Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

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Ocean & Coastal Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ocecoaman

Ornamental reef sh sheries: New indicators of sustainability and

human development at a coastal community level

ndez-Rivera Melo c, a,
Nathalie Germain a, *, Hans J. Hartmann b, Francisco J. Ferna

ctor Reyes-Bonilla a
He

noma de Baja California Sur UABCS, Carretera al Sur, km 5.5, C.P. 23080 La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Universidad Auto
Unit

e Mixte de Recherche Littoral Environnement et Soci

et

es (LIENSs-UMR 7266) CNRS-Universit

e de La Rochelle, Institut du Littoral et de
lEnvironnement, 2 rue Olympe de Gouges, 17000 La Rochelle, France
c
Comunidad y Biodiversidad A.C., Calle Isla del Peruano, #215 Colonia Lomas de Miramar, C.P. 85448 Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico
a

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 27 June 2014
Received in revised form
28 October 2014
Accepted 3 December 2014
Available online

Ensuring sustainable sheries and community development requires integrating and harmonizing the
environmental, social and economic issues which in turn might lead to effective management plans. This
paper describes a new methodology based on the Human Development Index (HDI). We transformed the
HDI to adapt it to local and specic purposes and create a new set of indicators for assessing the sustainability of ornamental sh sheries and the human development at a community level for the inhabitants linked to this activity. We chose a women-owned and operated marine ornamental sh
business located along the coast of the Gulf of California as a study case. Socio-economic data, obtained in
2011 from the women associates and the inhabitants of their coastal community, show that monthly
income and living conditions were still very modest. Results indicated an intermediate development and
nancially unsustainable but ecologically sustainable sheries for the aquarium market. As captures,
based on authorized and managed quotas by the Mexican Government, revealed an under-exploitation, a
participatory SWOT analysis of the ornamental sh cooperative was carried out in order to provide information about the cooperative's current situation which helped to produce future business strategies
to optimize the company's operations in a sustainable way. Our conclusion is that the cooperative is still
young and needs time to stabilize in order to generate enough prots that would enable its women
associates to increase their standard of living while respecting the sustainability of the marine resources.
We also noted that such a business activity can be a good employment opportunity in small communities, regardless of gender, and that its sustainability is closely linked to ecological, and socio-economic
factors.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Many coastal communities of the world rely on marine resources, particularly in developing countries and oceanic islands
where they play a crucial role regarding local food (Lucano-Ramirez
et al. 2001; FAO, 2005a; FAO, 2012). Marine products, such as coral
reef sh, are usually captured for food and represent a key nutrition
for disadvantaged coastal communities. Overall, they constitute an

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (N. Germain), [email protected]
(H.J. Hartmann), [email protected] (F.J. Fern

andez-Rivera Melo), hreyes@
uabcs.mx (H. Reyes-Bonilla).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2014.12.007
0964-5691/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

important source of protein for about one billion people worldwide

(Dalzell and Adams, 1997; FAO, 2005a; Ram-Bidesi, 2008; FAO,
2012). Artisanal or small scale coastal sheries may be carried out

nchez
either as a subsistence activity or for livelihood (Ramrez-Sa
et al. 2011), and beyond food security, they can create jobs.
Indeed, with approximately 260 million people involved globally,
including 6 million reef shers worldwide (Teh et al. 2013), they
provide full and part-time jobs for men, women and children
employed in direct and indirect sectors (Harper et al. 2013; Teh and
Sumaila, 2013), thus contributing to welfare and social develop
nomme

e Patriganni, 2011).
ment in coastal communities (De
In Mexico, where over 90% of the country's boat-eet is engaged

nchez et al. 2011), more than 17
in coastal sheries (Ramrez-Sa

N. Germain et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

million people (15.4% of the total population) live in the 151 coastal
municipalities (INEGI, 2010), and 30% of the citizens reside within
100 km of the coast (SEMARNAT, 2012), artisanal or coastal sheries
remain an important source of income or personal subsistence for

nchez et al., 2011). Migration tolittoral inhabitants (Ramrez-Sa
wards coastal areas of Mexico has increased over the last decades
(SEMARNAT, 2012), with Baja California Sur State showing one of
the highest state population growth rates (INEGI, 2010).
Notwithstanding, some studies, conducted in the Southwest
Pacic (Oceania), indicate the possibility of negative impacts
coming from less traditional commercial businesses, such as
ornamental sh trade, exploiting some coastal resources essential
to the welfare of an entire community (Kronen et al. 2007). Indeed,
economic benets from such a business may favor just a restricted
group of persons or families at the expense of an entire coastal
community, thus creating disparities and conicts over the distribution of income or employment opportunities (Kronen et al.
2007). In fact, concerning ornamental marine sheries, Wabnitz
et al. (2003) noted that shers usually work alone or in small
groups, often consisting of members of a single family, and that
they either work on their own or are employed.

zaro Ca

rdenas
After the Mexican Revolution, under President La
(1936e1940), the government promoted the creation of social organizations for shing (cooperatives) in coastal areas to encourage
the participation of rural people in shing activities and increase

nchez et al. 2011). The latter
their standard of living (Ramrez-Sa
authors mentioned evidence that shing cooperatives involved in
management (as for instance in the northern region of the Baja
California Sur State) improve production and conservation of resources, and socio-economic benets.
The role of women in sheries is important as they can be great
shers, suppliers and sh sellers, yet they are mostly employed by
shing companies, to perform tasks below management level (Teh
et al. 2009; Verebalavu, 2009). Their economic contribution to their
households and communities are rarely investigated (Vunisea,
2007; Verebalavu, 2009). Indeed, their work rarely appears in
sheries sector statistics and/or in socio-economic valuations
(Vunisea, 2007; Harper et al. 2013). In Mexico, women have started
organizing themselves in cooperatives, giving them a voice within
shing communities and governmental spheres through participation in workshops and conferences (Harper et al. 2013). Kronen
and Vunisea (2007) suggested that most available statistics
regarding evaluation of the role of women in developing countries
are at too large of a scale to provide information on women's activities at the community level. Nonetheless, Harper et al. (2013)
showed that Mexican women are more involved in processing,
aquaculture and marketing than in capture sheries, thus indirectly
participating in supporting sher families and communities.
The importance of assessing the sustainability of coral reef
sheries (often data-poor sheries) and managing them to ensure
long-term catches has been widely emphasized (Dalzell and
Adams, 1997; Honey et al. 2010; Fenner, 2012; Fujita et al. 2013).
More recently, Dee et al. (2014) highlight the range of management
techniques currently used or with potential to manage the ornamental coral reef wildlife trade. Moreover, indicators have become
primary tools in implementing principles of sustainable resource
management. Methods assessing relevant indicators have been
developed for particular resource management units, such as forest
management using Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) as a decisionmaking tool (Mendoza and Prabhu, 2003). In fact, MCA has
recently been employed for developing sustainability indicators of
the wild-caught ornamental sh industry (Jayalal and
Ramachandran 2013).
Among the most prominent indicators, the Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite international statistic used

