Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

Rizalito Lopez

Southeast Asia Fish for Justice Network
Philippines

COMMENTS ON  ZERO DRAFT  ON THE  ROLE OF   SUSTAINABLE  FISHERIES AND  AQUACULTURE IN  FOOD  SECURITY  AND  NUTRITION (RSFA-FSN)

 

RSFA-FSN  can   be  contextualized in the  poverty and vulnerability  situation of  fishing communities  in the coastal and marine fisheries, including  inland fisheries. Issues  of   governance  in the  access  to and control  of  the distribution and  valuation of  fish  products must  also  be articulated  as  those are   the  case  why  fishing communities  remain marginalized in  many  developing  countries.

Related  issues  confronting  fishworkers  and aquaculture farm  workers such as  lack of  social protection, unfair labor  conditions, and contractualization  must also be  added  in the context.

In  Indonesia  32% of  the   16.42 million Indonesians living in coastal areas  fall below the poverty line. In the  Philippines, 41%   of   27 percent poor  of the national   population comes  from fishing households. It  would not  be  hard  to  believe that  similar statistics  exist in  fishing communities  of  less  developed  countries in Southeast  Asia.

In  this view,  the  pursuit  for sustainable fisheries and  aquaculture contribution  to FSN  will  be  directly  focused   to   the  higher pursuit of   poverty alleviation and  empowerment  of  poor and marginalized  fishing  communities.  In  this  way,  we would  answer the  question : Food security  for whom?

Page 19-25

Fish products generated from capture fishing and aquaculture are primarily  intended  for food  consumption or  for  cash. Lower  value fish by-catch and losses  from postharvest  activities  are  the  ones  used  for  feeds for aquaculture or  other animal feeds. This  only means that  there  is  a  secondary process  involved  in the production of  feeds.   In the diagram on  page  19, it  appears (because of parallel positioning)   that  feed production  is  also a primary   purpose of  capture fishing and aquaculture  and  not as  a  result  of by-catch from  non-selective  fishing and  post-harvest  losses.

But, if the  diagram  is  correct, maybe  the paper can cite  the  countries where capture fishing and  aquaculture  primarily produce  for the  fishmeal or  feed market.

Pages  39-40

…In the light of these analyses one could hypothesize that the lack of apparent 2 relationship between the huge revenues that are generated by international trade and 3 the food security of the local population reflects the structural failure of the fish export 4 sector and national institutions to ensure an effective (re)distribution of the fish trade 5 revenues and a non-harmful mode of operating…- V.0 RSFA-FSN

Just  to  cite  a  similar  case,  the tuna industry  in  General Santos  City, the Philippines has  a  huge  revenue  in terms of  export  earnings. Revenues  from the  industry  comprise  60% of the economic production of the  city. Revenues  are  reinvested to other  economic  activities that create  jobs and employment.  Despite  these achievement, huge  revenues  has  not addressed the  following issues that make dependent sectors food insecure:

  • unfair  sharing  systems in small scale hand-line fishing  boats
  • Lacking  social   protection  for  fishworkers in all  economic  scales of  tuna fishing most especially the women workers
  • Labor  code  not applicable in the  Philippines since the fishworkers  are not  covered in the law
  • Contractualisation of  jobs in tuna canning factories, which unfairly treat women fish processors
  • Poverty incidence in the  coastal areas  in General  Santos City and adjacent  Sarangani Province  remained high

Catch composition of  tuna, as a highly  traded  fish product,  are already  mostly juveniles (more than 60%)  and  showing  decreasing trend  of  catch volumes.

Recommendations:

  • Social protection for both artisanal and fish workers including women workers have to be proposed -- minimum wage, social security;
  • Full valuation of the effort to produce tuna
  • Fast  track  ratification  of  ILO and IMO  convention
  • Stop unfair treatment of fish workers most especially the women workers
  • Conservation/Management concerns due to overfishing of tuna; proposed comprehensive alternative livelihood to the small tuna players if fishing effort/capacity is to be reduced
  • Compliance with sea worthiness, safety at sea and working condition
  • Regulated  fish trade  for  fisheries  with  evident overfishing  and depletion of  fish  stocks.

