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...

The following is the text of the ICSF statement submitted to the 24th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-24) on 23 March 2022 at Geneva, Switzerland. ICSF welcomes the Chair’s draft recommendation to the Conference of Parties (CBD/SBSTTA/24/CRP.2). Recognizing the...

Dedicated to “the Ancestors who stewarded the ocean” an interactive story map created by the Pacific Sea Garden Collective reawakens traditional ways of harvesting food from the sea from Panama to Australia to the Pacific Northwest.

The country’s commitment to providing for and protecting all communities and its diversity, while admirable, has thus far been ineffective. Enacted policies have failed to make much headway, due to a lack of co-ordination between different government institutions. The country’s rural development efforts have mostly been directed towards the agriculture...

Recent years have seen Brazil’s social and environmental policies weakened and dismantled at a frightening scale. Rights violations, lack of access to benefits, and a complete disregard for the sector during the pandemic has led to a rise in inequality and poverty. Our research confirms a lack of government initiative...

Levedy Céleste Lossangoye developed a passion for fish farming at an early age. She grew up surrounded by fish ponds on her family’s fish farm in Andem in the Central African country of Gabon. Located around 60 kilometres from Libreville, the country’s capital, her family’s farm has 21 ponds across...

The document is a brief of showcase of a specific aquaculture innovation. It contains main information on the technique and approach used, scope and scale of application, accessibility and the outcome and benefits of the innovation. Aquaculture has traditionally been carried out in freshwater and coastal areas. This causes pressures including...

The social pillar of sustainable development ought to be strengthened to protect the future of lives and livelihoods in the small-scale fisheries subsector  

ICSF’s Bangkok workshop was a vibrant start to a series of international events to commemorate the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022)

The following Statement was made at the ‘Asia Workshop: IYAFA 2022-Celebrating Sustainable and Equitable Small-Scale Fisheries’, organized by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) and the Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF) at Bangkok, Thailand from 5 to 8 May, 2022

Fisheries and aquaculture contribute to food security and livelihoods of millions of people in Asia. Both women and men are engaged in fisheries and aquaculture. In the past ten years, many actors have worked on raising awareness on women’s contribution as well as promoting gender equality in fisheries and aquaculture....

Representatives of small-scale fishing communities – the most numerous ocean users –launch a Call to Action at the United Nations Ocean Conference 2022. The Second United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC 2022), hosted by the governments of Portugal and Kenya, brought together 6,000 participants in Lisbon from June 27 to July 1....

The 35th session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI-35) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was organized in the hybrid mode on September 5-9 at the FAO headquarters in Rome. The committee reviewed current issues and challenges related to fisheries and aquaculture. The meeting reaffirmed...

The occasion was the 35th Session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI-35), the intergovernmental forum of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The purpose was to review and discuss issues and challenges related to fisheries and aquaculture. Campaigners for the rights of small-scale fishers and Indigenous...

The following Statements were made by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) at the Thirty-fifth Session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) during 5-9 September, 2022

Taiwan is an island country. The fisheries in the surrounding seas are crucial to its development. This informs the government’s policy on marine fisheries. The flourishing capture fisheries are one of the country’s main economic activities. Unlike the more stable and favourable land-based economic activities, capture fisheries are risk-prone and...

Interview with marine biologist and fisheries scientist Ray Hilborn on how area-based conservation measures can be made more inclusive of sustainable fisheries

A community-based, bottom-up regime of fisheries management, rooted in traditional ecological knowledge, is practised in the pole-and-line tuna fishery of India’s Lakshadweep Islands. India is home to a large number of small-scale fishers (SSF) using diverse craft-gear combinations along the country’s long coastline and island systems. One standout entry is the...