Solidary cooperation networks and financial innovations in fishing territories

Abstract

Brazilian artisanal fisheries are inserted in public policies for rural development, but financial agents have difficulties in guaranteeing the segment’s access to official credit. This article discusses the main financial practices used by artisanal fisheries, using as its main reference the case of the Santa Catarina coast. The analysis of the informal financial networks established in the vacuum left by public policies is based on the precepts of economic sociology and new institutional economics. The empiric reflection uses data collected at meetings and in interviews with fishermen, organizations and public administrators linked to the sector, fish buyers and financial and extension agents. Based on the understanding of the main institutional arrangements and the conduct of the artisanal fisheries and final agents on the Santa Catarina coast, the study indicates the low quality of financial services provided to this social category when compared with family farmers. The main justification for this comparison is the fact that artisanal fisheries are offered the same credit policies as those made available to family farmers. Thus, fishermen turn to informal financing schemes, reproducing a common strategy in other low income segments of the Brazilian population. Finally, the study analyzes a recent incentive to organize artisanal fishermen in rural credit cooperatives of a “solidarity” nature. It argues that innovative forms of governance of these experiences contribute to the democratization of rural credit
and the strengthening of territorial development dynamics.

Key words: solidarity cooperativism, artisanal fishing, sustainable territorial development, government credit policies.