WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • MARCH 2023 25 and farm responsibilities without too great of a time or labor burden (Rainville et al. 2017). Perhaps more importantly, women’s participation is generating control over assets and leadership, which in turn is building empowerment. At the household level, their participation in decision-making related to farm management, such as making investments, purchasing inputs and obtaining credit, is high; 56 percent make these decisions together with their partner and 15 percent do it alone. They also participate in decision-making related to the use of income generated from fish farming: 69 percent of them make decisions together with their partner and 10 percent make these decisions themselves (Dulón and Hinojosa 2022). Women are also prominent in aquaculture retail with 65 percent of businesses managed by women, usually market stalls but some restaurants as well (Dulón and Hinojosa 2022). Women have thus become key income earners for their family, which has contributed to building women’s empowerment in their household and community (Rainville et al. 2017). The development of aquaculture is also increasing off-farm and urban employment opportunities for women as well. Women work at aquaculture-related businesses, as cooks and servers at restaurants and as stall workers at markets. Although incomes from these jobs vary, they provide a net increase in employment for women and can offer a diversity of benefits such as room and board, flexible work hours and work close to home, all of which can benefit women in difficult circumstances. In some places women have taken on leadership roles in aquaculture governance and business. One example is APNI (Asociación Piscicultura Norte Integrado), a women-led aquaculture producer association that governs and organizes members towards a sustainable and inclusive aquaculture system in their region. APNI has grown steadily in recent years, both through the recruitment of new producers and the expansion of existing ones. Their market clout has led them to vertically integrate. Presently they are making investments in feed and fingerling production, as well as in retail outlets such as restaurants. Another example are the numerous restaurants that have emerged in central Bolivia that specialize in fish, especially tambaqui. Many of these are owned and operated by women and have become lucrative enterprises (Figs. 6-8). Environmental Impact A key highlight of central Bolivian aquaculture is its low environmental impact. Like any food production activity, the system is not benign, but due to the nature of the farmed species, the production approaches, fish feed inputs and the locality of the system, central Bolivian aquaculture currently provides fish for a low environmental cost, especially compared to many other aquaculture systems and indeed most agriculture systems of the region. Pacu and Tambaqui. Pacu and tambaqui (Fig. 9) are the only two native fish currently widely cultured in central Bolivia and are largely responsible for the recent growth of the aquaculture sector. They are quite like one another in ecology and appearance, which often leads to confusion and the use of their common names interchangeably (see footnote 1). They are endemic to the Amazon and Orinoco River basins and can reach 40 kg in the wild. They are omnivorous and in nature primarily eat fruits but also nuts, seeds, zooplankton, insects, snails and plants, and as such serve as important distributors of seeds throughout river systems (Lovshin 1995, Lucas 2008). They have teeth that have an uncanny (CONTINUED ON PAGE 26) FIGURE 6. Sonia Cejas, aquaculture producer in the community of Cacabel. FIGURE 7. Fish market workers at the Venta de piscicultores de Yapacaní. From right to left, Vicenta Ávalos, Juan Siancas (local guide), MariLuz Calicho, Alcira Mérida, and Esther Álvarez. FIGURE 8. Woman feeding fish.
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