Across the Amazon Basin, local fishers and Indigenous communities are leading successful models of fisheries management that restore fish populations, strengthen governance, and support livelihoods. The Atlas of Fisheries Experiences compiles more than 30 cases from Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, offering a regional view of how different communities respond to shared challenges through local agreements, monitoring, and collective decision-making.
Sannie Brum, Amazon Waters’ fisheries specialist, mapping the fisheries experiences together with Amazonian fishermen. Photograph: © Mariana Moscoso / Aguas Amazónicas
The Atlas showcases community initiatives with advances in monitoring and management agreements that guide responsible fisheries use. These approaches have been shaped over time through collaboration and shared knowledge among communities, scientists, and local partners.
In the world’s largest freshwater system, fishing is more than an economic activity — it is food, culture, and a way of living that sustains entire households. Migratory fish travel extraordinary distances across borders. The dorado (Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii), for example, completes a journey of over 11,000 kilometers round trip, connecting territories and people along the rivers it travels.
Within the Atlas, one finds experiences such as the community-based management of paiche (Arapaima gigas) in northern Brazil, where local organization and surveillance have contributed to the recovery of the species while improving family income. Another example highlights the regional recognition of dorado and piramutaba (Brachyplatystoma vaillantii) as priority migratory species, which has encouraged coordinated conservation efforts at basin scale. Every story reflects a shared principle: the conservation of Amazon rivers depends on the active role of the communities who live from them. Their knowledge, organization, and long-term vision sustain freshwater biodiversity and the livelihoods tied to it.
Association of Communities Managing Lakes of the Içá River counting pirarucu fish stocks. Photography: © Guillermo Estupiñán / WCS Brazil
The Atlas is both a compilation of practice and a window to future opportunities. It shows how community-led fisheries management contributes to healthier rivers, more resilient economies, and the continuity of cultural knowledge — and how supporting these efforts strengthens the Amazon as a living, connected system.
