Welcoming the chair’s draft recommendation to the 24th meeting of the Conference of Parties of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), in a Statement made on 23 March 2022, recognized the importance of marine and coastal biodiversity in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, which will be critical to Parties’ efforts to implement the Framework through participatory and equitable conservation, and management measures.
Small-scale fisheries (SSF) and their dependent Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) are fundamental to achieving the post-2020 framework. Accordingly, actions to conserve and sustainably use marine and coastal biodiversity should be in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), promoting a human-rights-based approach, according to the Statement.
“It is important to recognize IPLC traditional knowledge and actions towards conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity that is the basis of their lives and livelihoods. Community-based management and participatory governance, which protect legitimate tenure rights to aquatic and terrestrial resources, will enhance conservation efforts and be an incentive to sustainable practices. To this end, the principle of free, prior, informed consent (FPIC) of IPLCs needs to apply to all relevant traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of these communities”, the Statement continued.
While unsustainable fishing should be addressed by the CBD, the Statement pointed out, other threats and pressures that undermine the ocean’s capacity to support ecosystem services and traditional sustainable use by IPLCs are also to be addressed. This includes the application of ecosystem and precautionary approaches to seabed mining, geo-engineering and other proposed activities in marine areas under national jurisdiction. The Convention should urge other competent intergovernmental organizations with a mandate to conserve marine biodiversity areas beyond national jurisdiction to apply a precautionary approach to new technologies and industries, the Statement added.
ICSF welcomed the Convention’s collaboration with other United Nations agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and regional fishery bodies, to support the implementation of the post-2020 framework with respect to marine and coastalbiodiversity. To this end, it urged for the reinstatement of the dedicated target for sustainable management of marine living resources in the post-2020 framework, as suggested by several Parties, so as to continue the work of the Convention to achieve Aichi Target 6.
In a spirit of collaboration, the Statement noted, the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) are a valuable tool for achieving the goals and objectives of the CBD and the SDGs, consistent with a human-rights-based approach. In this context, the FAO’s monitoring of SDG 14.b (provide access of small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and markets) will be relevant to the new biodiversity framework.
Adopting a human-rights-based approach in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and in all processes of the Convention will ensure that marine and coastal biodiversity is conserved and small-scale fishery IPLCs – often vulnerable communities – are effectively
protected from dispossession, impoverishment and marginalization, the Statement conculded.
Full statement is available at: https://demo2.icsf.net/resources/icsfs-statement-at-sbstta-24-agenda-item-6-marine-and-coastal-biodiversity/