The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that its Committee on Fisheries endorsed a set of wide-reaching guidelines that will boost the role of small-scale fishers in contributing to global food security, nutrition and poverty eradication, a UN spokesman told reporters here Tuesday.
“These Guidelines range from measures to improve fisheries governance systems and working and living conditions, to recommendations on how countries can help small-scale fishers and fish workers cut down food losses and waste,” Stephane Dujarric, the UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.
The Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication are designed to support the world’s millions of small-scale fishers, particularly in developing countries, by promoting their human rights and safeguarding the sustainable use of the fishery resources they depend upon for their livelihoods.
Small-scale fisheries account for more than 90 percent of the world’s fishers and fish workers — about half of whom are women — and supply around 50 percent of all global fish catches. They provide a valuable source of animal protein for billions of people worldwide and often underpin local economies in coastal and lake- and river-side communities.
But despite their importance, many small-scale fishing communities continue to be marginalized.
Often located in remote areas with limited access to markets and to health, education and other social services, small-scale fishers can have difficulty in making their voices heard.
Small-scale fishers and fish workers face a range of challenges, from unsafe and unhealthy working conditions and poor infrastructure to pollution, environmental degradation, climate change and disasters threatening the resources they depend on for their livelihoods.
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