137

worldwide to assess and compare the level of human development

among countries (UNDP, 2010). Its adaptation to national/local
needs has strongly been encouraged, since there is no xed list of
dimensions of human development (Alkire, 2010; Klugman et al.
2011; Zavaleta and Tomkinson, 2011). Such transformations have
already been realized in several countries including Argentina,
Columbia and Costa Rica (UNDP, 2002; UNDP, 2003; UNDP, 2005).
The latter three have modied the United-Nations ofcial HDI to
local variants better tting their objectives (Alkire, 2010).
As for the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
Threats) analysis, it has been developed for enterprises, constituting a rapid decision making tool in case of business instability,
ensuring control in each phase of a company's development, and/or
providing the basic information necessary for internal decision
making (Cadle et al. 2010). Although deciencies and limitations of
the SWOT analysis have been identied (Hill and Westbrook, 1997;
Pickton and Wright, 1998; Valentin, 2005), it continues being used
by business analysts and for studies involving sectors such as
tourism, farming, imagery technology, coastal management and
 and Fierro,
sheries (Hershman et al. 1999; Narayan, 2000; Sano
2003; Terrados, 2005; Aka et al. 2006; Jasinevi
cius and
Petrauskas, 2008; Nouri et al. 2008; Ommani, 2011a, 2011b).
More specically, it has been used to analyze the growth of women
entrepreneurs (Masese Chuma and Kebande Rigworo, 2013), the
ability of shing cooperatives to represent the interests of its
members and to manage changes (EuropAid, 2004), and also to
analyze the ornamental sheries (Sekharan, 2006; Rahman et al.
2009).
On another hand, socio-economic data provide a valuable information base for further investigative analyses, as exemplied by
O'Garra (2012) who conducted an economic valuation of a traditional shing ground on a coral coast of a Pacic Island. Actually, to
reach our investigation's objectives, socio-economic data were also
essential. Indeed, addressing the lack of this kind of information for
a coastal community involved in ornamental sheries in the Gulf of
California, and constituting a basis for the development of a new set
of indicators.
In this paper, we present an innovative methodology to estimate
the sustainability of a marine ornamental sh exploitation conducted in the Gulf of California together with the community-level
human development concerning the inhabitants involved with
ornamental sheries. Moreover, the originality of this paper resides
in the fact that the case study chosen focused on a shing coop
xico. As
erative run only by women, a feature rarely observed in Me
for the SWOT analysis, it complements the results obtained by the
new methodology, giving information about the business situation
of the shing cooperative at the moment of the study and its future
strategies to be adopted to achieve sustainable ornamental
sheries.
2. Study site
The community of Ligi (25
440 1000 N and 111
160 1100 W) is part
of the Municipality of Loreto, Mexican State of Baja California Sur. It
is located about 37 km south of downtown Loreto (head of the
Municipality of the same name), stretching along the east side of
Baja California's main highway, the No.1 Transpeninsular, which
connects Cabo San Lucas (southern tip of the peninsula) to Tijuana
(border with the United States of America). Ligi's beach (about
1 km from the community center) faces the southern part of the
Loreto Bay National Park, situated in the Gulf of California (Fig. 1).
Ligi has 203 inhabitants of all ages (101 males and 102 females)
comprising 121 adults (59 men and 62 women over 18 years old)
and 82 children and young people under 18 years old. It is the third
most populated locality of the Municipality of Loreto (INEGI, 2010).

138

N. Germain et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

Fig. 1. Study site; localization of Ligi Community, B.C.S., Mexico, respect to the district capital (Loreto) and the Loreto Bay National Park (white lines boundaries).

Ligi's streets are composed of dirt. The community has a primary school, a library with computers and Internet access, a sports
eld, an open-sky meeting center and a multi-services convenience
store (food, drugstore, household's items, hardware etc.). All other
services (e.g. hospital, doctors, banks, specialized shops, restaurants) are only accessible in Loreto which also has a small, limitedservices international airport situated 6 km south from the city, in
operation since 1974.
The Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo (located in Ligi) has been
chosen as our study case, because in 2011 it was the only shing
cooperative in Baja California Sur State exploiting ornamental
marine species inside a Natural Protected Area (Loreto Bay National
Park) with permits issued by the government. Established in 2000,
the cooperative, only composed of women, counted 10 associates in
2011, each one with a specic role inside the three organizational
units of the cooperative (administration, production and control).
At that time, there was a total number of 54 species ofcially
registered as ornamental sh, potentially exploitable by this
cooperative, of which 4 species did not have quotas established for
2010-2011. Of the 50 remaining species with quotas, 36 were
exploited by the cooperative during 2010e2011, which represent
67% of the total.
3. Methods
3.1. Socio-economic survey and statistical analyses
In February, March and August 2011, we conducted a survey in
the coastal community of Ligi, obtaining data of 67 adult people in
total (25 years old), all household heads (representing up to 55%
of the Ligi population). The interviewer rst explained to each

respondent his/her role and the purpose of the survey, so that each
person interrogated was aware of the type of data to be collected,
their condentiality and anonymous treatment. Socioeconomic
information about the Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo was obtained
through a structured survey with close-ended questions (numerical, ordinal, categorical, one or multi-choice answers) directed rst
to its 10 women members. Next, 26 homes of Ligi were visited to
submit the heads of household (mostly the spouses) to the same
survey. The information collected concerned this time a total of 57
adults (28 women and 29 men). The questionnaire established
socio-demographic characteristics (such as gender, age, education
levels) household features (number of children and people living in
the household), housing data (e.g. building materials), wealth indicators of the household (salaries, complementary working activity, media-ownership), health indicators (main common
illnesses, health Insurance, medical care and hospitals), and data on
access to public facilities such as schools and utilities (water, electricity) among others. To collect information about shery activity,
we added a semi-structured survey with open-ended questions
(e.g. age at which the persons started to sh, how many years they
were shing, if their father was a sher and if they were part of a
shing cooperative or free shers). The shers were also given the
opportunity to express any other observations or comments not
addressed through that survey. To analyze socioeconomic data
(civil status, education, health, housing and salaries) we used
descriptive statistics with nominal qualitative and quantitative
variables.
Finally, during this same period, we used semi-directive interviews to question the women associates and key people (such as
boat captain, shers who work for the associates and some members of other shing cooperatives only capturing sh for human

N. Germain et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

consumption), all from Ligi or nearby small coastal communities,

in order to know more about past shing conditions, opportunities
of changing a sector of activity, about the status of marine resources
as well as environmental and gender perceptions.
3.2. Human development and sustainability of ornamental sheries
Based on the original Human Development Index (HDI) initially
created by the economists Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen (PNUD,
1990), S

anchez-Brito (2010) developed two related indices: the
Human Development Index linked to Fisheries (HDIF) and the
Sustainable Development of Fisheries Index (SDFI). Since they were
developed specically to analyze non-ornamental (food) sheries
in two coastal communities of Baja California Sur, we decided to
create 2 new indices focused on ornamental sheries: The Human
Development Index linked to Ornamental Fisheries (HDIOF) and
the Sustainable Development of Ornamental Fisheries Index
(SDOFI). The United Nations Development Program recently published a new version of the HDI with changes in its formula and its
sub-indices (Alkire, 2010; UNDP, 2010; Klugman et al. 2011;
Zavaleta and Tomkinson, 2011). We obtained the HDIOF and
SDOFI using a mix between the old and new HDI calculation
methods coupled with the modications of S

anchez-Brito (2010).
We changed some sub-indices to better suit the purpose of our new
indices. In particular, this involved determining the level of sustainability of the ornamental sheries, as well as the level of human
development of the people living in the coastal community and
involved in ornamental shing, using information collected
through the socio-economic structured survey with close-ended
questions. Both indices are applicable to the women of the shing
cooperative Mujeres del Golfo and the shers working for them.
3.2.1. Human Development Index linked to Ornamental Fisheries
(HDIOF)
To obtain the HDIOF, the three sub-indices of the original HDI
formula (Income per capita, Education and Life Expectancy Index)
were replaced by the Economic Index, Schooling Index and Health
System Index, respectively. The HDIOF corresponds to the weighted
sum of the latter three sub-indices because the three dimensions
they represent, economic, educational and health, do not have the
same relative importance in the context of our investigation.