Pages 52 -55

On small  scale  aquaculture-

  • Aquaculture  in  Southeast  Asia  started  with the more endemic  species  like  gurami and  carp  in  small areas  which  is  intended  for the  food  consumption  of households  and communities. Then  aquaculture was modernized, got  larger, and   expanded  with the orientation  of  serving the  demands of the international  markets, with  developing  countries  supplying  the more  developed  countries. Modernized  aquaculture system  has largely  benefited  from this markets, while small  scale  aquaculture  was  delinked  from  this  development.
  • Aquaculture  small holders,  depending  on the particular aquaculture commodities,  have  proven  to  be  beneficial and  has  not  realized its  full  potential  to  contribute  to  FSN and  poverty alleviation in  fishing  communities.  In the Philippines and  Indonesia, small  scale  seaweed  culture  has very  important  contribution  in terms of   increasing  income  of  hundreds of  thousands  of  fishing  households. In the  Philippines  alone there  is  about 250,000  households from benefiting  from  seaweeds culture.  In Vietnam and  Indonesia  small  scale shrimp aquaculture(less than 5  hectares)    constitute  a large share   of  income  sources  of   farming  households (MCD 2012;  KIARA 2012).  The  small scale  sector  provides  the bulk   of  the raw  fish materials  processed  in seafood  factories in  Vietnam.  However, the  sector is  faced  with  high  risk, low profit  and environmental  pollution.

As a solution, governmentsshouldsupportcapacity ofaquaculture small holders ofspecificcommoditiestobeabletocomplywithstandards of goodaquaculture practicestoderivemore benefits.Existing internationalstandardscanbeuseda models and references, but regulationmustbe developedat the local levelto givedue consideration oflocal situation.

Page   77-81

On  the recommendations related  to Global  Policy:

  • This   paper on the  RSFA-FSN should  make a  recommendation  in relation to WTO’s  treatment on trade policy  relating to  fish products. Because  WTO has continuously  regarded  and categorized fish products along  automobiles, mobile phones,  cars, and  other industrial   products,  under  the  Non-Agriculture  Market Agreement (NAMA), without  recognizing  fisheries  biological  limits.     Furthermore, the issue of fishery subsidy is being discussed in WTO  separately 
  • With this  kind  of treatment on fish products and fisheries, WTO  has,  wittingly or unwittingly,  caused  overcapacity and  overfishing  of  many fisheries  around the  globe.  
  • To  serve  FSN , there  must  be regulated  fish  trade regime   specially  to fishing  areas and fish species  where  there  is  already  evidence  of   depletion and  overfishing.
  • End WTO, it  only resulted in further marginalization and exclusion of artisanal fishers in economic development.

 

Recommendation  in  relation to  Women in fisheries:

  • This  paper   should  recognize  the  role and  rights  of   women  as  shell gleaners in   mangrove  areas, seagrass beds, tidal flats, and wetlands. Shell  harvesting   by  women and children serve  also as important  source of  marine food for  nutrition and sometimes  supplemental cash  for  fishing  households.  Management efforts must be supported to ensure that the resources used by women are equally given attention with women playing key role and participation.
  • Further  study may  be  required  to determine  the extent and reach  of  its  practice in fishing countries and regions.

Additional Comments

  • The  paper  can  add   a section on  the  relevance  of  certification.    It  can  articulate  if   certification  of   fish products,  either  caught in  the  wild or  produced  from aquaculture,   has    improved   working  conditions of  fishworkers and  aquaculture  farm workers as a means  to FSN.  Perhaps, also  include a section if   the benefits  from  fish  product certification  has   trickle  down  to   aquaculture small  holders.
  • Product Certification and Government Regulation must be installed and encourage  local communities initiatives on regulation