Introduction: Amazon fisheries

Abstract

Twelve years ago, a session on aquatic resources was organized during the first várzea conference. The articles presented in this session focused exclusively on fish resources, and analyses were based on only two study areas. The potential of community-based management for sustainable use of aquatic resources dominated the discussions. Twelve years later, the second várzea conference organized a similar session on aquatic resources. Some resemblances between the sessions could be noted, including familiar authors, research areas, and topics. The differences, however, are worth noting, among them the inclusion of floodplain resources other than fish. Community-based management again dominated the discussion but the second conference featured more critical analysis of its potential and limitations since after years of practical experience, several initiatives are evaluated. In general the chapters in this section show that significant progress in theory, methods, and practice was achieved in the last decade. Several issues remain to be better explored, including monitoring problems, and the availability of very limited data on co-management processes for making policy decisions. Scale also remains an issue, as do a series of land tenure issues.