FAO FISHERIES TECHNICAL PAPER 264

Community fishery centres: guidelines for establishment and operation

prepared by
M. Ben- Yami
and
A.M. Anderson
Consultants
FAO Fishery Industries Division

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

M-43
ISBN 92-5-102303-4

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Publications Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 1985
© FAO

PREPARATION OF THIS DOCUMENT

The concept described in this Guide has been developed in the FAO Fishing Technology Service and many of its staff contributed at various stages to its formulation

Some parts of the text were drafted by H.S. Noel. Mr. U. Schmidt read the manuscript and offered useful comments. Dr. Jan Johnson did the editing.

The authors' thanks are extended to all those and to many others, FAO Headquarters staff members and field experts, and to fishery officers from all over the world who discussed, criticised and commented on the Community Fishery Centre/Fishery Development Unit concept.

Distribution:	For bibliographic purposes this document should be cited as follows:
FAO Fisheries Department FAO Regional Fisheries Officers SM Selector HP Selector Directors of Fisheries CECAF CIFA WECAF COPESCAL FAO Fisheries Field Experts Authors	Ben-Yami, M. and A.M. Anderson, 1985. Community fishery centres: guidelines for establishment and operation. FAO Fish. Tech. Pap., (264) : 94 p.

ABSTRACT
The Community Fisheries Centre (CFC) strategy is presented as an organizational concept for providing the basic infrastructure and services needed to deal with the problems confronting small-scale fisheries development. Various types of fishermen's organizations, integrated development strategies, and the options for the technical services and support modules which go together to make up a CFC are examined in detail. Particular attention is given to participatory identification of important problems facing the fisherfolk, and the planning, mobilization of local resources, and implementation of locally based microprojects to deal with them. The operation and management of the CFC, and of the associated multidisciplinary Fisheries Development Unit which provides technical support and training to one or more CFCs, is covered in some detail. A final chapter is devoted to the possible role of fisheries cooperatives in a CFC context.

PREFACE

It is well known that artisanal fishermen in the small-scale fisheries sector produce over one third of all the food fish consumed world wide. However, in many developing countries the artisanal fisherman lands a much higher proportion of the food fish and, in some cases, all of it. It is also common knowledge that the small-scale fisheries sector is generally labour-intensive which is an important factor in countries lacking alternative work opportunities for the population; this has some significance when one considers that in developing countries there are as many as 30 million artisanal fishermen.

Limitations of infrastructure, craft, gear and techniques and of fisheries resources mean that individual productivity is low and levels of waste and spoilage are high. Most fishermen engaged in small-scale fisheries lead a precarious existence at or below subsistence level. Their plight is often compounded by the remoteness of fishing settlements and their low status as compared with those engaged in other sectors of the national economy.

Although many governments have often mentioned the need to support the artisanal fishermen, their efforts to do so have not been reflected by the priorities set by individual governments, since not more than 18 percent of the total international technical assistance and capital aid given to fisheries in general has been directed to small-scale fisheries; this figure is not in proportion to the contribution made by the sector in the provision of food fish. Consequently, the artisanal fishermen and their dependants have remained less privileged than others and are often the poorest of the poor.

Hopefully this will change. The plight of this section of the community received special attention at the 1984 FAO World Conference on Fisheries Management and Development. In his address to the Conference, the Director-General of FAO, Mr Saouma, stated:

“Behind the abstract terminology of fisheries management and development, lies the real world of the fisherman. It is a world in which he leads an often difficult and frustrating existence, facing dangers greater than those that attend upon the farmer, and sometimes for less reward. His calling encourages individualism rather than cooperative action. Above all, his courage and tenacity of purpose deserve our full respect. Let us remember, too, that fisher families in many parts of the developing world live in remote areas, and are among the poorest of the poor.

“A special focus of attention at this Conference is the future of artisanal fishermen in developing countries. It is estimated that they represent about 90 percent of the fishing population in Africa, almost as high a proportion in Asia, and perhaps one third in Latin America. Their economic and social progress depends in part on general developments, but in part also on the ability of the governments to carry through special programmes and projects for the development of small-scale fisheries.

“Such undertakings run into certain of the problems which affect rural development schemes. Indeed, many of the recommendations put forward by the World Confernce on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, held here at FAO in 1979, are fully applicable to programmes and projects in favour of artisanal fishermen.

“Top-down planning, for instance, is unlikely to succeed; rather, projects should be based on what the future participants themselves feel to be desirable. Again, a comprehensive approach, despite the complications which it entails, is generally unavoidable - for example, an increase in production will be a futile victory if there are no means for marketing the additional catch.”

The contents and spirit of this statement were apparently shared by most delegates. By endorsing a special Programme of Action for the Development of Small-Scale Fisheries and by integrating it with the recommendations of the UN World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (WCARRD) the FAO World Fisheries Conference gave full support to both the intensification of the development effort directed at the small-scale fisheries in general, and the integrated approach to small-scale fisheries development in particular. The integrated approach has been developed and promoted by the FAO Fisheries Department during the last decade. Therefore, this book on the establishment and operation of community fishery centres is a timely contribution to the implementation of the special Programme of Action. It introduces an important option for small-scale fisheries development and has been written mainly for those who are sent to fishing communities in developing countries, whether by their own governments or by FAO and other agencies, to help bring to life a process of sustained development in those communities.

