19 The Fishing Activity of the River People in the Floodplain of the Central Amazon. VANDICK DA SILVA BATISTA ; CARLOS EDWAR DE CARVALHO FREITAS; ANTÔNIO JOSÉ INHAMUNS DA SILVA; DEUSIMAR FREIRE-BRASIL 19.1 Introduction Fishing is an important part of the habits, daily life, and culture of the people living in the Amazon floodplain. The importance of fish consumption by the Amazon Indians is well documented in reports of travelers and researchers (Bates 1864, Medina 1934, according to Goulding 1983 and Junk 1984). The Portuguese colonization of the region introduced additional experience and cultural habits. The result was the development of an Amazon caboclo civilization with strong attachments to the aquatic environment and to exploration of its natural resources. The Amazon basin possesses the most diversified fauna of freshwater fish of the world, with about 1,500 described species (Kullander 1994 apud Junk et al. 1997) and a high biomass and fish productivity, estimated at a sustainable yield of about one million tons year -1 (Bayley & Petrere 1989). This richness of resources is supported by large nutrient-rich river floodplains of about 300 thousand km 2 (Junk 1989). The Amazon River floodplain is an environment of alluvial soils with a relatively high amount of nutrients, which are taken up by different plant communities (Chapters 6, 13,17). River-level variations create an aquatic-terrestrial transition zone (ATTZ) (Junk et al. 1989), where numerous fish species feed, hide, and/or reproduce (Junk 1983b; Goulding 1980; Paixão 1980; Santos 1981). This environment is also used for arable and animal farming and is the dwelling place for most of the rural population of Amazonas State. Humans, floodplains, and fish are linked in this context, a linkage particularly important for the sustained use of the natural resources. Riverine people use fish stocks in a different way and fishing plays a different role in the daily life and culture of rural communities than it does for professional fishers (Furtado 1988; Petrere 1992). A better understanding of the nature of professional and subsistence fisheries is necessary to improve the management capability for the benefit of the socio-economic development of the population and to diminish the negative human impact on the environment and the fish stocks. This chapter evaluates the factors that can affect the use of fishing resources by the river people, locally called ribeirinhos, and to indicate the possible scenarios of use-effect of the floodplains and its implications in the management of the fishing resources.