HDIOF 0:5EI 0:1SI 0:4HSI

where:
EI Economic Index;
SI Schooling Index;
HSI Health System Index
Here the Economic Index (EI) carries more weight than the
educational and health indices, respectively. Effectively, without
sufcient nancial resources there is no possibility to access higher
education or benet from high-quality health systems. In addition,
a higher EI would allow an increase in quality of life, contributing to
welfare. The HSI weighting is greater than that for the SI because
health is considered more important for the wellbeing than the

de La Rochelle, pers.
educational level (L. Augier, Universite
Communication).
To calculate the Economic Index, we took into account the
minimum, average and maximum incomes estimated.

EI

lnaverage income  lnminimum income

lnmaximum income  lnminimum income

139

Income in this equation refers to totals of wages, salary and/

or independent income. The minimum and maximum incomes
were estimated using the General Minimum Salary established by

n Nacional
the National Commission on Minimum Wage (Comisio
de los Salarios Mnimos, CONASAMI) of the Secretariat of Labor

n Social, STPS)
and Social Welfare (Secretara del Trabajo y Previsio
of the Mexican Republic in 2011. The minimum value was based on
the minimum wage of the geographic area of Baja California Sur
(BCS), available in pesos/day and converted to pesos/month. At

xico was equal to 2.25 times the
that time, the poverty line in Me
minimum salary, which corresponded to 4037.85 pesos/month. So
to calculate the maximum value, we decided to multiply by 4 the
minimum salary because it almost doubled the poverty line
amount and because we estimated from eld experience that such
an income level meets the basic needs for living decently in the
region. So, the minimum salary calculated for 2011 was 1794.60
pesos/month, based on the 59.82 pesos per day, equivalent to 4.7
dollars, which is insufcient to meet the needs of a family as established by the Constitution of Mexico (WageIndicator Foundation,
2011), and the maximum salary was 7178.40 pesos/month. As
for the average value, it was determined from the incomes
declared during surveys of February, March and August 2011, both
by the women associates of the Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo
and Ligi shermen. It excluded the temporary (part-time, seasonal) shers because shing was a secondary activity for them
and we could not determine the exact proportion of income
linked to it. The average income of the women associates includes
the average income of the shers working for them who are also
member of the former's family, because the shers' incomes are
contributing to the welfare of the women's associates household.
No deation adjustment was made on incomes because we did
not compare over several years, only using data from 2011. The EI
becomes negative when the average monthly income of the interviewees is inferior to the minimum monthly salary estimated
for BCS. Therefore, the resulting value is re-adjusted to a scale
between 0 and 1.
For calculating the Schooling Index (SI) and the Health System
Index (HSI), we included both the women associates and the
interviewed Ligi shermen having medical insurance, including
the temporary shers because they are potentially employable by
the women. The Schooling Index is based on the education level. It
was calculated considering the maximum, average and minimum
years of schooling. The maximum was estimated to be 13 years,
which corresponds to the number of years needed to enter the
University, and zero was a minimum, corresponding to a level
without schooling. The average was calculated for all women associates and all shers interviewed.


N average years  N minimum years
N maximum years  N minimum years

SI

For calculating the Health System Index (HSI), the maximum

value considered was100% and the minimum was 0%. The average
corresponded to the number of persons having health insurance
divided by the total number of persons considered.

HSI

Average % value  minimum % value

Maximum % value  minimum % value

3.2.2. Sustainable Development of Ornamental Fisheries Index

(SDOFI)
The SDOFI formula contains the Economic Index and the
Schooling Index previously obtained, plus an Environmental Index
(EnvI).

140

N. Germain et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

SDOFI 0:6EI 0:15SI 0:25EnvI

where:

NECi No-Exploitation Coefcient of species i

Ci Captures of species i
Qi Quotas of species i
The respective average No-Exploitation Coefcient is the arithmetic mean of the individual no-exploitation coefcients.

EI Economic Index;
SI Schooling Index;
EnvI Environmental Index.

NEC

n
X

NECi =n

i1

The three sub-indices were weighted differentially: the Economic Index has greater weight than either the Schooling or
Environmental Index, especially because we considered that
nancial resources in this context are important for maintaining
the activity and generate benets. The weighting of the Environmental Index is superior to that of the Schooling Index considering
that it integrates sh captures, which represent the base for the
women associates business and are also related to sustainability.
The weighting of the Schooling Index for the SDOFI is higher than
the value used for the HDIOF because we took into account that the
women received support and ecology awareness from the Loreto
Bay National Park and non-governmental organizations, and that
many parents (shers) do not want their children to practice shing
in the future, so they clearly desire a higher level of education for
them.
The Environmental Index (EnvI) was newly dened since

nchez-Brito's (2010) environmental index was created for sh
Sa
species caught for food (using metric ton units and incorporating
data over several shing years), while in the aquarium sh case,
species are harvested and accounted for per individual, and unevenly over a short period of time (concerning in particular the
women's Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo which data were sporadic
before 2011).



EnvI FCEA NEC

FLA



FCEB NEC

FLB

where:
EnvI Environmental Index;
FCEA Financial Contribution to the Earnings of the target
company by species under shing license A, expressed in
percentage;
FCEB Financial Contribution to the Earnings of the target
company by species under shing license B, expressed in
percentage.
NECFLA Average No-Exploitation Coefcient of species under
Fishing License from a Governmental Fisheries Institution or
Department A (FLA);
NECFLB Average No-Exploitation Coefcient of species under
Fishing License from a Governmental Fisheries Institution or
Department B (FLB).
The No-Exploitation Coefcient corresponds to the fraction of
unused quota. It was calculated for each species caught by the
Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo, for both species under SAGARPA
(Secretara de Agricultura, Ganadera, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y

n FLA) permits as under special shing license of
Alimentacio
SEMARNAT (Secretara de Medio Ambiente y Recursos
Naturales FLB), both being Governmental Institutions that deliver

xico.
shing licenses in Me

NECi
where:

Qi  Ci
Qi

The quotas were estimated from the natural mortality of each

sh species, based on the MAQTRAC (Marine Aquarium Trade Coral
Reef monitoring protocol) methodology (Ochavillo and Hodgson,
2006). Fish population parameters for each captured species, i.e.
total and natural mortality (Z and M respectively), asymptotic
lengths (L) and intrinsic growth rate (k), were calculated using
size class data (from juvenile/recruits to adults). More specically,
the parameters (k), (L), (Z) and (M) were obtained with FAO's and
ICLARM's FiSAT II (Fish Stock Assessment Tools). Natural mortality
(M) was determined by Pauly's equation, using the average habitat
temperature in the study site or, in case of lacking data, T 28
C for
tropical seawater conditions.

