Marcia Moreno-Báez
I am a PhD student in the School of Natural Resources and I am originally from Guaymas, on the Sonoran coast in México. Coming from the Gulf of California ecoregion, I have had the opportunity to work in different organizations focused on natural resources management and conservation. Thus, I looked for the opportunity of bringing the experience and knowledge that the University of Arizona offers to my area of interest.
My research interests' center on the us of geo-spatial tools for decision making in natural resources management and conservation, underlying the use of local knowledge and integration of communities with mapping participation in fisheries management. As the northern Gulfs small-scale fisheries involve not only a wide array of fishing gear, methods, species, but also take place in a variety of habitats and under various socio-political settings, the knowledge of not only researchers but local people, its been crucial to bring adequate tools to fill the gaps in information required for evaluation, design and analysis for different aspects in a multidisciplinary problem. My research involves a general characterization of small-scale fisheries in the northern Gulf of California integrating local knowledge in terms of: (1) key habitat of targeted species; (2) reproductive sites/times of targeted species; (3) spatial-temporal distribution of fishing activities; and western cognition seascape at a level that encompass the development of an in-depth and integrative interdisciplinary approach for research of small-scale fishery management units.
This incorporation of fishermen's local knowledge using geospatial tools is with the aim of designing better strategies for fisheries management plans for the Gulf of California. This shows how geographical information systems (GIS) database are useful to incorporate socio-spatial information, such as local knowledge and artisanal (small-scale) fishing data, along with biophysical data and other information to assist in a small-scale fisheries management plan. I argue that translating peoples' socio-ecological knowledge along with scientific knowledge into geo-spatial data allows researchers to assist in the designing and implementation of resources management strategies in a cost-effective and participatory way, bridging the gap between local and western cognitions of seascapes.
Today, my research has been transformed into an interdisciplinary career focused mostly centered on the creation of tools to access and analyze natural system data - fisheries - working with researchers, users and decision makers for the PANGAS project. Some of the implications on having interaction at different levels are: the incorporation of knowledge and needs from different sectors in society, all speaking one language: spatial!
