An overview of the role research and academia play in the implementation of the SSF Guidelines

Why is research and academia important for the implementation of the SSF Guidelines?

The importance of Information, research and communication for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries is at the heart of Chapter 11 of the SSF Guidelines.

SSF Guidelines paragraph 11.1:

States should establish systems of collecting fisheries data, including bioecological, social, cultural and economic data relevant for decision-making on sustainable management of small-scale fisheries with a view to ensuring sustainability of ecosystems, including fish stocks, in a transparent manner. Efforts should be made to also produce gender-disaggregated data in official statistics, as well as data allowing for an improved understanding and visibility of the importance of small-scale fisheries and its different components, including socioeconomic aspects.

Academia and research play a fundamental role in supporting a better understanding of every dimension of small-scale fisheries. Additionally, academia and research play a role to support the second component of the FAO SSF Umbrella Program, ‘strengthening the science-policy interface’, so that policy and legislative reform can lead to the application of the principles of the SSF Guidelines and the integration of participatory sustainable resource management with social and economic development. Importantly, as stressed in the SSF Guidelines, traditional information embedded in small-scale fishing communities needs to also be taken into consideration in fisheries management and governance.

FAO collaborates with research institutions around the world, each involved in a specific area of small-scale fisheries research. For example, the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) of the University of the West Indies in Barbados collaborates closely with the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) a grouping of seventeen Caribbean countries who, as a regional political body, is tasked "to promote and facilitate the responsible utilization of the region's fisheries and other aquatic resources for the economic and social benefits of the current and future population of the region". CERMES work in support of the implementation of the SSF Guidelines led to the preparation and approval of a CRFM protocol on small-scale fisheries. Please read other examples of the role of research and academia in implementing the SSF Guidelines in the related article.

A major research undertaking that FAO has launched with WorldFish and Duke University is the study ‘Illuminating Hidden Harvests: The contribution of small-scale fisheries to sustainable development’ (IHH) (read 'IHH: COFI Virtual Dialogues' to learn more), which be launched in 2021.

Kate Bevitt - Strategic Communications Advisor at WorldFish - gives us insight into the forthcoming IHH study.

From roadside drainage channels in Southeast Asia, to mega-deltas of the world’s large river systems and the nearshore waters of oceans and seas, small-scale fisheries provide livelihoods for millions, essential nutrition to billions and contribute substantially to household, local and national economies and economic growth.

Yet due to the highly diverse and dispersed nature of small-scale fisheries, quantifying and understanding their multiple contributions is difficult and a unified and effective voice for advocacy can seem unattainable.

A new research study by FAO, Duke University and WorldFish – Illuminating Hidden Harvests: The contribution of small-scale fisheries to sustainable development – (IHH) will help to fill this knowledge gap when released in 2021.

"The study’s aim is to further develop our understanding of small-scale fisheries so that policy and action can be informed by solid evidence," said Manuel Barange, Director, FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Division during the IHH virtual dialogue on 17 July 2020.

The IHH study is one example of how FAO is collaborating with research and academic institutions to support implementation of the SSF Guidelines at national, regional and international levels.

In the SSF Guidelines, research is promoted as a vital means to contribute to decision-making processes, including to inform strategies for ensuring equitable benefits for men and women in fisheries.

Besides the IHH study, FAO has formal partnerships with both WorldFish and Duke University to advance research into small-scale fisheries and build on past collaborations.

"This partnership [between FAO and WorldFish] is a fantastic opportunity to enhance the impact of fish on the well-being of millions of consumers, producers and fisheries-dependent people worldwide," said Dr. Gareth Johnstone, WorldFish Director General, in 2018. "It combines WorldFish research skills and experience with FAO's policy-making capacity for greater impact."

At the recent virtual launch of the FAO and Duke University partnership, Toddi Stillman, Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University spoke of the opportunity to connect students and their research to real policy impacts.

"Duke prides itself on interdisciplinarity and on addressing the big problems facing our society at large," she said. The partnership will help to generate knowledge that would "impact the way policy and decision-makers see small-scale fisheries, allowing us to move this issue higher up on the policy agenda of countries."

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