1. Defining progress towards securing sustainable small-scale fishers.
a)In terms of topics most relevant of SSF-Guidelines in our Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) context would be responsible governance of tenure, sustainable resource management, social development/ decent work, gender equality, and climate change.
b)Responsible governance of tenure: This guideline express that tenure and access to resources is vital for human rights guarantee and enjoyment. This point is a vital aspect of long term-viability of SSF, that represent half of the world catches, employing 90% of people involved in the sector (FAO 2014). In LAC context, 2.3 million people are directly/indirectly involved in the fisheries sector (Chuenpagdee et al, 2019) and SSF-LAC contributes globaly with 10% of the catches (Salas et al.2011).
Moreover, since 1999, COBI has been studied and recognized, how ensuring and guarantee fishing rights for SSF, have a positive effect on the sustainable use of resources, in comparison with other communities that do not possess a secure tenure (Bourillón, 2002).
Sustainable resources management: The topic of this Guideline calls for recognizing the role of SSF in conservation measures of their own areas, where their activities develop, calling for consultation and participation on designing, planification, monitoring and implementation of fisheries management strategies and policies, especially for historically underrepresented groups such as indigenous people and women.
In this sense COBI believes this Guideline is of great relevance since as organization has developed strong methodological models for the participation of coastal communities in monitoring their resources and ecosystems for conservation purposes, using citizen science as a vehicle to capacity building and knowledge generation (Fulton et al 2019).
There is evidence of concrete benefits for resource conservation in the involvement of communities from the beginning, having as an example marine reserves in the form of no-take zones, have developed better when artisanal fishers have designed and generate the knowledge on the state of the ecosystem and the resources. (Fulton et al 2019).
Social Development and Decent Work: SSF: A general reality that SSF lacks systematically of labor and social rights, with precarious and even dangerous activities. Due to this situation it's vital to start making progress towards achieving decent work conditions in SSF, through specific legislation and clear public policies.
Gender Equality: The relevance of this Guideline lies in the fact that women have been historically excluded from the decision–making processes at the fisheries sector, despite their contributions, for example, fish processing, where up to 90% of this is made by women (FAO 2014). They remain unrepresented in official statistics, only recognized as helping or supporting male fishers' activities (Kleiber et al 2015).
There is evidence of woman and fisheries sustainability benefits since a study have to demonstrate how woman posses a long-term visión regarding benefits of sustainable use of resources and are willing to invest effort for achieving these outcomes, while men just see the relationship between fishing and income (Revollo-Fernandez et al 2016).
A stronger focus on knowledge, fairness, governance and gender balance is needed for creative solutions towards environmental challenges regarding marine ecosystems, including fisheries (Torre et al 2019).
Climate Change: Undoubtedly climate change is affecting and will affect disproportionately to SSF, compromising their sustainability and viability, for this reasons more than ever it's important to invest and work towards adaptation and mitigation efforts, focusing especially on how to socialize and escalate the traditional ecological knowledge, that SSF has developed concerning their adaptation and resilience to changing climate patterns.
2. At what geographical scale should progress be measured (e.g. local, national)?
Progress at Guidelines implementation should be measure at multiple scales (local, national, regional) and with a focus on different actors (goverment, fishers, civil society, industrial fishing).
Modifications to standardized indicators will be needed and the development of methodologies to measure this, for cases where groups and governments do not possess the capacities to do it.
3. Do you have suggestions for indicators that could be used to assess progress towards the priorities you identified under part 1?
Until this moment suggested indicators could be the following:
Responsible Governance of tenure
proportion of the adult population who perceive their tenure rights as legally secure, regardless of whether these rights are documented. Mandatory
proportion of adult population with secure tenure rights, that posses legal documentation, disaggregated by sex, type of tenure and cultural identity. Mandatory
existing legal and technical support for coastal communities regarding their tenure and access rights. Nice to have
Sustainable Resource Management
percentage of artisanal fishers, disaggregated by sex, that participate on the planification for the stablishment of management categories of marine zones (marine reserves, natural protected áreas, fish refugees). Mandatory
Number of fisheries that have specific long-term objectives to achieve sustainability in the fishery. Mandatory.
Number of fisheries that meets some international sustainability standard (MBA, Fairtrade, MSC, etc.) Nice to have.
Gender Equality
number of men and women who carry out activities within the value chain, which is not remunerated, within the fishing organizations of community partners, broken down by sex, age and fishing cooperative Mandatory
number of women and men in fishing communities, broken down by type of leadership position (member, manager, leader, etc.) Mandatory.
number and percentage of women participating as members within each fishing organization at the governmental and civil level Mandatory.
number and percentage of women, who participate in management positions within each fishing organization at the governmental and civil levels Mandatory.
number and percentage of women in fisheries decision-making institutions, by type of organization and scope of influence (local, community, district, national, etc.) Mandatory.
attitudes towards male / female participation in fishing and aquaculture activities. Nice to have.
4. Please describe any monitoring and evaluation frameworks and data sources you are aware of that could be drawn on to measure these indicators.
Good Practices to Eliminate Gender Inequality in Fish Value Chains released by FAO IN 2013.
UN Women, 2014 (https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/libra…).
Aguilar y Castañeda, 2000 (https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2000-042…)
Quantitative indicators for common property tenure security, a publication of International Land Coalition
Reflection on Land Tenure Security indicators, a discussion paper by UNDP Oslo Governance Centre.
MSC. Working towards MSC certification: A practical guide for fisheries improving to sustainability (https://www.msc.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/for-bu… apartado 3.2.1 Fishery-specific objectives pag 343.)
5. What do you think are key elements of successful participatory monitoring?
Strong public policies for community-based monitoring projects and methodologies.
Funding
Building of trust between scientists and community members.
Validation methodologies of data and knowledge gathered.
Early engagement of community members in the designing and implementation of the project.
Being systematic and constant.
6.What are your experiences with participatory monitoring?
COBI during the last 20 years has designed, tested and implement a community-based monitoring system on three key marine ecosystems in Mexico: kelp forests in Baja California in the Pacific, rocky reefs of the Gulf of California and the coral reefs of the Mesoamerican Reef System. This model has achieved to engage local fishers in data collection with two main objectives: a) science-based conservation for management decision, while improving livelihoods through knowledge and temporary employment. For this purpose 400 artisanal fishers and members of coastal communities have been participating in national marine reserve program, 222 fishers including 30 women have been trained to conduct underwater census using SCUBA gears, achieving 12,000 transects. For testing and validating the model, independent scientists have evaluated the training and the standards.
Fishery monitoring programs have been established with fishers and community members to collect data on certain species or areas. Small-scale fishers from seven communities in the Gulf of California, Pacific Ocean, Mexican Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico have been trained to collect data on invertebrates (incl. clams, penshell, lobster, and squid) and finfish (incl. ocean withefish, rooster hind, goldspotted sand bass yellowtail amberjack, and red snapper). Community members are trained to use different tools (traditional logbooks, e-logbooks, biometric measuring equipment, genetic sampling techniques etc.) by CSOs in collaboration with local Fisheries Research Centres of the National Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture (CRIP-INAPESCA). The projects aim to improve the understanding of regional fisheries, fishery dynamics and to collect fishery dependent and independent data in data-poor regions.
7.Who should be the key actors involved in or responsible for the design and implementation of a monitoring system for the SSF Guidelines?
Artisanal fishers (men – women- young people).
coastal communities
industrial fishing
civil society
academia
policymakers
processing and commercialization industry (retailers, buyers, restaurants)
Mme Fernanda Fitzmaurice