Through the integrated approach, we see development as a process by which, in addition to the meeting of growth and production objectives, it is hoped to improve the more human aspects of life. However, to be drawn into this process, the fisher folk must be able not only to expect real benefits, but actually to see those benefits coming their way. Without such a basis for motivation, meaningful development is unlikely. This is why the FAO integrated approach deals not only with production and marketing, but also with the distribution of benefits and the general well-being of the fisher folk and their communities. The description of the community fishery centres and the development units contained in this book represents the framework within which this approach can be adopted and implemented by governments.

It is FAO's hope that “Community Fishery Centres” will prove useful to its readers and serve as a practical tool and reference book in their development work.

W. Krone
Director
Fishery Industries Division
Fisheries Department

FOREWORD

This paper has been prepared to assist those concerned with planning and executing small-scale fisheries development programmes in both rural and urban fishing communities. It deals with community fishery centres (CFCs) supported by local/provincial extension services organized in well-staffed, compact fisheries development units (FDUs). The CFCs would provide artisanal and other small-scale fishermen in developing countries with the various facilities, institutions, and services which do not exist there today, or to which they have insufficient access.

Because of the diversity of situations and circumstances in which the small-scale fishermen of the world operate, it is extremely difficult and even misleading to present “ready-made” prescriptions and solutions. Consequently, this guide presents a selection of methodologies, sets of options, and practical hints, without pretending to provide instructions applicable to every specific situation; readers are therefore asked to view critically the contents and applicability of this guide to their own particular situation.

Ten years ago the CFC concept was first formulated in the FAO Fishery Industries Division in an attempt to suggest a solution to the nagging problems of small-scale fishermen and their communities. First published in 1977 as a paper to a meeting of the FAO Committee of Inland Fisheries of Africa, the CFC concept has since been continuously developed and refined, and has served as the basis for the Integratred Approach to Small-Scale Fisheries Development, endorsed by the FAO World Conference on Fisheries Management and Development (Rome, 27 June - 6 July 1984). The details of this approach are now being described in a series of FAO publications, the first of which is the present COMMUNITY FISHERIES CENTRES.

Small-scale capture fisheries are important sources of food fish and employment. Many small-scale fishermen have the actual or potential ability to harvest the resources within the range of their boats profitably and economically, often even more so than can be done by larger scale industrialized vessels fishing in the same waters.

The last few decades, however, have confronted small-scale fisheries with new and special problems, the main ones of which are:

the national nutritional demand for rapid exploitation of underutilized fish resources and reduction of post-harvest losses;
increasing competition with industrialized fisheries for resources, inputs and markets;
increasing competition between the small-scale fishermen themselves and limited and often overexploited stocks,
dearth of hard currency for the importation of equipment and supplies;
competition with non-fisheries users for both land and water resources, and
mounting population pressure increasing the numbers of small-scale fishermen who cannot find alternative employment in agriculture.

Although the integrated strategy does not provide specific solutions, it presents a methodology adaptable to many local situations. The long-term success of the strategy is dependent on two assumptions, namely that:

most small-scale fisheries are (or have the potential to become) economically viable;
many of the new problems of small-scale fisheries, and especially those of fish production and marketing, can be successfully confronted if the individual fishing units have an adequate organizational support base and are backed by business-management and technical support comparable to those available to industrialized fisheries.

The integrated approach also promotes self-reliant social and economic development in the community as a whole, based on the activation of local resources, supplemented by outside assistance.

Integrated small-scale fisheries development programmes must, therefore, include the following elements:

a coordinated rather than a piece-meal approach to the problems facing the fishing villages (integration);
local participation in both planning and implementation;
mobilization of local resources;
long-term technical and managerial support;
explicit attention to the particular needs of women and youth;
protected access to and participation in the management of the local fisheries resources; and
a system for planning, monitoring, evaluating and revising all components of the programme.

The organizational structure used and promoted by FAO to incorporate these elements is based on multidisciplinary Fisheries Development Units (FDUs) supporting the development process in fishing villages. Projects identified, planned and implemented jointly by the local fishing folk and the FDU, are integrated into a “master plan” which, in fact, is the community's development programme. In particular, the fisheries aspects of such a village development programme can often be effectively implemented through the creation and operation of a community fishery centre (CFC). The CFC, whose many possible variations are discussed in detail in this book, is the framework within which services, facilities and institutions which are locally based, staffed and supported, gradually come to life and take root.

It is important to note that the CFC is a flexible concept with a complex pattern of organization whose components may be owned privately, cooperatively, or in some combination. It appears to be a means of achieving necessary economies of scale on the one hand and required levels of technical services and support on the other, in a manner which fits in with the complex reality of small-scale fishing communities.

FAO hopes that the suggestions offered in this guide will be of interest not only to people working in fisheries as such, but also to all categories of government and institutional workers, such as those in health, education, agriculture, banking, etc., who are concerned with the development in fishing communities.

Comments, suggestions and criticism are welcome from all readers, who may wish to write to:

Fishery Industries Division
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Via delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome
Italy.

Reports of experience with actual CFCs and FDUs, their characteristics, their successes, and their problems, are especially solicited, as they will be very useful in revising future editions of this paper.

Jan P. Johnson
Fishery Industry Officer
Fishery Industries Division

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PREPARATION OF THIS DOCUMENT

PREFACE

FOREWORD

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 The importance of small-scale fisheries

1.2 The present situation

1.3 Problems

1.4 WCARRD recommendations for people's participation

2. SOME BASIC TYPES OF FISHERMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS

3. INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT IN FISHING COMMUNITIES

3.1 Main aspects of development process

3.2 “Bottle-neck” situation