Sustainability of fishing cooperatives in the Gulf of Mexico: A case study

Small-scale fishing, characterised by small groups of people working with basic technology and little investment, is an important economic activity in regional and global contexts. In Latin America, inland fisheries play a very important socio-economic role, providing food and income to local families, alleviating poverty, and contributing to social well-being. They are often structured as a social cooperative, as a way to ensure productivity. Cooperatives tend to be sustainable, and their performance can be judged from the impact they have on the social, economic, and environmental spheres. The aim of this study was to measure the sustainability of inland fishing cooperatives in Mexico from these three viewpoints. Though cooperatives generally show a medium-high level of sustainability, on account of their historical background and their contribution to social and economic indicators, our results revealed some weaknesses in terms of environmental indicators, which are locked in a negative relationship with economic ones. Social indicators, however, were positively related with the other two. The sustainability of fishing cooperatives today faces various challenges, as political decision-making tends to favour the social and economic dimensions over the environmental one.