CALL TO ACTION: Submit examples of natural resource stewardship by small-scale fishing communities and organizations around the world!
Small-scale fisheries and fishing communities often play a crucial role in the conservation and stewardship of their local natural resources and ecosystems. Chapter 5 of the SSF Guidelines highlights the need to recognize and support this key feature of small-scale fisheries, recommending that States should recognise and facilitate the role of the small-scale fishing communities and indigenous peoples to restore, conserve, protect and co-manage local aquatic and coastal ecosystems.
The forms that stewardship can take are varied. These include, as examples:
- Empowerment of small-scale fisheries to participate in co-management of fisheries
- Use by small-scale fishing communities of traditional practices for limiting their fishing pressure, e.g. through their own use of closed areas, protected areas, gear restrictions, timing/season limits, and so on
- Use by Indigenous peoples and local communities of traditional ecological knowledge to decide on resource use and ecosystem conservation measures.
Many other forms can be identified, and indeed doing so is a fundamental part of this initiative. FAO is working with Saint Mary’s University, in Canada, on a new project to develop an easily-accessible database of examples of ongoing environmental conservation practices of small-scale fishers, and how those activities support sustainable livelihoods. Additionally, a guidebook in support of implementing the SSF Guidelines will be developed, providing a guide to stewardship practices and approaches by small-scale fishing communities around the world.
If you are aware of any examples that potentially meet the description and purpose highlighted above and would like to contribute to this database, please contact: