BEYOND FISHING GROUNDS: TRANSPORT CONNECTIVITY, FUNCTIONAL ACCESS AND LIVELIHOOD DISRUPTION IN AN INLAND ARTISANAL FISHERY (TOCANTINS RIVER, BRAZIL)

Abstract

Artisanal fishing depends not only on access to fishing grounds but also on connections that allow catches to be preserved and marketed. The objective was to assess how the collapse of the JK Bridge on the Tocantins River was associated with functional access among 420 professional artisanal fishers from four municipalities. Previous dependence was classified as none for fishing purposes, occasional or frequent. Five self-reported livelihood domains — income, work continuity, fish preservation, operating cost and buyer relationships — were analysed using robust Poisson regression. Income reduction, fishing interruption, loss of buyers, fish spoilage and higher transport costs were reported by 98.6%, 97.6%, 97.1%, 91.0% and 86.2%, respectively. Co-occurrence of all five domains increased from 48.8% to 73.9% and 92.5% across the three dependence categories; adjusted prevalence ratios were 1.52 and 1.87 for occasional and frequent dependence relative to the reference group. Among cross-state sellers, fish spoilage reached 98.9%. The findings indicate that off-water infrastructure can be part of functional fishery access by connecting harvesting, preservation and markets, and support including post-harvest preservation, transport routes and river crossings in contingency planning for fishing regions.