A gestão sustentável da pesca diante do cenário geopolítico global: contribuições para a oceanopolítica brasileira

Abstract

Fisheries management in Brazil faces challenges such as: deficit in the trade balance, low per capita consumption of fish, dependence on unemployment insurance, conflicts with elements of marine environmental management, illegal foreign fishing in Brazilian jurisdictional waters (AJB), limited national industrial fleet, and below-potential mariculture. The hypothesis of the thesis is that although fishing is listed as an element of national maritime power, it is not, in fact, yet incorporated into the strategy of Brazilian oceanopolitics. The need to increase sustainable production, contributing to food security, justifies the study of management and the projection of fisheries beyond AJB. Starting from the theoretical framework of classical geopolitics, with the law of the sea expressed in the Montego Bay Convention serving as a guiding element, national policies related to the theme are analyzed: environment; sustainable development of aquaculture and fisheries; and sea resources. The data were obtained from the official Federal daily newspaper, the CAPES Periodical Portal, and the pages of the federal government, with details requested from the Electronic System of the Citizen Information Service (e-SIC). After survey of the legal-institutional framework, gaps in the management of activities that cross AJB borders are presented: Brazilian participation in the management of migratory fishing resources in the Atlantic, with neighboring countries, in Antarctica and in the High Seas; combating illegal foreign fishing in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ); and, control of invasive exotic species that enter the EEZ and the Territorial Sea and can cause negative impacts to the “Blue Amazon” and to fishery resources. Given the complexity of the problem at the national and international levels, comparative elements of fisheries management are analyzed, with a focus on government research institutions in the following countries: Argentina, Chile and Peru, fisheries nations in South America; the emerging countries of the BRICS; Portugal, with strong cultural and technological proximity to Brazilian fishing; and the United States, one of the countries that lead research in fisheries management. Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and from the official websites of the respective governments are used. It’s concluded that the countries that have a large production and a developed industrial ocean fishing, have created institutes of excellence in fisheries research, enabling the supply for the management of robust historical series of extensive marine areas. In this sense, fisheries management, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA) should increase its participation in the Interministerial Commission for the Resources of the Sea (CIRM), mainly seeking to integrate actions with the environmental management, such as continuity the Program for Assessing the Sustainable Potential of Living Resources in the ZEE (REVIZEE). In the international field, Brazil would need to increase participation in Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (OROPs). It’s suggested that the country fosters a national fisheries research institute, generating complex information on economics, technology, bioecology, mariculture, and continuous assessment of stocks in the South Atlantic and Antarctica, equipped with a large fishing research vessel, with support of the Brazilian Navy