Small scale fisheries organizations and NGOs  join forces for an inclusive Oceans Strategy that takes into account the rights of fishing communities  

A first-of-its-kind survey in coastal Andhra Pradesh, India, revealed the peculiar vulnerabilities and demands of fishworkers who migrate regularly to Odisha, Karnataka and Gujarat. When the authorities enforced large-scale lockdowns to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the vulnerabilities of migrant workers were thrown into high relief. Other than the...

Small-scale fishworkers face many challenges in Peru but the government pays little attention to the informal and uncontrolled sector. Peru’s marine waters are among the world’s richest fisheries. This is mainly due to the Peruvian anchovy fishery (anchoveta), mostly run by industrial operations producing yields of 3-6 million tonnes per year...

Vulnerability to climate change has forced the Pacific republic to build resilience through community approaches to fisheries management. The Republic of Kiribati faces many development challenges due to its remoteness and limited resources—financial, infrastructural, institutional and environmental. With population pressure increasing, land is not only scarce but at a perilously low...

A study of three fishing communities shows only with empowerment can women occupy positions of power in fisheries cooperatives. What do young fisherwomen in Belize need? How can decent work and empowerment come to them? A collaboration among three bodies addressed these questions; they included the Belize Fishermen Cooperative Association (BFCA),...

Amélie Dennebouy has challenged gender stereotypes to become a successful mussel entrepreneur in Pénestin, France. “ We don’t employ women!” Just how many times Amélie Dennebouy, a mussel farm worker, heard that phrase since she began working in the sector at age 17, it would be impossible to say. “Ten years...

Confronted with plans for an offshore wind farm, the fishers of the Bay of Saint Brieuc in France are clamouring for their rights to be respected and guaranteed. It is important to highlight that the millions of people who, to this day, still rely on ocean space for their lives and...

The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on a small-scale fishing in Lorient is vividly captured in the pages of a diary maintained by a gillnetter skipper’s spouse. In March 2020, Emmanuelle Yheul-Bertin, wife of a gillnet skipper who runs a 13-metre gillnetter vessel with four men on board, began recording the...

300 kilometers south of Tunis, in the Gulf of Gabes, women have long harvested clams to generate an income. The seasonal work is often labor intensive and poorly paid. That is why FAO, in collaboration with the Tunisian government and a local women’s association, have created a pilot project to...

Changing land use patterns threaten the livelihood of female crab collectors in Merauke, Papua, Indonesia. Over the years, crab collection in mangrove and wetland forests has been a major source of income for women of the indigenous Asmat and Mappi communities of the island of Papua in Indonesia. These women harvest...

Iniciaron los primeros días de septiembre los nacimientos de larvas de las centollas (Lithodes santolla) mantenidas en el acuario del Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero (INIDEP).Las “madres”, que corresponden a dos camadas de hembras procedentes de aguas de plataforma en el Área Central de administración de la pesquería...

The latest Atlantic tragedy reaches thousands in Brazil and remains unsolved. Oil spill disasters in the ocean often devastate marine and coastal ecosystems, profoundly affecting fisheries resources and fishing communities. Urgent and early-warning actions are needed to avoid a tragedy in biomes and communities when such accidents occur. In late-July 2019,...

A brief overview of relevant global findings and processes on the contributions of small-scale fisheries and rights to food and nutrition security, with a focus on the FAO. In fact, the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) endorsed by...

En 2013, la FAO a lancé l’Initiative Croissance bleue visant à stimuler le développement économique et social des communautés qui dépendent des ressources aquatiques pour leur alimentation et leurs moyens d’existence. Ces dernières années ont vu l’émergence d’une nouvelle vague d’innovateurs Croissance bleue qui luttent contre la pêche illégale qui...

With the death of Sidney Holt late last year, the world lost a man blessed with a towering intellect, boundless curiosity and an unwavering commitment to conservation. Sidney began his professional life in 1947 at the Fisheries Laboratory in Lowestoft, UK. Michael Graham was the lab’s director then and he set...

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has introduced multiple challenges in the lives of small-scale fishers in Indonesia. The COVID-19 pandemic that affected Indonesia in early March 2020 has impacted coastal communities, fisher households and fisher women. Information collected by women fisher activists in 12 provinces revealed that the pandemic has dealt...

Reflections on the ICSF workshop and recommendations to India’s draft National Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy (NIFAP), September 2019. The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) organized a national workshop to discuss the draft National Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy (NIFAP), being finalized by India’s Union Ministry of Agriculture...

The World Rural Forum (WRF), with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), carried out a study to monitor the progress in the implementation of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028 (UNDFF) through National and Regional / Subregional Action Plans on Family...

For the first time in Chile, a new type of autonomous social movement, including fishworker organizations, seeks to create a democratic and representative constitution. Three major organizations in Chile have rejected the Social Agenda for Artisanal Fishers that President Sebastián Piñera’s government had proposed. (The proposal is called ‘Agenda social para...

The full range of activities required to deliver fish and fish products from production to the final consumer is subject to indirect impacts of the pandemic through new sanitary measures, changing consumer demands, market access or logistical problems related to transportation and border restrictions. This in turn has a damaging...