The FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Division is pleased to announce that the online consultation for the draft text of the small-scale fishing section of the FAO Guidance on Social Responsibility in the Fisheries and Aquaculture Value Chains is now open and available to all for comments and suggestions.

FAO Members have given FAO a specific mandate on social sustainability to recognize and protect human and labour rights in the fisheries and aquaculture sector. To fulfil this mandate, the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Division is developing a practical guidance to promote and facilitate social responsibility compliance by business actors throughout the fisheries and aquaculture value chains. 

The FAO Guidance will consist of two parts. The first will be covering general principles and cross-cutting aspects, and the second will be divided into six parts: (1) Industrial Fishing; (2) Small-scale Fishing; (3) Aquaculture Production; (4) Processing; (5) Distribution; and (6) Retailing. The target audience of the FAO Guidance is primarily the industry, but it can be also a valuable instrument for policymakers, RFMOs and civil society. The Guidance will be voluntary, non-binding, practical, complementary, written in simple language, supportive and based on the existing international conventions, agreements and standards addressing human and labour rights, decent working conditions and social protection.

Through an inclusive and transparent consultation, FAO is enabling an open public consultation to invite stakeholders of the fisheries and aquaculture sector to submit their comments about the draft text “Small-scale fishing” section of the FAO Guidance.

The draft text of the small-scale fishing section will be available and open for comments until 4 August (European time). 

To access the online platform where the draft text is published, please use the following link:

Draft text: Small-scale fishing section of the FAO Guidance – Open consultation

The draft text can be reviewed directly from the online platform or can also be downloaded. However, comments can only be submitted through the online platform. Comments and suggestions should be made only via the online platform. If you face any problems, please feel free to contact me. In addition, comments received will be exclusively used for internal purposes and will not be shared to anyone.

In order to submit your comments and suggestions, registration is needed. 

Additionally, this section focuses exclusively on small-scale fishing activities. Therefore, it is of utmost importance when commenting to focus only on these types of activities and not include other activities that should be included in other sections or in the general part of the FAO Guidance.

Finally, the platform is compatible with the latest versions of major internet browsers – Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Mozilla, and others. The platform is entirely functional on computers and mobile devices.

Addressing social issues in the fisheries and aquaculture sector is a complex and intricate issues, collaboration and joint forces are needed in order to protect fish folks in vulnerable situations in different parts of the world.