M 0:8* e0:01520:279

lnL0:6543* lnk0:463* lnT

According to Ochavillo and Hodgson (2006), the percentage of

the population that can be captured is related to the organism's
natural mortality, giving a total allowable catch (TAC) or quota for
species:

Qi TAC eMi

Where :

Mi natural mortality for species i

The inverse of the natural logarithm of the mortality (M) represents a provisional interpretation of a quota expressed in percentage of the standing stock. For each sh species we processed
data derived from underwater visual census to obtain the average
abundance and the density (ind./m2) for each site and transect. The
estimated population was obtained by multiplying the density by
the total area of the substrate (rocky reef) in which the species was
found. As an example, the 2008 shing quotas for Holacanthus
passer were 4.48% of the estimated population (QH.passer TAC H.
(1.5)
4.48).
passer e
For obtaining the Environmental Index, we used catch data of
2010 for the species under special protection SEMARNAT-2010NOM-059, while the other catch data for species under SAGARPA
licenses correspond to the period 2010-2011, because licenses are
valid one year and do not begin in January of each year.
Finally, the HDIOF and SDOFI are expressed within a range between 0 and 1, which permitted to classify them as low, medium or
high human development for the HDIOF, while the SDOFI may be
classied as sustainable, not sustainable or of average sustainability
(Table 1).

Table 1
Range and ratings of the Human Development Index linked to Ornamental Fisheries
(HDIOF) and the Sustainable Development of Ornamental Fisheries Index (SDOFI),

nchez-Brito (2010) and ONU (1992 y 2007).
adapted from Sa

Human Development Index linked

to Ornamental Fisheries (HDIOF)
Sustainable Development of
Ornamental Fisheries Index
(SDOFI)

Range

Classication

0.800e1.000
0.500e0.799
0.000e0.499
0.800e1.000
0.500e0.799
0.000e0.499

High
Medium
Low
Sustainable
Medium sustainability
Not sustainable

N. Germain et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

Information about the sources and the type of data used to estimate each sub-index and for calculating both HDIOF and SDOFI
have been resumed in Table 2.

Table 2
Sources, variables and subjects used for calculating the Human Development Index
linked to Ornamental Fisheries Index (HDIOF) and the Sustainable Development of
Ornamental Fisheries Index (SDOFI).
Indices

Subindices

HDIOF

EI
SI
HSI

Monthly salaries
Years of schooling
Health insurance

Fishers and members

of the shing
cooperative's

SDOFI

EI
SI

Monthly salaries
Years of schooling

Fishers and members

of the shing
cooperative's
Ornamental sh
species

EnvI

Variables

Quotas per sh species

exploited (TAC)
Captures (N
individuals)
Contribution to the earnings
of the target company by
species under shing license
(expressed in percentage)

Subject

Table 3
Personal and housing data resulting from the socio-economic survey conducted in
2011 and directed to the women of the Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo and Ligi
residents.
Mujeres
del Golfo

Ligi
community

10
40
20
10
20
10
9
22
22
33
11
11
9

57
74
23
0
0
0
57
16
42
19
11
7
57

22
22
22
11
11
0
0
33
9

7
9
14
11
9
7
7
49
57

44
56
9

23
75
57

78
22

46
51

10

26

40
40
10
10
0

81
8
0
4
8

60
10
20
10
0
0
0
0

38
42
0
0
4
4
4
4

80
10
0
10
0

81
0
4
4
8

30
70
10

41
52
57

20
80
90

11
52
70

Personal data expressed in percentage (%)

Civil status

Married
Cohabitation
Divorced
Single
Widower

Education

No schooling
Elementary school
Middle school
High school
University

Health

Major diseases
Respiratory
Stomach
Migraines
Diabetes
High blood pressure
Backache
N.A.
None

Sources: Original Human Development Index (HDI) proposed by Mahbub ul Haq and
Amartya Sen (PNUD, 1990); the HDIOF and SDOFI were developed using a mix
between the original and new HDI calculation methods (UNDP, 2010) coupled with
the modications suggested by S

anchez-Brito (2010).

3.3. SWOT analysis

Economy

To determine future development strategies to be adopted by

the producers of ornamental sh, an SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis was organized in
November 2010 through a participatory workshop with the ten
women owners of the shing Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo with a

cnico
methodological approach adapted from Instituto Polite
Nacional (2002) and USDA (2008). Used as a strategic business
tool, it evaluates the internal state of a company (internal situation)
and its competitive position in its market (external situation). The
internal state is composed of two controllable factors (strengths
and weaknesses) while the external situation contains two uncontrollable factors (opportunities and threats) (Cadle et al. 2010).
In general, the SWOT analysis allows companies to know how to
exploit their particular strengths, to take every opportunity, to stop
identied weaknesses and fend off identied threats (USDA, 2008).
It is usually advisable to do a SWOT analysis every year because the
parameters of this analysis are not static but change over time. We
used the SWOT analysis to quickly evaluate and synthesize the
shing cooperative's business situation, which provided useful
complementary information for consolidating the SDOFI and
HDIOF data. As it is based on the participant's judgment, this
analysis is considered qualitative and subjective, because of
diverging personal viewpoints (EuropAid, 2006).

141

Other activities
Yes
No

Father engaged in sheries

Yes
No
Housing data expressed in percentage (%)
Inheritance

n
Housing

4. Results

Wall type
Cinder blocks
Wood
Cinder block-CTS
Cinder block-wood
Cinder block-adobe
Roof type
Crenelated tin sheets (CTS)
Concrete
CTS-concrete
CTS-cardboard
Concreteepalm leaves
Wood-adobe
CTS-palm leaves
Palm leaves
Floor type
Cement
Cement-dirt oors
Cement-tiles
Tiles
Dirt oors
Sewerage system
Latrine
Septic tank
n

4.1. Living conditions of the women associates of the Cooperative

Mujeres del Golfo versus other residents of the Ligi community
For more clarity, we decided to use the term women associates
for the women of the Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo, and to name
the other adults (25 years old) residents of Ligi community as
Ligi residents.
The average age of the population surveyed was 45 years old.
Ligi residents and most of the women associates had similar

Communication

Presence
Telephone
Radio
Television

n number of persons interviewed (25 years old).

Italic represent the number of samplings (houses visited for housing data and
persons interviewed for the rest of the data).

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N. Germain et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

