Inland and coastal communities should be empowered to protect and enhance their fisheries-based livelihoods through social development and conservation and sustainable use of aquatic biodiversity, the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) stated in a presentation at the International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability, held in Rome, Italy, during 18 to 21 November 2019.
During Session 4: ‘Enabling environment for securing sustainable fisheries-based livelihoods,
including their social, cultural and equity dimensions’, Sebastian Mathew, Executive Director of ICSF, called for a human-rights-based approach in institution-building of fishers’ organizations and improving governance at various levels, which is vital to securing the livelihoods of marine and inland fishing communities.
The following is the full text of the presentation:
How fish production is vital to the adequate livelihood of fishers is already recognized in the 1943 Final Act of the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture.
The 1995 Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries acknowledges the contribution of artisanal and small-scale fisheries to employment, income and food security, and seeks to protect the rights of fishers and fishworkers in these subsectors to a secure and just livelihood, and to secure their preferential access to fishing grounds and resources.
The 2014 SSF Guidelines deal systematically with these rights in the context of marine and inland fisheries, and provide guidance, inter alia, on how these rights can be protected, employing a human-rights-based approach. The Sustainable Development Goal 14.b seeks to provide access for small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets.
Towards protecting livelihoods, it is imperative to secure access to resources of marine and inland fishers, including migrants, in the formal and informal, small-scale fisheries subsectors, employing scale subsidiarity’ and establishing non-towed fishing zones.
In this context, inland and coastal communities should be empowered to protect and enhance their fisheries-based livelihoods through social development and conservation and sustainable use of aquatic biodiversity.
This can be achieved through:
i. promoting and protecting a human-rights-based approachespecially, upholding the principles of human rights and dignity; consultation and participation, and gender equity;
ii. securing tenure rights to the land and water of fishing communities;
iii. adopting an ecosystem-based approach to improve conservation and sustainable use of fishery resources; and
iv. applying a risk-based approach to improve sea safety and the safety of inland fishing, and integrating safety issues into resource management.
Towards protecting livelihoods, it is important to build institutions (e.g., associations, co-ops, trade unions, etc. of men and women and the creation of multilevel platforms) from the ground up in a rights-based framework: to uphold equitable tenure rights (including through devolution) to land and water; and to protect decent work practices, women’s rights, and the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Towards protecting livelihoods, undertaking multi-level governance reforms from top down is also necessary by strongly demonstrating the political will to: ensure conservation and sustainable use of aquatic resources; advocate fair and equitable allocation of fishery resources and river basins; promote wellbeing, social protection and gender equity; protect the human rights of fishers and fishworkers; and promote decent work based on relevant International Labour Organization (ILO) instruments.
The bottom-up and the top-down approaches should establish coherence. In this context, the fisheries administration, in consultation with fishing communities, should act as a midwife to improve governance and to assert coastal State responsibility to protect sustainable livelihood opportunities and to prevent the market from riding roughshod over fishing communities and fisheries resources.
In conclusion, institution-building of fishers’ organizations and improving governance at various levels, adopting a human-rights-based approach, are vital to securing the livelihoods of marine and inland fishing communities.
2019 ICSF