Fishing for a Secure Future: Opportunities for Reforming Fisheries Governance

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Fishing for a Secure Future Opportunities for
Reforming Fisheries Governance

• Robert Pomeroy
• University of Connecticut-Avery Point
• and
• Patrick Christie
• University of Washington

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Presentation Outline

• Why Care About Fisheries
• Issues and Threats
• US Foreign Assistance Framework
• Recommendations and Opportunities

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Purpose of Assessment

• Identify specific opportunities for investment in
  near-shore small-scale marine and freshwater
  capture fisheries to encourage
• economic growth
• democracy and governance
• poverty reduction
• food and livelihood security
• biodiversity conservation
• Regions ANE, AFR, LAC

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Methodology

• Literature-based research (not a GAP analysis)
• Stakeholder consultations
• USAID operating units
• U.S. government agencies (such as State, NOAA,
  DOI)
• NGOs
• International organizations and donor community
• Universities
• Collective experience of the report team

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Assessment Team

• Patrick Christie Co-team leader
• Robert Pomeroy Co-team leader
• Gene Helfman University of Georgia
• Brian Crawford University of Rhode Island
• Nancy Diamond Diamond Consulting
• Tom Grasso - WWF
• Gareth Porter - WWF
• Don Jackson Mississippi State University
• Ann Gordon WorldFish Center
• Patrick Dugan WorldFish Center
• Catrin Egerton WorldFish Center
• Adaoma Wosu WorldFish Center
• Natan Vinhateiro WorldFish Center

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Why Care About Small-Scale Fisheries?
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Importance of Fisheries to Developing Countries

• 1.5 billion people depend upon fish for food,
  income livelihood
• 2.6 billion people receive more that 20 of
  their animal protein from fish, compared to 8 in
  developed countries
• Up to 50 of animal protein in some countries
• Fisheries contribute to
• Secure livelihoods (commercial
  small-scale/artisanal)
• Human health (food security and nutrition)
• Economic and community development
• Regional international trade, export earnings
• Environmental health and biodiversity
  conservation
• Security

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Importance of Fisheries to Developing Countries

• Fish are the most heavily traded food commodity
  and fastest growing international agricultural
  commodity
• Developing countries provide 77 of global
  fishing production
• Supply-demand relationship is south to north
  
• Net exports of fish in 2002 earned 17.4 billion
  in foreign exchange for developing countries
• Greater than combined net exports of rice,
  coffee, sugar tea!

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Small-Scale Fisheries

• Labor-intensive, non-mechanized, small boats,
  traditional fishing gear
• Activities take place nearshore during trips of
  one day or less
• Small-scale fishers account for 96 of the
  worlds fishers
• They catch 58 of the global fish catch
• 12-50 million men and women are estimated to be
  directly involved in small-scale capture
  fisheries (full-time, increasingly part-time,
  seasonal)
• 87 of worlds fishers are in the Asia-Pacific
  region
• At least 20 of those employed in fisheries earn
  lt 1/day
• Far more people have become involved in fishing
  than agriculture since 1950 (total growth rate of
  400 vs. 35)

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• Small-Scale Fisheries
• 50 Million people directly employed
• People involved in fisheries-related
  occupations 150 M
• Fishing household dependents 250 M
• Annual catch for food is 20-30 M tons

• Large-Scale Fisheries
• 500,000 people directly employed
• People involved in fisheries-related
  occupations 1.0 M
• Fishing household dependents 2.0 M
• Annual catch for food is 15-40 Million tons

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Gender Fisheries

• Fishing (and gleaning) part of a household
  livelihood strategy
• Wide range of mens womens fisheries
  occupations (e.g., catching, growing, processing,
  trading)
• Household gender division of labor varies by
  place
• Womens and girls contributions less often
  recognized

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Trends

• Capture fisheries are in a state of decline that
  began in the 1980s (and earlier for some
  fisheries)
• Causes overfishing, habitat loss and other
  environmental degradation
• Example South and SE Asia demersal stocks have
  been fished down to 530 of unexploited levels
  88 of SE Asia coral reefs are threatened by
  human activities
• Impacts Livelihoods and employment, reduced
  incomes, vulnerability to poverty, food security
  and nutrition, export revenue, loss of resource
  rent, social stability and security

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Importance of Fisheries to Developing Countries

• Decline in per capita availability and
  increasing prices leading to a widening gap
  between supply and demand, and disproportionate
  impact on developing countries the poor
• Capture fisheries may not meet the increasing
  global demand for seafood products (1.5 annually
  through 2020 and 2 annually for Asia) unless
• Improved resource management
• Sustainable aquaculture

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Marine and Freshwater Biodiversity

• Serious threats to fisheries from declining
  levels of aquatic biodiversity
• Serious threats to biodiversity from poorly
  managed fisheries
• Developing countries have the most significant
  areas of marine and freshwater biodiversity and
  fisheries

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Areas of Significant Marine Biodiversity and
Fisheries

• Highest diversity of marine fish species is the
  Indo-Malay-Philippines Archipelago
• Global center of marine fish biodiversity is the
  central Philippine islands
• A second center or peak between peninsular
  Malaysia and Sumatra

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Freshwater Biodiversity and Fisheries

• Latin America Amazon River system
• Richest fish fauna in the world, 3,000 species,
  with at least 30 different families represented
• SE Asia Mekong River Basin
• Largest SE Asia river with a fish diversity
  upwards of 1,700 species
• Sub-Saharan Africa Rift Valley Lakes Congo
  River Basin
• Support similarly high numbers of fish species

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Issues and Threats Weak Governance

• Overfishing and excess fishing capacity
• Open access
• Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU)
  fishing
• Lack of information
• Enforcement and compliance
• Low participation in decision making
• Conflict
• Weak management institutions and corruption
• Inappropriate policies