origins: they were native to the state of Baja California Sur (86% and
78% respectively), the remaining 5% and 22% coming from other
Mexican States (Mexico City and the state of Sonora for the women
associates). Two foreign families, representing a total of 7% of the
surveyed Ligi residents families, also lived in the community: one
couple from British Columbia in Canada and one from the United
States of America. They settled in Ligi two and 21 years ago
respectively.
While virtually all of Ligi residents were married or living as a
couple (97%), a relatively high portion (40%) of the women associates were single, divorced or widowed (Table 3).
For the Ligi residents interviewed, we identied 100 offspring
(42 females and 43 males) between 3 and 49 years old while the
women associates had 21 offspring (13 females and 8 males) between 2 and 45 years old. The women associates were 67% to have 1
or 2 offspring while the remaining 33% had 4 offspring; the older
ones were the women who had more offspring representing 38%
between age 31e40 years old and 29% between 41 and 50 years old.
All children of legal school age went to school. Most children
from Ligi were still attending or had attended elementary or
middle school (16% and 7% respectively) followed by those with a
high school or University level (11% and 9%). A large percentage
(51%) of the data are in the non-available category because when
asked, some seniors did not remember or could not detail the
school level of all and each of their children -now adults-having left
Ligi. As for the women associates children, around 52% had an
elementary or middle school level (23% and 29% respectively) while
36% were studying or had studied in high school and at a University
(24% and 12%, respectively), the remaining 12% being children in
kindergarten. There were also two little girls aged 2 and 3 years old
cared for by their own families.
Adult Ligi residents and the women associates had comparable
educational backgrounds: a majority (61% and 55%, respectively)
had elementary or middle school education, while few had
completed high school (11% for each) or had had higher education
(7% -two Mexicans and the U.S. couple- and 11% -one of the women
associates). A considerable proportion in each group (16% and 22%)
had no education (Table 3).
Almost all surveyed inhabitants of Ligi, including the 10
women associates, except the one who was still living in her parents' house, were home-owners. Only two of the 28 families
interviewed were not property-owners and three others said that
despite owning their house they were not yet landowners.
The construction materials used to build Ligi residents and
women associates' houses differ, unless for the oors, where
cement was principally used (up to 81%), tiles and dirt oors
covering all or parts of the remaining surfaces. While the homes of
the Ligi residents were mainly constructed from cinder blocks
(81%), the houses of the women associates were evenly composed
of cinder blocks or wood (40% respectively), the remaining corresponding to cinder blocks walls with a mix of different materials
including corrugated metal sheets, adobe and wood (Table 3). The
Ligi residents' rooftops were mainly fabricated with concrete or
corrugated metal sheets (42% and 38% respectively) while the associate's rooftops mostly consisted of corrugated metal sheets
(60%). Some of the rooftops were combined from materials
including adobe, cardboard and palm leaves.
All houses had running (or piped) water. Most (74%) of the Ligi
residents homes lacked access to an electrical power line, of which
75% were equipped with solar panels for electricity. The 25%
remaining households used gasoline power generators. By contrast,
eight of the ten women associates interviewed had electricity of
which two had solar electricity. Most families in Ligi, including the
women associates, used rewood and gas as fuel (59% and 90%
respectively), whereas the others used only gas (30% and 10%) or

just rewood (7% of Ligi residents). As for sewerage, a majority of

households had septic tanks (52% and 70% for Ligi residents and
the women associates respectively) but latrines were still occupying a high percentage (Table 3). Ligi residents and the women
associates similarly lacked means of communication: only 11% and
20% respectively were connected to telephone landline services. By
contrast, Ligi residents had slightly less radio and television devices in their households than the women associates (52% against
80% and 70% against 90% respectively; Table 3).
Most Ligi residents, including all the women associates, had a
health protection (95%). The Seguro Popular, an insurance
scheme belonging to the Mexican Health Social Protection System

n Social en Salud, SPSS), which aims to pro(Sistema de Proteccio
vide health services to people not afliated to conventional
Mexican social security services (i.e. for jobless or very low income

mez Dante

s and Ortiz, 2004; CESOP, 2005) was the
persons, Go
most common medical coverage (54%) while social protection for
workers (such as the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, IMSS,
and the Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado, ISSSTE) represented only 34% altogether. It is
worth mentioning that both foreign couples had social protection
from their respective countries (7%), and that two Ligi residents,
despite the access to universal health insurance, had no social security at all (representing 4%). A good proportion of the habitants,
including the women associates, said generally not catching any of
the common diseases or infections year round (49% and 33%
respectively). Of the others, about 21% and 44% respectively said to
suffer from respiratory infections or migraines. Others indicated
stomach problems, diabetes and high blood pressure. Relatively
few Ligi residents (10.5%) specied being affected by several
combined health problems (Table 3).
Unemployment among Ligi's respondents (25 years old) was
high (44%, Fig. 2). Moreover, the two foreign couples were retired
(7%) and did not have any economic activity. Jobs consisted of
public services (18%), trades work or road works, the latter being
temporary jobs. The main labor activity still was the shery (19%,
Fig. 2), especially if taking into account that 25 of the 29 men
interviewed were either fully or temporarily involved in this activity or had been shers in the past. Even so, the father of 51% of
Ligi residents did not or had not worked in sheries. This contrasts
with the 78% of the women associates' fathers who were engaged in
sheries.
The average age at which the Ligi shers began to sh was 17
years, the median being 15 years. Those shers had an average 21
years of shing experience. By comparison, the average age at
which the women associates began to work in sheries (i.e. starting
the ornamental shing cooperative) was 29.6 years, but half of
these members started younger than this average.

Fig. 2. Major working activities and employment status of the residents of the Ligi
community.

N. Germain et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

143

Fig. 3. Income range of the shers versus other activity sectors for the residents of the Ligi community (in pesos/month) in 2011.

Fig. 4. Income range of female associates of the ornamental sh cooperative Mujeres del Golfo (in pesos/month).

Undoubtedly linked to the high unemployment rate, it is not

surprising that most of the inhabitants of this coastal community
had no regular income (45%) as shown in Fig. 2. Ligi residents not
working in the sheries sector were those with the highest income
(Fig. 3): of those, 59% earned more than 4000 pesos/month against
only 36% for shers. The shermen had the lowest income with
totals below or equal to 4000 pesos/month (63%). While 75% of the
working Ligi residents only had one job, some inhabitants (23%)
declared to be engaged in other temporal activities. The maximum
value observed (from 8001 to 10 000 pesos/month) corresponded
in fact to a sum of income from complementary work by one
sherman.
By comparison, a large percentage (56%) of the women associates earned relatively little, between 0 and 500 pesos/month, 33%
of them earned 500 to 1500 pesos/month and 11% earned 2400
pesos/month or more (Fig. 4). The latter was essentially due to the
fact that 44% of them had a complementary/temporary activity to
that of the ornamental sheries.
4.2. Sustainability of ornamental sheries and level of human
development linked to this activity (SDOFI and HDIOF indices)
The Economic Index (EI) of the women associates was lower
(0.21) than that of the Ligi shermen (0.37, Table 4), primarily
because the women associates average salary (2408 pesos/month)
was less than that of Ligi shermen (3011 pesos/month). For both
groups taken together, the Economic Index was 0.28 (Table 4),
reecting a weighting towards the lower income levels.
The Schooling Indices of the women associates and the Ligi
shermen were similar (0.53 and 0.55 respectively, with a

combined score of 0.54, Table 3). It is noteworthy that the highest

level of education (13 years) had been obtained by one of the
women associates, who was the only one that had attended University courses.
Concerning the Health Systems Index (HSI), the women associates obtained the maximum score (1.00) because they all had
medical coverage. For the Ligi shermen and the temporary
shers, the value was slightly lower because only 93% of them had
insurance; the other ones had not signed up for insurance despite
access to it for everyone. Overall, the value found for the HSI was
0.96.
For the Environmental Index (EnvI), we considered a total of 36
sh species (Table 5) composed of 4 species under special protection (NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010) which represent about 80% of
the nancial gains of the shing cooperative Mujeres del Golfo in
2010, and 32 species under shing license from SAGARPA corresponding to the remaining 20%, giving FCEA 0.80 (SEMARNAT)
and FCEB 0.20 (SAGARPA). It is noticeable that 18 of the 50 sh
species listed in the SAGARPA shing license were not captured by
the cooperative, of which 4 did not even have dened quotas:
Acanthablemaria crockeri, Opistognathus punctatus, Rypticus bicolor
and Spheroides annulatus. Overall, the EnvI of the women associates
and the Ligi shermen resulted equivalent (EnvI 0.55 for both)
because this index only rely on the women's business (ornamental
sh captures).
Finally, for both groups, the resulting HDIOF and SDOFI indices
classied as medium (HDIOF 0.58) and not sustainable
(SDOFI 0.34) respectively (cf. Tables 4 and 1). They resulted
relatively lower for the women associates (0.56 and 0.34, respectively) than for the Ligi shermen (0.61 and 0.44).

