In Guyana, the potential role of the CSOs in implementing the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small Scaled Fisheries (hereinafter referred to as “Voluntary Guidelines”) was brought to fore recently when the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA), a vocal watchdog group, mounted a widely publicized and vigorous response to the Guyana Government’s inking of Memorandum of Understanding with a Chinese company to assess the feasibility of prospecting for a seafood species in the country’s marine space.
The GHRA felt that the pact between the Guyana Government and the Chinese company could lead to the licensing of the Chinese company to operate in deep waters, “Chinese factory ships will be anchored off-shore and fed from the catches from the Chinese trawlers to be cleaned, filleted, frozen and packaged; [which means] work will be taken away from local fish cleaners and others.” (Stabroek News).
The GHRA’s posture on the issue coincides with the FAO’s position as adumbrated in the Voluntary Guidelines, which “recognize that the post-harvest subsector – comprising all activities from capture of the fish through to the consumer – employs more people than the primary production subsector and most of them are women.” (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations )
The UG Agricultural Economic Focus 2014 grouping, for its research project is concentrating on the strengthening of backward and forward linkages in agriculture as a means of enhancing food security. We also share the concern that linkages in the form of corporations, which are owned and staffed by foreigners, vertically integrating chunks of upstream and downstream segments of the value chain into their internal operations, actually destroy local livelihoods and are inimical to the food security of local communities.
Though failure to abide by the Voluntary Guidelines would not result in sanctions, the adoption of these Guidelines creates for national and supranational authorities a moral obligation to adhere to them. Thus, in the current case where it appears that Chinese corporate interests may threaten those of local actor in the small scale fisheries, the Voluntary Guidelines, particularly Section 7 thereof, would apply; for example, one very relevant guideline (7.9) says: “States should endeavor to understand the impact of international trade in fish and fishery products and of vertical integration on local small-scale fishers, fish workers and their communities. States should ensure that promotion of international fish trade and export production does not adversely impact the enjoyment of the right to food and other human rights especially of people for whom fish is critical to a nutritious diet, their health and well-being and for whom other comparable sources of food are not readily available or affordable.”
Additional rules also apply to the scenario under examination; for instance, Voluntary Guideline 7.5 reads, “States and development partners should promote organizational and capacity development for small-scale fish workers in all stages of the value chain, in order to enhance their income and livelihood security. Accordingly, the development of cooperatives and other organizational structures should be supported as appropriate.” Incidentally, the UG Agricultural Economics Focus 2014 had iterated at length the role of cooperatives in food security.
Through their activism and public pressure, CSOs can generate public pressure on authorities to follow these Voluntary Guidelines. It is indeed apposite to note how, even in the absence any institutionalizing of the FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Small Scaled Fisheries, the GHRA was able to widely highlight a potential threat to the integrity of the livelihoods of local small scaled fisheries actors and put the Minister of Agriculture (and Fisheries) and the wider Government on notice.
Bibliography
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations . April 2013.
Food and Agriculture Organization Web Site, Technical Consultation On international Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries, 17 November 2013.
Stabroek News. Local: Stabroek News, Pact signed with Chinese company for study of seafood species, 4 November 2013. 17 November 2013 .
UG Agricultural Economics Focus 2014