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Issues and Threats Socioeconomic Conditions

• Poverty
• Poorly managed globalization of trade and market
  access
• Technological advances
• Rapid population growth
• Health HIV AIDS, nutrition
• Political and economic marginalization
• Gender inequity and inequality

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Issues and Threats Large Ecosystem Changes

• Climate change SLR, elevated SST, acidification
• Habitat loss and pollution (coastal development)
• Removal of key species, introduction of exotics
• Altered freshwater inflows

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Opportunities in Small-Scale Fisheries

• The fisheries sector has great potential to
  contribute to poverty reduction and economic
  growth
• Moderate scope for increased benefits to poor
  fishers and consumers and resource rents to
  society, with responsible equitable governance
• Some indication that fishing is no longer the
  employment of last resort, and that fishing
  households are actively diversifying livelihoods.
• Increasing successes with a range of new
  management approaches

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Management Responses

• Ecosystem-based management
• Integrated coastal management
• Precautionary approach
• Adaptive management
• Stakeholder participation via co-management
  CBNRM
• Rights-based management (use rights limiting
  access)
• Marine protected areas
• Data less management in information-limited
  situations
• Markets and certification
• Livelihoods approach

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Strategy

• Address underlying factors of vulnerability
• Build resilience of fishing communities
• Understand the diversity of fisheries
• Utilized in a cross-sectoral manner to address
  the complexity of issues and threats

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Relationship of Fisheries to theNew U.S. Foreign
Assistance Framework

• Framework Goal
• Helping to build and sustain democratic,
  well-governed states that respond to the needs of
  their people and conduct themselves responsibly
  in the international system.

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Fisheries the Framework Components

• 1. Governing Justly and Democratically
• Weak governance
• Enforcement problems
• Lack of stakeholder participation in
  decision-making
• 2. Economic Growth
• Political and economic marginalization
• Trade and market access
• Loss of economic rents
• Poverty and livelihoods

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Fisheries the Framework Components

• 3. Peace and Security
• Maritime security
• Leaky borders (piracy, smuggling)
• Conflict and fish wars
• 4. Investing in People
• Food security, nutrition, health (HIV/AIDS)
• Rapid population growth
• Loss of biodiversity and ecosystem health
• 5. Humanitarian Assistance
• Vulnerability to disaster

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Small-Scale Fisheries and US Government
Leadership

• A new fisheries initiative
• SECURE FISHING COMMUNITIES
• and
• SUSTAINABILITY

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Recommendations

• National
• Regional
• Global

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National Assistance Overview

• Improve assessment capacity
• Reform fisheries governance
• Reduce excess fishing capacity and improve
  access management
• Reduce IUU fishing
• Develop human and institutional capacity
• Build appropriate trade capacity
• Conserve biodiversity for enhanced
• sustained productivity

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National Improve Assessment Capacity

• Work with governments to conduct national
  assessment of small-scale fisheries leading to
  national fisheries and development plans
• Assess characteristics and state of fishers and
  fisheries, socio-economics gender analysis,
  current policies, etc.
• Use information as platform for developing
  appropriate policies and monitoring change over
  time

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National Reform Fisheries Governance

• Changing the mindset
• Acknowledge overfishing build political and
  public will for reform
• Moving from production orientation to
  sustainable management
• Manage access
• Manage different types of fisheries in an
  integrated manner, especially for shared stocks

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National Reform Fisheries Governance

• Encourage transparency and accountability
• Reduce corruption
• Promote co-management including women and
  minorities
• Sustainable fisheries concept encoded in law
• Integrate fisheries with other sectors and
  planning processes
• Build alliances with private sector other
  partners
• Adaptive management

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National Reduce excess fishing capacity

• National and local plans of action
• Managing access to fisheries resources
• Alternative livelihoods to support transition
  out of fishery sector

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National Develop Human and Institutional
Capacity

• Developing champions for sustainable fisheries
  within government
• Reform fisheries education
• Create lifelong learning opportunities for
  government policy makers and technicians, both
  women and men
• Institutional reform

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National Build Appropriate Trade Capacity

• Improve phyto-sanitary measures
• Increase value of fisheries products via
  processing, improving value chains, increasing
  competitiveness
• Engaging women traders in market and trade
  reforms
• Ensure that international trade does not
  undermine local food security

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National Conserve biodiversity for enhanced
sustained productivity

• Mainstream conservation policies
• Maintaining ecosystem health and functions
• Move toward ecosystem-based management as
  appropriate

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Example The Philippines

• PROJECT FISH (www.oneocean.org)
• Increased fish stocks through ecosystem-based
  fisheries management
• Tools
• Fishing effort regulation
• Marine protected area networks
• Monitoring (scientific participatory)
  progress metrics
• Improved enforcement
• Next steps
• Regional scaling up
• National educational program

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Example Nicaragua/Honduras

• Reform of spiny lobster conch fisheries
• Create public-private sector alliance
  (governments, restaurant chains, importers and
  exporters, NGOs, foundations)
• Consider moving toward certification scheme
• Link to US-Central America Free Trade Agreement
  (CAFTA)

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Regional

• Regional workshops for donor coordination and
  sharing lessons learned
• Transboundary fisheries management

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Global Alliance Development

• Energize donor interest in small-scale fisheries
• Public-private partnerships
• Two emerging alliances
• PROFISH/World Bank
• Resilient Small-Scale Fisheries Campaign/World
  Fish Center

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USG LeadershipPresidential Initiative

• Justification US Commission of Ocean Policy and
  US Administrative Response called for leadership
  on sustainable fisheries
• Build from globally recognized USG leadership
  in
• Integrated approaches
• Capacity development
• Integrated science
• Improving governance
• Build coalition around secure fishing communities
  and sustainability