Viability And Sustainability Of Small Scale Fisheries In Latin America And The Caribbean

One of the main goals in fisheries governance is to promote viability and sustainability in small-scale fishing communities. This is not an easy task given external and internal pressure, including environmental change and competition with other economic sectors searching for development in the coastal region. A comprehensive understanding of small-scale fisheries in their own context, and from a regional perspective, is an important step in supporting the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines). This book contributes to the global effort by offering knowledge, insights and lessons about small-scale fisheries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The 20 case studies included in the book make explicit the various dimensions that are intrinsic to small-scale fisheries in the region, and identify conditions and situations that affect the wellbeing of fishing communities. The book offers insights regarding the challenges faced by small-scale fisheries in the region, and, aligning with the objectives of the SSF Guidelines, provides lessons and experiences about how to make small-scale fishing communities viable while maintaining sustainable fisheries. This important book illustrates the complexity, diversity, and dynamics of small-scale fisheries in the Latin American and Caribbean region and presents experiences, tools, and approaches to lead towards sustainable and viable fisheries. The reader will gain a new understanding on the range of actions, approaches, and information needed for their successful management. John F. Caddy, International Fisheries Expert This book, prepared by the Too Big To Ignore partnership, constitutes a very valuable resource for policy makers, fisheries scientists, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, and fishing communities interested in putting in place sound management strategies, research, and actions to contribute to the sustainability of small-scale fisheries and food security in Latin America and the Caribbean region. Juan Carlos Seijo, Professor of Fisheries Bioeconomics at Marist University of Merida

This book is a contribution to our understanding of the worrying situation of small-scale fisheries (SSF) which face marginalisation in most coastal countries. The authors explain why SSF are so pressured; how there has been a powerful backlash against this marginalisation during the last 30 years; what are the main ideational currents supporting this backlash; and what is the enduring value of SSF that justifies that support. The authors discuss the major contemporary interpretations of SSF; the challenges facing SSF globally and in England; and SSF’s coping strategies in response to those challenges through the framework of resilience theory. In an innovative analysis, the authors show how there are three kinds of resilience: passive resilience (where fishers are resigned to their adverse fate), adaptive resilience (where fishers make the best use of the opportunities that are available to them), and transformative resilience (where fishers attempt to change the system that faces them). The authors draw on an extensive range of interview data to provide rich insights into the world of SSF, and they discuss a variety of proposals for improving their conditions. The book will appeal to the growing academic and public community that is following with increasing concern the debate about the future of SFF, and to the environmental movement which has committed itself to support SSF as a greener form of fishing than the large-scale industrial sector.

The importance of small-scale fisheries for sustainable livelihoods and communities, food security, and poverty eradication is indisputable. With the endorsement of the ‘Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries’, FAO member states recognize that governments, civil society organizations, and research communities all have a role to play in helping small-scale fisheries achieve these goals. This book argues that policies targeting small-scale fisheries need to be based on a solid and holistic knowledge foundation, and support the building of governance capacity at local, national, and global levels. The book provides rich illustrations from around the world of why such knowledge production needs to be transdisciplinary, drawing from multiple disciplinary perspectives and the knowledge that small-scale fisheries actors have, in order to identify problems and explore innovative solutions. Transdisciplinarity for Small-Scale Fisheries Governance: Analysis and Practice, edited by Ratana Chuenpagdee and Svein Jentoft, successfully demonstrates how small-scale fisheries are important and what social and political conditions are conducive to their wellbeing. The volume contributes tremendously to building capacity of fisheries communities and policy-makers to make the ideals of small-scale fisheries a reality. It establishes the ecological, social, and economic sense behind small-scale fisheries. A milestone reference for all those who believe in small-scale fisheries and are keen to defend them with quality evidence! — Sebastian Mathew, Executive Director, International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) The Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines guiding principles call for holistic and integrated approaches for their implementation. This book will help a new generation of scientists, policy-makers, and small-scale fisheries actors make the fundamental connections between different disciplines in science, traditional knowledge, and policy to guide a collective process towards sustainable small-scale fisheries. The book contains an inspiring collection of practical cases from around the world, complemented by deep dives into dimensions of small-scale fisheries, like food security, stewardship, climate change, and gender, which all call for transdisciplinary approaches. — Nicole Franz, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Rome, Italy

This book offers a comprehensive account of the status and dynamics of people participating in the small-scale fisheries (SSF) of Europe. It covers the situation of SSF in 25 coastal countries, thereby providing a portrait of almost every coastal country on the continent and analyzing the recent evolution of the sector. Small-scale fisheries are argued to be extremely important in Europe, as they provide employment and welfare, while increasing food sovereignty and maintaining communities in coastal areas. The recent worldwide focus on SSF derives from their environmental sustainability, which distinguishes many of their activities from those of large-scale fisheries. This book analyses the diversity of SSF and shows how fishing communities have sometimes developed successful governing models, demonstrating social and economic resilience. While the book emphasizes the strengths of SSF and the synergies that occur with other marine sectors, it also presents cases of failure, in which collective action and policy have actually contributed to a weakening of the sector. In this context, the book shows how governmental policies toward SSF vary considerably from country to country, in a way that is not entirely consistent with European policies.

