Fresh fish is an important source of food and income. Its quality is affected by handling and hygiene practices at all stages of the value chain – from production to consumption, starting with fishing. What happens to fish after it is caught has a big impact on its quality. Good...

The Guidebook for evaluating fisheries co-management effectiveness offers a process and method to evaluate the performance of a fisheries co-management system and its plan in order to enhance its effectiveness in delivering benefits and in contributing to environmental, social and economic sustainability and good governance. It is to be used...

In this International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture, the focus should now turn to developing coherent and meaningful policies and legislation for small-scale artisanal fisheries. The International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022) provides a great opportunity to proclaim to the world the diversity and richness of the...

Empowering women in fisheries value chains is key to ensuring thriving coastal communities and ecosystems and to achieving the SDGs.

We are pleased to announce that our first e-learning course on Community Supported Fisheries will take place from Monday 16 May through Friday 3 June!   This e-learning course is a part of the Erasmus+ funded project Deck to Dish: Advanced Training in Community Supported Fisheries. We are proud to be...

A coalition of fishing communities, activists and lawyers has come together to keep the coasts and oceans of South Africa free of the destructive Blue Economy agenda. To Hell with Shell!” This was the rallying call of small-scale fishing communities and indigenous coastal communities in South Africa as they mobilized support...

The 2022 edition of The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture coincides with the launch of the Decade of Action to deliver the Global Goals, the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. It presents how these and other equally...

The management of small-scale fishing in Hime-shima in Oita Prefecture in western Japan shows how collaboration on traditional knowledge and practices can help overcome external threats. Japan’s traditional ways for fishery resource management were developed more than 200 years ago. A document written in 1816, called the ‘Edo-Bay Protocol’ (Edo is...

Representatives of artisanal fisheries from 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have called for action to ensure the continuity, development and well-being of their families, communities and livelihoods. In a statement issued at the end of a meeting in Cananéia City-São Paulo State, Brazil, they reaffirmed their essential role in the...

The 32 minute film complied by shows a change that has occurred over a decade in different countries across the world — truthful appreciation of women’s role in fisheries. Despite differences in society, culture, politics and economics, their involvement in the sector follows a similar arc the world over. The...

Months after a container ship carrying toxic chemicals caught fire off the west coast of Sri Lanka, fisherfolk still suffer from the dreadful aftereffects of the country’s worst marine ecological disaster. A 186-m-long container ship called X-Press Pearl, registered in Singapore, arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on the night of 19...

Political turmoil following a military coup has robbed small-scale fisherfolk in Myanmar of their decade-long success in making democracy work for them. The governance of Myanmar’s inland and coastal fisheries underwent reforms in favour of small-scale fisheries (SSF) and fishing communities in the period between 2010 and 2020. This happened through...

Antigua and Barbuda’s robust social security schemes have, over the years, been a great safety net for sustainable fisheries in the country. This report analyses and reports on recent changes across the system and its effect on fishers. Increased digitization and reliance on remote technology has become a barrier for...

As climate change continues to impact fishing communities, the international climate regime needs to do more to safeguard the community. At COP 26, it did not. Last November, 120 world leaders and over 40,000 participants gathered in Glasgow for two weeks of meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate...

For generations, it was mistakenly viewed as a man’s world. Women have always been there, but fisheries and aquaculture are now seeing a surge in women starting their own businesses in all areas of the sector. Today, more than 50 million women are involved in fisheries and aquaculture around the world...

The IPCC’s sixth assessment report says small-scale fishers are among the people on the planet most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. An estimated 90 per cent of all people directly dependent on marine and inland capture fisheries work in the small-scale fisheries sub-sector. They are largely rooted in local...

Meeting in Mumbai, women fishworkers of the coastal districts of the Indian State of Maharashtra drew up an agenda to advocate for their rights and livelihoods. In December 2021, a dozen women from the coastal districts of the western Indian State of Maharashtra assembled in the capital, Mumbai. All experienced fishworker...

Across the world, small-scale fishers have set examples of leadership to meet the environmental challenge. Now, a university initiative documents such exemplary efforts. Small-scale fishers (SSF) have a long history of environmental stewardship and conservation of their local environments, safeguarding natural resources and local livelihoods. Such efforts need greater recognition and...

The year 2022 has been declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture. In Africa, artisanal fisheries employ more than ten million men and women, and feed more than 200 million Africans. African fisheries, 75 per cent of which are artisanal, are the largest...

The International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022) was launched in the Pacific Islands, during an event today to mark the occasion, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Pacific fishers, the Pacific Community (SPC) and INFOFISH. The IYAFA 2022 year-long regional campaign will highlight...