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N. Germain et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

Table 4
Details of results for the Human Development Index linked to Ornamental Fisheries (HDIOF) and the Sustainable Development of Ornamental Fisheries Index (SDOFI).
EI Economic Index, SI Schooling Index, EnvI Environmental Index, HSI Health System Index; MG Mujeres del Golfo (including the Ligi shermen working for them
who are also member of the respective MG family).

Table 5
Ornamental sh species exploited by the Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo and their respective quotas (number of individuals) for 2010e2011 that were taken into account for
the Environmental Index (EnvI) calculation (one of the three SDOFI sub-indices).
Family

Species

Quotas

Family

Species

Quotas

Pomacentridae
Haemulidae
Apogonidae
Apogonidae
Labridae
Tetraodontidae
Chaenopsidae
Chaetodontidae
Pomacentridae
Pomacentridae
Cirrhitidae
Cirrhitidae
Tripterygiidae
Diodontidae
Gobiidae
Muraenidae
Muraenidae
Labridae

Abudefduf troschelii
Anisotremus interruptus
Apogon pacicus
Apogon retrosellab
Bodianus diplotaenia
Canthigaster punctatissima
Chaenopsis alepidota
Chaetodon humeralis
Chromis atrilobata
Chromis limbaughia,b
Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus
Cirrhitus rivulatus
Crocodilichys gracilis
Diodon holocanthus
Elacatinus punticulatus
Gymnomuraena zebra
Gymnothorax castaneus
Halichoeres chierchiae

3998
119
292
16
4589
3388
294
175
3670
1727
1511
21
274
160
1309
8
27
1799

Labridae
Pomacanthidae
Chaetodontidae
Pomacentridae
Holocentridae
Bleniidae
Opistognathidae
Serranidae
Pomacanthidae
Acanthuridae
Holocentridae
Scorpaenidae
Serranidae
Pomacentridae
Pomacentridae
Balistidae
Labridae
Labridae

Halichoeres dispilus
Holacanthus passera
Johnrandallia nigrirostris
Microspathodon dorsalis
Myripristis leiognathus
Ophioblennius steindachneri
Opistognathus rosenblatiia,b
Paranthias colonus
Pomacanthus zonipectus a
Prionurus punctatus
Sargocentron suborbitalis
Scorpaena mystes
Serranus psittacinus
Stegastes avilatus
Stegastes rectifraenumb
Sufamen verres
Thalassorna grammaticum
Thalassoma lucasanum

5471
4963
206
619
224
31
79
6396
370
2604
75
16
1271
28
6254
366
47
16136

a
b

Species under special protection (NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010).

Endemic species. Data source: INFOMEX Gobierno Federal.

4.3. Current status of the ornamental species enterprise and future

development strategies
The SWOT matrix obtained through the participatory workshop
with the women associates disclosed the ornamental shing cooperative's situation for 2010 corresponding to the women's own
perception of the shery activity they were then developing in
terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
The 10 women associates emphasized that their greatest
strength was their high motivation from the start and that they
themselves owned their business. They highlighted that the
Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo was legally constituted and generated direct and indirect jobs in Ligi, with young people interested
or already working for them. They owned their working equipment
such as 3 boats and one transport truck as well as capture and
maintenance materials (nets, buckets, pails, tanks etc.) and also
possessed the needed infrastructure for packing the organisms i.e. a
covered open space (palapa) and a premise equipped with water

pumps and electricity. Moreover, they were proud of having staff

trained for underwater monitoring, packaging and data collection
for the management of the targeted and caught species. Another
strong point was that they had developed direct trade agreements
with national and international exporters, resulting in a short
commercial chain with a reduced number of intermediaries. Finally,
they specied their strategic alliances with the Loreto Bay National
Park and some non-governmental non-prot organizations (Community and Biodiversity A.C., Rare, Reef Check California).
Concerning weaknesses of their business, the women associates
indicated that staff was still insufcient for administrative work
and production, that they lacked proper ofce equipment such as a
computer and printer as well as fax and internet service. They also
specied that they yet required training in administration and
enterprise computing, or in project management. They highlighted
that for them it was important to have English language courses as
most of their business was done with the international export
market. Another weakness was that they did not have an ofce or

N. Germain et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

their own meeting room, because in Ligi there was a lack of

adequate infrastructure for their administrative and business activities, worsened by the lack of telephone service and incomplete
access to an electric power grid throughout the community. Finally,
they judged that the capital of their company was still insufcient.
Regarding opportunities, the women associates agreed that
there was a real capacity for local employment given the number of
shermen in Ligi potentially interested in working for them. They
felt that such employment could increase the production while
reducing illegal shing and possible conicts inside the community. Moreover, they indicated that there was a large potential
market as of yet inaccessible (due to lack of material, equipment,
staff and appropriate methods) and that there was a possibility of
market diversication, multiplying the number of direct purchasers. In addition, they pointed out that a system of certication
of ornamental species was being planned, in collaboration with an
NGO of the United States (Reef Check California). Finally, to make up
for the lack of training, they claimed to have opportunities to take
courses and trainings to improve the management of their cooperative through interventions of certain civilian organizations.
Concerning the threats, the global economic crisis situation and
international laws were factors of apprehension for the women
associates, because they were likely to change at any time. Their
uncertainty concerned, for instance, a possible import ban for some

145

ornamental products in certain countries. Their feeling of insecurity

was reinforced by the worry about the sh price uctuations due to
the inconstancy of interest from hobbyists towards ornamental
marine species in the national and international markets. According to the women associates, extreme natural events (hurricanes,
~ o or Nin
~ a) or environmental impacts
storms and events of El Nin
(such as marine pollution) represented threats to the success of
their business. Another negative point was the inability to transport
their sh by air from an airport closer to Ligi e such as Loreto
Airport (33 km) or La Paz Airport (315 km) lacking adequate vet
del Cabo Airport
erinary export facilities e instead of San Jose
(488 km). Moreover, they also feared potential future changes

del Cabo regarding
imposed by the airport authorities of San Jose
the conditions of sh maintenance in storage areas. Conversely, the
women associates mentioned the lack of government supervision,
indicating the existence of unfair competition in the region, thus
evoking the illegal market, and hinting at possible corruption for
obtaining permits.
Finally, the women associates provided strategies for maximizing strengths and opportunities, and minimizing weaknesses
and threats (Fig. 5). While some of them would be difcult to
execute or depend of a third party, a number of them have already
been implemented since 2011 and others are in a concept/assessment phase (see discussion).

Fig. 5. SWOT matrix schematization, based on results from a participatory workshop (2011) with the women associates of the ornamental shing Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo.
Each one of the four units is composed of the various strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O) and threats (T) identied and linked together to form the strategies to be
adopted. Coop. Cooperative.

