Fostering new income opportunity for local communities in Gökova Bay through traditional fishing tourism
Muğla – Pescatourism pilot tours started on 27 September 2021 in Akyaka, town of Gökova Bay, under FAO’s Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP), as part of the Blue Hope Initiative in the Mediterranean Sea. This is a major step in adapting the most suitable pescatourism model in Turkey, which aims to reduce the fishing effort on stocks and create new income opportunity for the local communities. The event took place in collaboration with the Mediterranean Conservation Society and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey.
The interest in adopting pescatourism in Turkey, as now accepted in Turkish terminology – traditional fishing tourism, was identified during the Second Project Stakeholders Meeting held in April 2019. Consequent to that, Pescatourism Dialogue meeting was carried out in October 2019 where all stakeholders unanimously agreed on the kick-off of pilot traditional fishing tours in Turkey (Gökova Bay), the project area, to understand the interest on such alternative livelihood diversification from both fishers and potential tourists.
Simultaneously, the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry represented by the Directorate General of Fisheries and Aquaculture requested technical support to design a legal roadmap aiming at adopting the pescatourism legislation with all the required provisions in Turkey. Since that, FAO has been working on operationalizing pilot tours in the project area as well as preparing the legal roadmap for the most suitable pescatourism model.
“Pressure on stocks has drastically increased in the Mediterranean, and also in Turkey, and there is an urgent need to create alternative livelihood opportunities to keep alive the traditional small-scale fisheries and also attract young generation to the sector. The pilot tours will operate until the end of November 2021 and we do hope it will further trigger the process of full legalization of this activity in Turkey”, said Disa Vurdem, FAO fisheries specialist and coordinator of the project.
Participants discussed on pathways toward the legalization of traditional fishing tourism in Turkey
The inauguration of pilot tours was followed by a round-table discussion with participation of all relevant counterparts, including the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Coast Guard, Ege University, Central Union of Fishery Cooperatives in Turkey (SURKOOP), representatives from fishery cooperatives of the region, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and local NGOs.
The objective of the meeting was to inform stakeholders on the progress made from FAO side in the preparation of the legal framework and foster discussion and exchanges between stakeholders on detalization of this activity in terms of eligibility of vessels, safety requirements, hygiene standards, and insurance aspects.
The meeting was opened by the President of Mediterranean Conservation Society, Zafer Kızılkaya, who thanked all the attendees and stated that traditional fishing tourism has a great potential and timely need for small-scale fishers in Turkey. “This opportunity is one the last manoeuvres for creating alternative livelihood for the fishing communities and releasing the pressure on heavily depleted stocks”, he added.
Fisheries Officer from WWF, Timuçin Dinçer, presented principles for sustainable fishing tourism and mentioned that similar efforts are made in Foça, Mordoğan, Kaş and Erdemli to uplift the interest for pescatourism in Turkey.
Following the presentations, the event involved a series of engaging discussions covering the legal adoption process of suitable pescatourism model in Turkey. Vahdet Unal, Professor of Ege University, Fisheries Faculty, stated: “We have validated interest from fishers, received support from authorities to make this initiative fully function in Turkey. Today is a historical moment, and only through extensive participatory process, this initiative can be considered as one of the best solutions for a sustainable future of the small-scale fisheries in Turkey”.
The meeting was closed by the project’s focal point and Head of the Department of Resource Management of the Directorate General of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mahir Kanyılmaz, who thanked all participants for their contribution and emphasized once again that many efforts have been put so far and the fruits of this hard work is this inauguration. “It is our responsibility to support small-scale fisheries, and after the legalization process, we will continue contributing in our best capacity to expanding this initiative throughout the country”, he said.
The objective of this TCP is to strengthen the capacity of Government, key institutions and stakeholders in Turkey, Algeria and Tunisia to develop and implement integrated, multi-sectoral tools and investment programmes using the FAO Blue Growth Initiative (BGI) framework to make these sectors more productive and sustainable, the associated value chains more efficient and inclusive, and to reduce rural poverty. Strengthening the capacity of these countries to implement Blue Growth tools will also put them in a position to solicit additional funding and investment from different institutions, which have Blue Growth-focused investment priority areas.
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