ICSF publishes study on impacts of the Blue Economy on small-scale fisheries in Latin America

The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has published a study that analyzes how the so-called ‘Blue Economy’ discourses and practice plays out from the perspectives of small-scale, artisanal fishworkers in ten Latin American countries: Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panamá, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala.

The study, titled ‘Baffling Shades of Blue: Addressing the impacts of the Blue Economy on small-scale fisheries in Latin America’, is part of ICSF’s campaign activities aimed at generating critical knowledge to support and strengthen fishing communities’ engagement in SSF and to promote social development and sustainable fisheries on the basis of a human-rights-based approach, in accordance with the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (the SSF Guidelines).

The study focuses on ‘blue economy’ or ‘blue growth’ paradigms and associated impacts. These ‘blue’ sectors include both existing uses of marine and coastal resources (food provisioning, marine transport and infrastructure, and energy production and extraction) and emerging industries (e.g., marine biotechnology, seabed mining, carbon sequestration); as well as a push for environmental conservation through the promotion of marine protected areas, amongst other management and development tools.

Fishworker organizations (FWOs) and civil society have pointed out that social equity concerns have seldom been sufficiently addressed under the blue economy/growth paradigm. SSF supporters worldwide are, therefore, increasingly calling for a profound rethink of ‘blue’ agendas and investments. In this context, ICSF partnered with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), SwedBio at the Stockholm Resilience Center (SRC) and other partners to organize a series of webinars on ‘SSF and everything blue’ from March to May, 2020. These webinars were organized with the participation of international small-scale fishworkers organizations, SSF research networks and civil society organizations (CSOs). These discussions highlighted critical knowledge and policy gaps in the blue economy paradigm, which provided a rationale for a regional Latin American study with the following objectives:

1. undertake an assessment of policy, legislation and investment relevant to the ‘blue economy’ paradigm, with a focus on their implications for small-scale fisheries (SSF) in ten Latin American countries;

    

2. evaluate competing definitions of blue economy to support the development of inclusive and sustainable ocean agendas developed in consultation with fishworkers organizations;

    

3. engage with national, regional and international FWOs to share the findings of the study and develop advocacy strategies to address the challenges and opportunities to SSF arising from blue economy agendas in Latin America; and

    

4. advocate ecosystem- and human rights-based approaches in sustainable use and management of coastal and marine resources and biodiversity in Latin America.

The study identified over 7,000 nationally based projects from 2012-2020 and classified 494 ‘blue’ investments out of these, predominantly in the coastal states of all assessed countries. Brazil is the largest recipient of these investments and Nicaragua the smallest. The Fisheries and Aquaculture sector ranked sixth behind environmental resource management and conservation, territorial development and use/occupation, energy, tourism and transport infrastructure and logistics, and ahead of other industries, agriculture and livestock and mining sectors. A total of 47 Global and Regional blue investments were also identified–predominantly in the area of Environmental Resource Management and Conservation and particularly with direct implication to SSF.

These projects create an international ‘blue’ arena that seldom includes the participation of SSF organizations. This report shows the troubling lack of information on the impacts of financial investments by major international banks and other donors – a major challenge for fishworkers organizations and supportive socio-environmental justice organizations.Latin