The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) would like to thank the APFIC Secretariat for the invitation to participate in the virtual Thirty-Sixth Session of APFIC.
Regarding Agenda items 1 and 3, ICSF would like to congratulate APFIC secretariat for organizing a series of Regional webinars, including on co-management of small-scale fisheries, and for the forthcoming one on gender in SSF/SSA fisheries/aquaculture. ICSF strongly supports ground-up, contextual and evolutionary marine and inland community-based co-management projects and programmes in the region, focusing, among other things, on gender equity, paying special attention to fishers’ knowledge and institutions, and their tenure rights to land and water. Community-based co-management structures, it is worth recalling, have proved more adaptable to meeting supply-side disruptions arising from SARS-CoV-2 protocols and the COVID-19 pandemic in several APFIC countries. ICSF would urge the APFIC membership to further promote co-management in marine and inland fisheries, to apply the guiding principles of the SSF Guidelines, and to promote and protect a human rights-based approach in all such initiatives.
ICSF believes that paying special attention to social development and decent work can contribute to effective fisheries management and sustainable development. ICSF welcomes the Report of the Seventy-seventh Executive Committee Meeting (Agenda Item 2) in regard to improving data to better reflect the current situation in the region. Such data should include not only data on fisheries and aquaculture production, fishing fleet, area under aquaculture, employment, etc., but also gender disaggregated, sectoral data on human development of fishing communities, fishers, fishworkers, and aquaculture farmers, especially with regard to their access to education, health, sanitation, housing, nutrition and food security—to name a few. Fisheries departments may be encouraged to collect such data from relevant ministries and departments, if needed. Broadening the scope of data in the above lines will also be useful to demonstrate how various targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to poverty eradication, food security, healthy lives and well-being and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources are met in relation to fishing and aquaculture communities. If data permit, it will be further useful to see how far these SDG targets are threatened by climate change and extreme weather events.
Agenda Item 4 (viz,, regarding aquaculture innovation, knowledge sharing and capacity development of developing countries in the APFIC region) draws attention to the capacity building needs or knowledge required for enhancing the sustainable growth of the sector. ICSF is of the view that the capacity building needs should be broadened and complemented to identify those for enhancing social benefits of the vulnerable and marginalized fish farmers and dependent communities as well. Moreover, occupational safety and health and social protection of all aquaculture workers should be guaranteed through the facilitation of decent work.
In regard to the Agenda Item 6, ICSF supports the need to improve reporting of catch statistics to reliably indicate the status of harvested fish stocks in marine fisheries, as well as that of the status of associated and dependent species, within the framework of an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries and respect for biodiversity and aquatic habitats, as well as traditional knowledge of fishers and fish farmers. ICSF welcomes a basin approach to estimating fish stocks in riverine and floodplains fisheries, especially to understand the status and health of inland fisheries resources and to ensure equitable benefits flowing from the conservation and sustainable use of aquatic biodiversity to all relevant stakeholders, particularly those disadvantaged downstream communities, sharing the basin.
ICSF welcomes the suggestion to move the Commission to a virtual mode and to enable its Member countries to participate in all APFIC meetings in a cost-effective manner. ICSF would request APFIC to use this opportunity also to strengthen the participation of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in its meetings, particularly of those that are active in small-scale, marine and inland fisheries and aquaculture.
Last but not the least, recognizing the contributions of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture to employment, income, food security, and considering the cultural richness of small-scale fisheries along the value chain in the region, ICSF strongly recommends APFIC Member countries to celebrate the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture in the Year 2022, especially with the active participation of men and women of fishing communities and local governments (IYAFA 2022). It is an effective way to express solidarity with the small-scale fisheries and aquaculture communities and their food systems in the region.
Full statement is available at: https://demo2.icsf.net/images/resources/statements/statements_icsf/182_ICSF_Statement_APFIC_36thSession.pdf.pdf