Representatives of small farmers, agricultural workers, fishing communities and fishworkers, pastoralists, indigenous peoples, consumers, NGOs, women and youth, representing CSOs at the local, regional, national and international levels in the region of Europe and Central Asia, came together in Antalya, Turkey, during May 2-3, 2016 to provide their contributions to the 30th FAO Regional Conference for Europe and Central Asia (May 4-5-6, 2016, Antalya,Turkey).
In a Declaration, the 56 representatives who met at the Consultation appreciated the efforts of FAO in supporting CSOs to collectively strengthen the voice of the millions of small-scale food producers and family farmers who are the backbone for rural development and improvement of livelihoods, and who provide the bulk of our food.
The 56 CSO participants represented different regions and sectors from across different constituencies: smallholder farmers, landless agricultural workers, fishers and fishworkers, pastoralists and herders, forest dwellers, ethnic minorities and indigenous people, urban poor, consumers, NGOs, women and youth.
The only way to overcome poverty and malnutrition and ensure food security is through a human-rights-based approach that respects nature, the Consultation noted. The FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT) and the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries (VGSSF) are critical tools to secure the tenure rights of the region’s small-scale food producers and family farmers and secure access to fish stocks and fish, given that they are anchored in a human-rights-based approach, respect nature and explicitly prioritise vulnerable and marginalised groups, the CSO Declaration stated.
It also noted that emphasis needs to be placed on using and implementing the VGSSF Guidelines, to recognize the contribution of small-scale fisheries (both inland and coastal), and adopt the combined human-rights and ecosystems-based approaches advocated.
FAO and governments should therefore adopt policies that ensure that:
Traditional sustainable fish(eries) knowledge and practices should be validated and decentralised (community-based) co-management should be promoted. Fishers need to be involved in data collection and analysis.
Both professional and recreational fishers should benefit equally from management of inland fisheries. Management should be focussed on optimizing fish harvesting to enable professional fishers to fish in a sustainable way, and also earn a decent livelihood and provide healthy protein to local communities. The needs of recreational fishers can also be addressed in a non-competitive way.
The roles of small-scale fishery workers throughout the value chain need to be recognized and respected, particularly women who make up at least 50% of the workforce. Women are often engaged in pre-harvest and post-harvest activities, and often engaged in support roles that are frequently not recognized and are poorly paid.
The Declaration stressed that agricultural and fish workers need to be able to organize in independent, democratic trade unions that represent their views and to be able to bargain collectively to improve their working conditions and get paid a living wage. The Consultation urged FAO and governments to increase their efforts to eliminate forced labour in the food and agricultural sector.
The full text of the Civil Society Consultation Declaration can be acessed at http://2016.csoconsultation.org/pdf/declaration.pdf