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N. Germain et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

5. Discussion
Ligi, a traditional small shing village of Baja California Sur,
currently faces infrastructure deciencies that hinder improvement
of community and human development. Electricity provided by the
district municipality does not extend to the entire community,
affecting part of Ligi's families. As a result, those families have
been looking for alternative energy, such as solar (74%) and gas
(26%). The women associates are somewhat better connected to the
electricity grid, as only two of their ten houses depend entirely on
solar electricity. While solar power equipment per se represents an
environmentally positive step, panels installed and offered by the
government do not have sufcient capacity to supply electrical
appliances which consume a lot of power such as refrigerators,
washing machines or irons.
The excessive jobless rate observed is essentially due to women
who are housewives (44%). Excepting the women associates of the
ornamental sh cooperative, just one woman of Ligi has a steady
job (school teacher) and three attend their own small shop/store, a
business activity that allows pursuing home duties in parallel. But
for the majority who don't have a job, many consider home and
child care as a job in itself. Ligi is not affected by the large Mexican
migrations from the continent to the state of Baja California Sur
(INEGI, 2010; SEMARNAT, 2012). Nor is it affected by foreign migrations since it has so far attracted few foreigners as permanent
residents, which are one Canadian and one U.S. couple, who resided
in Ligi for a few months per year for many years before settling
permanently. Both families are now well integrated and accepted in
the community.
Nonetheless, changing the professional activity from shing to
the tertiary sector (Public Services, Construction) seems to have
increased the living standard of certain Ligi residents since 58% of
their incomes were between 4000 and 8000 pesos/month against
63% of shers with incomes ranging from 0 to 4000 pesos/month
(cf. Figs. 2 and 5). Moreover, the new construction trend of cement
block houses in the community, as compared with the traditional
wood/adobe walls, seems to show that the current economic gains
allowed Ligi residents a gradual improvement of their living
conditions. Although a majority possessed a television (90% and
70%), a device commonly perceived as modern comfort besides
providing access to news or cultural and educational programs, as
does the radio, many of the residents have no home access to any
media. Effectively, the women associates and the Ligi residents did
not have a land-line telephone (80 and 89% respectively) nor radio
(20% and 44%). Whereas not having radio might be a choice, the
lack of telephone service is mostly due to the absence of land-line,
satellite coverage or mobile phone antennas. The only telephone
existing in Ligi is a satellite phone in possession of one of the
women associates, but everybody in the village can use it for
emergency situations.
As a way to evaluate a specic human development linked to
ornamental sheries as well as the sustainability of this professional activity, the HDIOF and SDOFI gave interesting results. Since
their nal scores depend on changes in the three indicators that
compose them, we discuss these results in detail to understand
how the indices can uctuate.
The Economic Index (EI) of the women associates (0.21) affects
the HDIOF which scored medium by human development standards (cf. Tables 1 and 4). This condition was not only reected by
their incomes (cf. Fig. 5) but also by their life conditions (home
construction materials and access to goods and services in Ligi, cf.
Table 3). The women associates income from shing was very low
(between 0 and 1500 pesos/month for 89% of them) because most
of them only worked part time in the shing business (one to four
days/month). To compensate, they pursued complementary work,

often temporary or subject to yearly change. Thus, the maximum

income recorded for the women associates corresponds to the
revenue of one woman working at an enterprise outside of Ligi. In
fact, her remuneration from the Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo for
packaging ornamental species represents an extra gain, whenever
she can be present. Indeed, many aspects of our survey show that
elementary living conditions prevail in Ligi since a signicant
percentage of houses are very modest (houses with wooden walls,
dirt oors and tin roofs) and lack wastewater collection or treatment (use of latrines). Almost everybody in the community uses
gas and rewood for cooking, because they are the cheapest and
most accessible materials. In fact, wood is part of the customs of
cooking preparations in 66% of the households.
The Health System Index (HSI) was very high thanks to the

xico,
creation of the Seguro Popular Health Program in 2003 in Me
allowing people of limited nancial resources to have health insurance. Nonetheless, access to basic health care in Ligi remains
difcult, as a doctor comes just once a week for consultations and
the nearest city, Loreto, is over 37 km away. Although most of the
women associates and the Ligi residents said not to suffer from
any disease, some of them claimed being affected by common illnesses. Respiratory problems and migraines might be attributed to
dust from dirt roads, to the meteorology of the region often affected
by high winds (many villagers frequently get a common cold), and/
or to working conditions during shing trips. Other disorders reported might be infections due to environmental pollution, poor
hygiene or consumption of water or food contaminated by bacteria,
although tap water is chemically treated (mainly chlorine).
The observed Schooling Index (SI) corresponds to a secondary
school level, on average, so most people could be considered
literate. Nevertheless, many shers began to work early
(median 15 years), thus leaving secondary school before
completing it. Conversely, many parents now encourage their
children to realize major studies. A school level augmentation can
clearly be seen, as young people go to school and college in much
higher numbers than formerly their parents. Considering that some
young people in the community were interested in working for the
Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo and that these children attend or
completed a school level higher than their parents, the SI may likely
tend to increase in the future and so we predict that the HDIOF
should also increase in upcoming years.
If the SDOFI is classied unsustainable it is essentially due to the
low Economic Index (overall EI 0.28). As seen above, this value is
based on the incomes of the women associates and the shers who
work for them, being indeed at a very low level for the women
associates only (EI 0.21). By the time of this investigation, the
women's cooperative did not generate sufcient benets to allow
their associates to pay themselves a higher salary. One might then
ask why the women continue ornamental shing. By choosing the
ornamental shery sector as main activity the women might have
been inuenced by a family heritage factor since 78% of them
revealed that their father was engaged in shing against 46% for the
other Ligi residents. However, our interviews also disclosed that
the tendency to follow the parents' footsteps is not reected
anymore in the new generation.
Interestingly, while our survey results show a substantial proportion of the population still engaged in shing as their main
source of economic resources (to 34%) the interviews clearly
demonstrate that the community currently is heading towards a
transition phase away from a primary sector (shing) to secondary
and tertiary sectors (road construction industry, Public Services and
tourism). Indeed, a change of mind was noticed, expressed by the
desire of the current parent generation for a change of activity for
their children, away from sheries. In other words, in answer to the
question if the parents would like their children continue

N. Germain et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

professional shing, very few were willing to transmit their

knowledge about shing to their children. Generally they now
prefer their children to choose the tertiary sector. For instance,
adults would want to develop eco-touristic activities involving
diving and boat tours to the closest islands, or horse-riding in the
proximate hills for which their children or they themselves could
work as guides. Such a desire may be encouraged by external factors like the construction of a luxury 4 stars hotel (Villas del Palmar)
which opened in May 2011 in the Bay of Ensenada Blanca, 4 km
south of Ligi. Even though this hotel employs few people from
nearby communities, mostly low-level jobs, it is seen by the villagers as a good community development opportunity because it
might attract tourists curious about the hotel's surroundings, offering them to develop tourism-related businesses.
Concerning the Environmental Index, its value (EnvI 0.55)
indicates an intermediate sustainability, but it could increase
relatively easily due to the apparent under-exploitation of the resources. Effectively, the No-Exploitation Coefcient positively affects this index: with declining shing, EnvI levels increase and
thus also the SDOFI, thereby making the ornamental sheries
relatively more sustainable. Conversely, by capturing less, the gains
will be scarcer, which will negatively affect the economic index (EI)
and thus SDOFI. Nevertheless, in 2009e2010, only 8% of the quotas
of the species under the SAGARPA permit and 41% of the quotas of
specially protected species (SEMARNAT permit) were exploited. On
the other hand, catch can be zero due to external factors such as bad
weather, pollution, ecological issues (loss of richness, diversity and
abundance of the marine resources) or no demand. A solution to
optimize the opposing trends of EnvI and EI, without radically
increasing the exploitation rate of the protected species, would be a
moderate increase in the percentage of quota shed, combined
above all with a diversication of shery products and buyers,
product certication, and development of an annex or secondary
activity in other professional sectors. On the other hand, uctuations of the ornamental sh prices in the market are not reected in
the salaries but could become part of a further improvement of the
SDOFI formula, by adding a variable to the EI.
As explain by OGarra (2012), although more income is probably
a good thing, the focus on increasing income may, in some cases, have
a negative effect. Indeed, we can imagine that if the women associates reached important nancial benets, not only will they
obtain sufcient income for personal development but they could
also inject more money into their business, developing it perhaps to
excess, which then could become unsustainable. For example, the
purchase of bigger boats could result in a larger storage capacity for
sh, which might increase exploitation rates, or the women associates could invest in more technical diving material which may
enable them to increase pressure on specic target species that for
instance inhabit slightly deeper areas. Optimization scenarios for
the SDOFI would help to dene the limit for the economic development of the shing Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo. They would
allow to evaluate if moving from a small/micro-enterprise (as it is
actually the case) to a macro-enterprise would be viable and at
what level it would cease to be sustainable.
Hence the importance of evaluating the current state of the
ornamental sh company that could provide a framework for
further studies. The SWOT analysis provided the framework for
such an evaluation, by assessing the condition of the Cooperative
Mujeres del Golfo at a given moment. It gave the Cooperative the
opportunity to take stock of their business and establish strategies
that could be adopted for future sustainable development plans. In
fact, while some strategies are, at the time of writing, still in a
concept/assessment phase or in a pilot phase, others have meanwhile been implemented, meaning that the SWOT analysis was
useful since actions have been taken subsequently.

