Representatives of dozens of coastal and marine organizations and small-scale fisheries gathered in Brasilia (capital of Brazil) last week to exchange experiences and identify them major societal demands for recovering the vitality of the waters and quality of life of small-scale fishers.
The participants delineated a strategy to engage Brazilian society, artisanal fishers and to call state agents its moral responsibility to implement the “International Guidelines on Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines). These directives were approved in 2014 by FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization), after nine long years of intense debates by fishers worldwide. This new instrument demonstrates the grandness of artisanal fisheries for human, social and economic development in the country. However, one of the critical gaps identified is that Brazil has not yet ratified the guidelines in national policies.
The discussed strategy will be presented to state powers and forwarded to UN in the occasion of the next Committee on Fisheries of FAO later in July 2016 in Rome. The objective is to inform the advancement of a Global Assistance Program to the implementation of the guidelines in different countries. This program will need to consider the expectations of Brazilian fisherfolk, scientists and extensionists engaged in support of the sector.
Over fifteen artisanal fisheries organizations have stablished the founding stones of such strategy in a report, to be finalized until the end of July, which will certainly become a historical reference to the sector in its pursue of human rights, food and nutritional security in the country. To follow up the issuing of the report and articulate the advancement of the outlined strategy, a Working Group was formed within the National Network in Support of Brazilian Artisanal Fisheries (TeiaPesca), which includes fishers leaders and technicians that since 2014 have been acting to support the sector. The next steps includes the wide dissemination of the guidelines to all Brazilian fishers by various means such as videos, music, flyers, booklets and games. Additional meetings and regional and national encounters will be needed with the objective of mobilizing society and principally fishers themselves in upcoming years. During the seminar, the group also produced a first film entitled Vital Fisheries, which explains the main concepts of the SSF Guidelines to help kicking of this campaign.
The “National Seminar on Capacity-building for the Implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Small-scale Fisheries” toke place from 13-17th June in Brasilia, with the objective of “finding out ways of internalizing and adapting the SSF Guidelines to the country’s specificities from the bottom-up, explains Fabricio Gandini, from Instituto Maramar, one of the seminars organizers.
The strategic document, after been concluded, will be forwarded to competent authorities. A preliminary overview was presented to invited authorities last thursday (16th June), and the final version will be submitted to ICSF (International Collective in Support of Fishworkers), the principal seminar organizer and whom will deliver it to FAO.
In general, the SSF Guidelines defines that artisanal fishers communities need to have their territorial rights secured; considering the important role they play in the conservation of aquatic ecosystems and implementation of sustainability measures in long-term; these communities should be centrally included in management discussions; fishworkers should be part of social security policies; the role fish-chain should be acknowledged when implemeting public policies, particularly the critically important role of women; fishers should have adequate quality of life, avoiding abusive work conditions and enhancing their occupational health and security, amongst others.