Wednesday, June 18, 2025 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM Integrative Learning Center ILCS231
Assessing the Performance of a Program to Strengthen small-scale Fishing Cooperative Functionality in Mexico
in-person
Edward Wintergalen1, Hudson Weaver2, Bibiana Ruiz Gala3, Lorena Ortiz Martinez4, Salvador Rodriguez Van Dyck3, Xavier Basurto5, and Mateja Nenadovic6
1University of Miami, USA; 2Duke University, USA; 3Sociedad de Historia Natural Niparajá A.C., Mexico; 4Confederación Mexicana de Cooperativas Pesqueras y Acuícolas, Mexico; 5Stanford University, USA; 6University of Rhode Island, USA
Small-scale fishing (SSF) cooperatives are more conducive to sustainable resource use, co-governance, and the equitable distribution of economic benefits compared to alternative forms of SSF self-organization. To maintain a functioning cooperative and produce these benefits, cooperative leaders and members must have high levels of administrative capacity and a mutual commitment to cooperative values. However, it remains unclear how and whether cooperatives and governments can promote these qualities to maximize the benefits of cooperative co-governance. To fill this gap, between 2022 and 2023, the National Plan for the Strengthening of Fishing Organizations in Mexico (PNFOP) implemented a pilot program in which six cooperatives in three states (two from Baja California Sur, two from Chiapas, and two from Yucatan) co-designed and participated in a series of training sessions designed to empower them to achieve their collective goals. Using before-after survey data collected from the members of the six participant cooperatives and three control cooperatives, we create several regression models to answer two questions in two stages: i) Is participation in the PNFOP associated with an improvement in cooperative functionality? ii) Among cooperatives who participated, what cooperative- and local-level conditions influence the results of the program? Preliminary results for the first stage analysis show that the participant cooperatives generally experienced greater improvement in functionality compared to the control cooperatives. Results for the second stage suggest that cooperatives’ change in functionality is associated with cooperatives’ region, positively associated with cooperatives’ training session attendance rate, and negatively associated with the cooperative’s initial functionality score. Using these results, we argue that co-designed cooperative strengthening programs have the potential to improve cooperative functionality and, therefore, facilitate SSF conservation, governance, and well-being objectives. We also emphasize that the near-complete participation of cooperatives’ members is necessary to achieve these results.