147

This is particularly the case for some strategies which could have
been detected and classied via the Ansoff method d a business
strategy tool usually recommended as a follow-up of the SWOT
analysis because it provides a set of strategic alternatives (Cadle
et al. 2010) d which were obtained here through the SWOT analysis. They could then have been categorized according to the Ansoff
matrix into Market Penetration (increasing sales efforts and revisiting prices), Product Development (adding new sh species or
invertebrates organisms in the sale list) and Diversication
(working with other species group, such as sea cucumbers, for
other markets). The strategies still in a concept/assessment phase
can be arranged into Market Development (diversifying direct
buyers and opening markets with other countries) and Diversication (developing value-added products like canned marine
products). Diversifying the buyers would guarantee a better income
to the women associates, provided those are direct importers, thus
limiting intermediaries, and potentially installing between the two
or several parties competitiveness benecial to the selling price of
the Cooperative's products.
Other strategies are at a pilot phase, notably the creation and
implementation of certication for ornamental species involved in
the trade. Certication would give the traded individuals an added
value for coming from sites that count with regulations about
capture methods (whose techniques do not harm the species or the
marine environment) and harvesting rates (which preserves sh
stock). It could thus limit the risk of effects of currency uctuations
in the market for such species. It would also allow traceability
regarding the organisms origin, which combined to alliances with
other shing cooperatives, would minimize the illegal market and
unfair competition (Roheim et al. 2001; Gardiner and Viswanathan,
2004; Shuman et al. 2004; FAO, 2005b; Sainsbury, 2010). Finally,
diversifying direct buyers as well as certifying products could make
the aquarium hobbyists aware of the species coming from Ligi.
Moreover, partnerships with civil society organizations and nogovernmental organizations represent a strength for the Cooperative because it outbalances its weaknesses by providing assistance
in various aspects (e.g. administrative, managerial) of the company.
Moreover, the women associates motivation, the work equipment
and infrastructure already acquired, as well as the training already
provided by these organizations, reinforce the cohesion of their
group and may mitigate their lack of knowledge in a foreign language (English) or of insufcient staff and ofce equipment.
In a near future, it might be interesting to conduct a gap analysis
(CARE, 2007), which compares actual vs potential performance of a
company (business requirements or expectations vs current capabilities), in order to reveal areas that can be improved, given the
results of the HDIOF and SDOFI indices. The gap analysis might help
the Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo to make the best possible
choices regarding the investments of its benets, i.e. to produce or
perform sustainably according to its production possibilities. The
advantage of such an analysis is that it can be carried out at a
strategic as well as an operational level of an organization.
6. Conclusion
Despite the fact that the Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo, only
directed by women, is still young and needs time to stabilize, our
investigation show that it may have the potential to contribute to
the socio-economic development of Ligi in the near future, since
the women associates are not just employing people from their
own families but also others coming from Ligi and adjacent
communities, regardless of gender. Although an effect on the
quality of life of the other residents of Ligi can be seen, none can so
far be measured and exclusively be assigned to the Cooperative
Mujeres del Golfo. Our investigation (through the SWOT analysis)

148

N. Germain et al. / Ocean & Coastal Management 104 (2015) 136e149

also suggests that this cooperative has the potential to continue to

explore new strategies and a better use of resources, helping to
generate prots that will enable its members to increase their
standard of living without overshing, ie. in respect of environmental conservation criteria.
Before the creation of the Loreto Bay National Park, all coastal
communities in the area were primary shing communities. Since
then, a change of the sector of activity of the inhabitants of Ligi
(away from shing) as well as an evolution of their mentality towards the protection and conservation of the environment has
been noticed. Weaver et al. (2004), analyzing a Mexican workshop
directed to shers in 2003, already revealed that the interest of the
coastal communities (thus by extension the sher's interest) about
Protected Natural Areas (PNA) and responsible shing is not
negligible since 35.7% of the workshop's participants asked for
more information about them, and 88% felt more apt to participate
in sheries management after their experience at this workshop.
The Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo is the only one with licenses for
ornamental sheries inside the Loreto Bay National Park, essentially to avoid an uncontrollable sh exploitation and conicts for
the resources. The women associates' environmental education and
awareness we observed during the interviews, gained from training
by public institutions, civil organizations and no-governmental
groups, combined with what they already know by their own
experience and/or knowledge transferred from father/husband to
daughter/wife, might have allowed them to conceptualize a model
of species exploitation respectful of the resources and their environment. The notion of gender is also interesting, as only a handful
of women in the community made the decision to get together and
had the courage to start their own business, becoming almost the
only women to have a job in Ligi.
The creation of both the HDIOF and the SDOFI demonstrate the
utility of linking ecological and socio-economic studies in order to
improve sustainable management of the exploitation of marine
resources. Moreover, SDOFI formula includes a species-specic TAC
method which, as discussed by Dee et al. (2014), remain underutilized although they represent a good practice for the ornamental
shery management. Thus, the indices represent not only a step
forward in the determination of the sustainability of ornamental
sh sheries and human development of the people involved in
this type of shery in coastal communities, but also a new and
adaptable methodology that could be used widely countries where
human development and the sustainability of the ornamental sh
sheries are an issue.
Acknowledgements
Nathalie Germain was supported by the Consejo Nacional de

xico. This work was partially
Ciencia y Tecnologa (CONACyT) of Me
supported by the laboratorio de Sistemas Arrecifales of the Uni
noma de Baja California Sur (UABCS) which accorded
versidad Auto
a nancial help for the travels to the study site and an economic
assistance during the eldwork, and by the LIENSs Research Center
of the University of La Rochelle for manuscript preparation. Special
thanks to the women of the Cooperative Mujeres del Golfo for
their cooperation and ornamental sh data, as well as to all the
inhabitants of Ligi community, without which this study could not
have been done. Many thanks to all people who participated in
some way to the realization of this paper, in particular Laurent
Augier (U. La Rochelle) for his suggestions about the weighting of
the HDIOF and SDOFI indices and their sub-indices, for their insights on this study, and for the others for their guidance and
enlightening discussions on this topic. Our nal thanks go to the
three anonymous reviewers for their highly constructive criticisms
to improve the contents und structure of this paper.

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