context of interventions but also take into account how potentially vulnerable fishery actors may be affected by FTR responses propagated through such patterns.

CONCLUSION

FTR play an important role in the adaptation of small-scale fisheries to economic, institutional, and environmental change. Responding to disruptions, relations between fishers and traders can adapt, absorbing the potential impact of disruptions on fishing, trading, and food provision. Such adaptation may involve trade-offs; change in relations as a result of adaptation can also alter the power balance between the actors or increase their vulnerability. Responding to change that brings potential opportunities, FTR can reinforce it, intensifying key processes within the fishery. Depending on FTR characteristics, responding to such opportunities can also increase inequality among fishery actors. When analyzing how FTR absorb or reinforce change, it is also important to consider the time scale. FTR response can help the fishery adapt to change in the short term, but also potentially destabilize or collapse it in the long term.

We show that to understand how FTR shape fishery responses to change it is useful to look at roles played by FTR within the fishery, their characteristics, and the embeddedness of FTR in other social, ecological, or social-ecological relations. The presence of particular roles (such as loan-giving or price-setting) in combination with relations that support such roles (such as relations between traders and other actors providing loans) can enable adaptive capacities that allow FTR to respond to change. When building theories about the adaptation of small-scale fisheries to global change it is important not only to take FTR into account but also the diversity of roles they play and how such roles can be linked to other relations within the fishery. Our comparative analysis provides a set of initial empirical hypotheses about how such combinations of relations and FTR roles can lead to adaptation through absorbing or reinforcing change. Theory-building research in this field could further expand on these hypotheses and explore other combinations of roles and supporting relations to refine causal mechanisms through which FTR shape fisheries’ responses to global change.

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