Management of the productive fishing conglomerate in the Amazonas State: the challenge through the sustainability viewpoint

Fish is the primary source of food in the Amazonas State, Brazil. This reality is also valid in Manaus, the main housing and enterprises pole in the North of Brazil. However, for several reasons investigated in the present work, the fishing activity in Amazonas State is not able to supply the needs of the region. Therefore, the research was carried out aiming to understand better these difficulties. The methodology used a series of interviews, questionnaires, and a documental analysis was applied to four study groups: 1) family and business producers; 2) research and education institutions; 3) public organisms; 4) final customers. The results indicate that the segment needs structural actions and improvement in the fields of cooperation, land and environmental issues, technology, infrastructure, specialised qualifications and quality of the product. A local governance with a coordinator agent is suggested, as well as the establishment of sustainable modules, and the implementation of a particular training centre. The centre should have the objective of helping the fish producers in the matters of land, environmental, credit and processing issues. The results pointed out that the local productive fishing cluster needs technical support for improving the activities.