The tidal wave of fishing rights transformation implemented in South Africa over the past two decades has yet to reach the majority of local small-scale fishers. Fortunately, innovative efforts to enable change in this sector are surfacing, including plans to establish the country’s first community-driven fisheries improvement programme.
ABALOBI, a fisher-driven social enterprise based in Cape Town, employs technology to disrupt the dynamics of the value and supply chain in local small-scale fisheries, for the benefit of both planet and people.
In practice, ABALOBI’s hi-tech, yet user-friendly, apps establish direct links between fishers and the marketplace, underpinned by a traceability framework.
Many structural and distributional inequalities characteristics of the South African economy and many global economies pin small-scale fishing communities in positions of poverty and food insecurity.
It’s time we look beyond just the fish and look also at the fisher, Raemaekers says. Turning the tide for these vulnerable fishers requires new strategies, innovation and a disruptive approach towards ensuring social justice, resilience and transformation. We need to widen the lens on sustainability in the sector and on possible ways to get there.
Chris Kastern, ABALOBI’s product and traceability manager, says small-scale fisheries’ value chains are still inherently inequitable. This creates incentives for overfishing that are often not talked about.
Mainstream seafood market approaches often work against fishers’ efforts to address sustainability concerns. Small-scale fishers remain at the mercy of opaque supply chains that trap them in a position of price-taking, having to accept whatever is offered to them, he says. That’s why we’ve got a problem small-scale fishers have very limited economic breathing room, which limits their ability to engage in any initiatives that fall outside of basic day-to-day livelihood activities.
A disengaged broader society could also, unwittingly, drive unsustainable ocean practices due to the effect of market incentives for overfishing.
Small-scale fishers are often paid a pittance for their fish, even for species considered high value in the consumer market. This leaves them with few options but to catch more fish to sustain their livelihoods, perpetuating their marginalisation and incurring huge social costs in fishing communities, while the environment faces increasing pressure.
It is high time for change in the small-scale fishing sector a reality that is highlighted in ABALOBI’s manifesto for change, Raemaekers argues.