المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

HLPE consultation on the V0 draft of the Report: Water and Food Security

Submission by Brian O’Riordan, Belgium (Liaison) Office Secretary, International Collective in Support of Fishworkers. Contact e mail [email protected]

The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), an international network with a Secretariat based in Chennai, India and a liaison office in Belgium, would like to submit the following comments to the consultation on the VO draft of the HLPE report on Water and Food Security, as regards the fishery and aquaculture related aspects.

2.4.1 Improving water and land productivities

Page 39, para 2 lines 8 and 9. The statement “better integration of fisheries and aquaculture with water management systems can also improve water productivity” needs considerable qualification.

Intensification of large scale aquaculture, especially export oriented production, goes hand in hand with more intensive use of external inputs – including industrially produced feeds, antibiotics, pesticides, and a variety of chemicals. This generates considerable pollution with high levels of solid and liquid organic wastes. Pollution of waters by intensive feed based aquaculture reduces downstream water quality, due to eutrophication processes in the water column and on the seabed, and productivity with implications for public health and aquatic biodiversity.

Escapes from fish farms, especially of carnivorous and exotic species, have implications for biodiversity and ecosystems by displacement and elimination of local species including through spread of disease. These impacts have major implications for local food security when such large scale aquaculture operations impact on small scale fisheries, shell fish collectors, and aquaculture. For example in Chile, South America (notably the Chiloe archipelago), intensive salmon farming has caused toxic “red tides”, causing the closure of local shellfish farming and fishery activities. The escape of salmon into the local environment has impacted on local artisanal fisheries. In tropical Asian and Latin American countries intensive aquaculture of shrimp has had similar impacts, with the clearance of mangrove areas, pollution of groundwater, displacement of communities, closure of fishing grounds and violence against local communities.

Better integration of fisheries and aquaculture with water management systems to improve water quality as well as food security and nutrition should focus on:

a)      developing extensive, low input, labour intensive, small-scale activities, mainly oriented to local markets, and in the case aquaculture focussed on species low in the food chain, and based on indigenous species.

b)      fisheries enhancement through “culture based capture fisheries”, optimizing the potential of  reservoirs and other water bodies for sustainable and equitable fishery production.

c)       protecting the land tenure, fishery access and user rights of communities that have traditionally depended on extraction of living aquatic resources.

d)      Ensuring the siting/construction of intensive and large scale aquaculture projects away from sensitive coastal ecosystems like mangroves and the river mouths.

e)      Establishing a proper process of consultation, assuring the rights of affected communities and civil society to access information as part of environmental and social impact evaluations.

f)       Establishing control and monitoring processes that are participative and transparent during the implementation of aquaculture projects.

2.4.5. Diversifying with Fisheries and Aquaculture

Page 45, lines 11 to 33.

Lines 12 to 14 rightly refer to the recent HLPE report on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture for Food Security and Nutrition. Mention should also be made of the recommendations to the CFS 41 drafted by the rapporteur of the Round Table on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture for Food Security and Nutrition. Reference should also be made to the considerable body of work undertaken by the FAO Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture over many years to increase understanding of and to document evidence of the linkages between fisheries and food security and nutrition.

Line 16 of the report notes that “high technology cage fisheries can produce 18 up to 100 kg of fish for each cubic meter of water”. However, this overlooks the downstream impacts of the pollution caused by the solid organic wastes produced by such cage operations (dead fish, uneaten food, faeces, and so on), or the pollution by the use of antibiotics, pesticides and other chemical treatment of fungal, parasitic, bacterial and viral diseases, which have implications for small-scale capture fishery operations and other small-scale productive activities in the area.

Lines 18 to 21. It is not correct to say that “fisheries are mostly run by small farmers”. Although in many countries, notably South East Asia, certain kinds of small scale aquaculture practices are integrated into the farming systems, and fish farming activities may be run by small farmers, this is not the overall rule. Fishing operations – i.e. the catching of fish - are generally carried out by men who often don’t engage in other productive activities. On the other hand women are engaged in productive, economic and social and cultural activities throughout the fisheries value chain, in fishing as well as in upstream and downstream pre- and post-harvest activities. Hence the “vital gender” dimension referred to, a dimension that often goes unrecognized and unrewarded. But the role of small farmers in fisheries is limited to certain kinds of fish farming operations that are integrated into farming systems (such as the case with mixed rice and fish cultivation, or in the case of farming waste and by products being recycled in fish farming).

Lines 22 to 27. It would be important to mention the significance of the recently approved FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small Scale Fisheries in the context of food security and poverty eradication (SSF Guidelines) and the role these have to play in contributing to the food security and nutritional needs of poor rural communities in many areas, as well as of the world at large. The SSF Guidelines have been developed over a 7 year period (from 2007 to 2014), with a high level of inclusion and participation. The implementation of the SSF Guidelines will be very important for improving food security and nutrition, especially for marginalized and vulnerable groups. The SSF Guidelines support responsible fisheries and sustainable social and economic development for the benefit of current and future generations, with an emphasis on small-scale fishers and fish workers and related activities and including vulnerable and marginalized people promoting a human rights-based approach.

Lines 26 and 27. Increasing competition for access to and use of coastal and aquatic resources and other commons (coastal areas and fresh waters sources), is also leading to privatization of these resources and the access/ user rights to them, to the detriment of the food security and nutrition of the people who have traditionally depended on accessing these resources. The aquatic equivalent of “land grabs” - “water grabs” - are also a growing concern, with mass tourism projects, energy generation projects, expansion of port infrastructure, industrial aquaculture, and conservation projects displacing fishing communities with implications for food security and nutrition at all levels. 

Box 21 page 68 could usefully include a section on Voluntary Guidelines that have been adopted. These include:

Voluntary Guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/y7937e/y7937e00.htm

Voluntary Guidelines Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/nr/land_tenure/pdf/VG_Final_May_2012.pdf

Volunary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication.

Draft Recommendations – 10 Water Governance:

Page 81, lines 11 to 18:

Please include:

States and Civil Society should promote the implementation of the VGGT and SSF Guidelines.