The ocean plays a central role in the life and development of human kind. Besides space for navigation and trade (roughly 10 billion tons of commodities are transported across the oceans each year), the provision of biological and non-living resources is the most important service of the marine ecosystems. Yet, these ecosystems are increasingly impeded by human activities and interventions. Human and naturally induced changes in climate are buffered by the ocean, but its capacity to compensate the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is at its limit. The increase of global temperatures and the decrease of oxygen concentration and pH are severe stressors for aquatic species and thus for the whole ecosystem. Urbanisation and population growth at the coast, along with severe levels of pollution, are stressing coastal environments and hampering or interrupting life cycles of species as well as the well established and naturally balanced internal interconnections within and between ecosystems. Mining for oil and gas is interfering with fisheries, competing for space with other sectors and increasing the risks for large scale pollution. The result is a decline in ecosystem services and a negative feedback into the socio-economic systems. The recent reports by IPBES and IPCC underline the degrading conditions in which the ecosystems are situated today. The IPBES report evaluates a number of direct and indirect drivers. Population increase, technical development, malfunctioning of governance and spreading of conflicts affect direct drivers such as sea use change, direct exploitation, climate change, pollution, invasive species and others. Following a series of summits and conventions that prompted the United Nations in recent decades, Rio de Janeiro in 1992, Johannesburg in 2002 and Rio+20 in 2012, all of which were rather land-based, the Sustainable Development Goals 2015 set a new landmark in which the ocean, too, was finally acknowledged as significant to global development. The Ocean Conference in New York in June 2017 led the international community to formulate clear goals for the development of the ocean. The volume Transitioning to Sustainable Life below Water will address critical issues in ocean use and reflect against goals and targets of SDG 14 and other relevant SDGs. Transitioning to Sustainable Life below Water is part of MDPI's new Open Access book series Transitioning to Sustainability. With this series, MDPI pursues environmentally and socially relevant research which contributes to efforts toward a sustainable world. Transitioning to Sustainability aims to add to the conversation about regional and global sustainable development according to the 17 SDGs. The book series is intended to reach beyond disciplinary, even academic boundaries. *The chapters listed below, are pre-publication chapters and the final page numbers will be assigned once the book is published as a whole. For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated below: (Author 1, and Author 2. 2021. Chapter Title in Transistioning to Sustainable Life below Water. Edited by Werner Ekau and Anna-Katharina Hornidge.

This Handbook examines the diverse ways in which climate change impacts Indigenous Peoples and local communities and considers their response to these changes. While there is well-established evidence that the climate of the Earth is changing, the scarcity of instrumental data oftentimes challenges scientists’ ability to detect such impacts in remote and marginalized areas of the world or in areas with scarce data. Bridging this gap, this Handbook draws on field research among Indigenous Peoples and local communities distributed across different climatic zones and relying on different livelihood activities, to analyse their reports of and responses to climate change impacts. It includes contributions from a range of authors from different nationalities, disciplinary backgrounds, and positionalities, thus reflecting the diversity of approaches in the field. The Handbook is organised in two parts: Part I examines the diverse ways in which climate change – alone or in interaction with other drivers of environmental change – affects Indigenous Peoples and local communities; Part II examines how Indigenous Peoples and local communities are locally adapting their responses to these impacts. Overall, this book highlights Indigenous and local knowledge systems as an untapped resource which will be vital in deepening our understanding of the effects of climate change. The Routledge Handbook of Climate Change Impacts on Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities will be an essential reference text for students and scholars of climate change, anthropology, environmental studies, ethnobiology, and Indigenous studies.

In June 2014, FAO member-states endorsed the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines). These Guidelines are one of the most significant landmarks for small-scale fisheries around the world. They are comprehensive in terms of topics covered, and progressive, with their foundations based on human rights and other key principles. It can be anticipated that implementing the SSF Guidelines, whether at local, national, or regional levels, will be challenging. This book contains in-depth case studies where authors discuss the extent to which the Guidelines can help improve the realities of small-scale fishing men and women globally and make their livelihoods and communities more secure. This will require policy intervention and innovation, along with contributions of civil society organizations and academia. However, most of all it will necessitate the empowerment of fishing people so that they can become active participants in decision making on matters where their well-being and human rights are at stake. By endorsing the SSF Guidelines, states have committed themselves to support and facilitate this development. This book asks whether states can successfully “walk the talk,” and provides advice as to how they can do so. The collection of case studies sets the platform for an interactive dialogue space for researchers, policy makers, civil society and small-scale fishing communities to start the conversation about the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the SSF Guidelines at local, national, regional and global levels. An added value is that it helps add focus to our work as civil society activists involved in ensuring the application of the SSF Guidelines. Naseegh Jaffer – General Secretary, World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP) This collection offers many ways in which institutions enabling small-scale fisheries can protect and promote sustainability, food security, customary tenure, self-management, and market access, while fostering such benefits as ecosystem-based management, protected areas, incorporation of local knowledge, and poverty alleviation. You will want to put this book in the hands of policy-makers and practitioners immediately -- and for years to come. Evelyn Pinkerton – Professor, Simon Fraser University, Canada