The limits of the divergence between popular knowledge and experts: The debate around the conservation of the franciscana dolphin and the sustainable fishing practices

Abstract

In this article, we analyze equivocations between conservation experts and artisanal fishers during a workshop on sustainable fishing practices. The workshop discussed practices for mitigating the bycatch of a species of dolphin. Conservation experts consider themselves and local communities through a double standard: they are authorized spokespersons for threatened species whereas fishers do not appreciate the threatened species enough, being pejoratively dubbed as opportunistic, seeking only to maximize profit. Although expert knowledge is legitimized with the participation of artisanal fishers in the workshop, fishers are discourage from making claims and proposals. This article aims to achieve a dialogic conservation practice in which the practices, feelings, and opinions of fishers are taken seriously.

Keywords:
Conservation biology; Environmental anthropology; Interdisciplinarity; Threatened species; Cosmopolitics; Fishing; Pontoporia blainvillei