SAMUDRA Report No.75, January 2017

Item Type monograph

Publisher International Collective in Support of Fishworkers

Download date 05/10/2021 11:24:39

Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/35997 No. 75 | January 2017 issn 0973–1121

REPORT samudraTHE TRIANNUAL JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL COLLECTIVE IN SUPPORT OF FISHWORKERS

A Milestone Reached Tackling a Dilemma Wicked Problems Extending the Ripples Heading West The Tiger’s Mouth

Fisheries, Communities, Livelihoods ICSF is an international NGO working on issues that concern and action, as well as communications. SAMUDRA Report invites fi shworkers the world over. It is in status with the Economic and contributions and responses. Correspondence should be addressed Social Council of the UN and is on ILO’s Special List of to Chennai, India. Non-governmental International Organizations. It also has Liaison Status with FAO. The opinions and positions expressed in the articles are those of the authors concerned and do not necessarily represent the As a global network of community organizers, teachers, offi cial views of ICSF. technicians, researchers and scientists, ICSF’s activities encompass monitoring and research, exchange and training, campaigns All issues of SAMUDRA Report can be accessed at www.icsf.net

OLIVIER BARBAROUX / MADAGASCAR REPORT FRONT COVER THE TRIANNUAL JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL COLLECTIVE IN SUPPORT OF FISHWORKERS samudraNO.75 | JANUARY 2017 FAO / GIUSEPPE BIZZARRI REPORT Development refugees ...... 37 Indian fishworkers plan to create a National Platform for Small-scale Fish Workers (Inland) “Dawn at Sea” by Yolanda Ziaka - Polis IVORY COAST email: [email protected] A desperate search ...... 40 PUBLISHED BY Women fish processors in Côte d’Ivoire the International Collective in in Western Africa face a bleak future Support of Fishworkers 27 College Road COSTA RICA Chennai 600 006, India Achieving a balance ...... 43 Phone: (91) 44–2827 5303 Fax: (91) 44–2825 4457 Traditional knowledge has helped Email: [email protected] manage the shrimp fisheries of Costa Rica

ICSF BELGIUM OFFICE REPORT REPORT Sentier des Rossignols 2 A milestone reached ...... 4 Linking up ...... 47 1330 Rixensart, Belgium On the ILO Work in Fishing A workshop in India guided women Phone: (32) 2–652 5201 Convention C188 Fax: (32) 2–654 0407 on how to implement the SSF Guidelines Email: [email protected] TANZANIA REPORT EDITED BY Tackling a dilemma ...... 7 Mainstreaming biodiversity ...... 53 KG Kumar Carrying forward the FAO The UN Biodiversity Convention attracted SSF Guidelines DESIGNED BY over 7,000 participants from 170 countries P Sivasakthivel ANALYSIS INDIA ILLUSTRATIONS BY Wicked problems ...... 9 Following fi sh ...... 56 Sandesh Implementing the Human Rights-Based Men from Andhra Pradesh, India, travel far ([email protected]) Approach (HRBA) in fisheries to work on board mechanized fishing boats

FOR LIMITED CIRCULATION ONLY REPORT REPORT Extending the ripples ...... 11 Looking ahead ...... 60 SAMUDRA News Alerts Information and communication technologies Implementing the SSF Guidelines would be a SAMUDRA News Alerts is a free service designed (ICTs) can promote small-scale fisheries boon for the small-scale fisherfolk of Pakistan to deliver news reports and analysis on fi sheries, aquaculture and related issues, on a daily or INDIA INDIA weekly digest basis, in plain text or HTML format. The service often features exclusive, original Heading west ...... 17 Boon or doom? ...... 64 stories on small-scale and artisanal fi sheries, Migrant fisher labourers in Sindhudurg, Cage culture in inland open waters can help particularly in the regions of the South, as well India, have to face several difficulties increase fish production, but with caution as issues that deal with women in fi sheries and safety at sea. Apart from news and stories on fi sheries, the service also focuses on environmental MYANMAR TANZANIA and oceans issues. Please visit http://www. icsf.net to subscribe to SAMUDRA News Alerts. The tiger’s mouth ...... 20 Lake appeal ...... 69 Labour rights and fishing rights co-exist On a workshop on building capacity to BACK COVER in the unique kyarr phong fishery, Myanmar improve small-scale fisheries in Tanzania

SOUTH AFRICA ANALYSIS Reaffi rming rights ...... 25 Tempered down ...... 72 The traditional net fishers of the On temperaments, communities and Langebaan Lagoon MPA are up in arms conflicts in the river fisheries of Bihar, India

INDIA Muddy waters ...... 30 Mud banks along the southwest coast of India are dwindling, which is worrying

MEXICO COMMENT ...... 3 Drying fish on the shore, Arguin Bank, Alienated, marginalized ...... 33 Nouadhibou, Mauritania Conservation actions have unexpected Photo by Olivier Barbaroux ROUNDUP ...... 76 email:[email protected] outcomes in Pacific Mexico OLIVIER BARBAROUX Landing of small pelagics (sardines) by migrant fishworkers, Kerala, India Towards Workplace Dignity

With the impending entry into force of the Work in Fishing Convention, 2007 (No.188) of the International Labour Organization, it is now up to governments to take it forward

long wait is over in the fisheries world, may be encouraged to report on labour conditions COMMENT which warrants well for marine fishers, in on vessels/stationary raft used for fishing, as particular. With Lithuania becoming the well as on labour conditions of fishers on carrier/ tenth Member of the International reefer vessels. LabourA Organization (ILO) to ratify the instrument A significant number of fishers, especially women, (see article pg. 4) the Work in Fishing Convention, are in shore-based fishing, in addition to fishers 2007 (No.188) will now come into force in who work in both shore- and vessel-based fishing November 2017. operations. Since the shore-based fishers do not Even before entering into force, the provisions of come within the purview of C188, we request ILO to the C188—together with better fishing regulations prepare a decent work agenda, in collaboration with to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United (IUU) fishing—have been Nations (FAO), to guide improving the labour national laws and practices standards applicable to for shore-based fishers and fishers on fishing vessels fishworkers, both in the in countries like Thailand, formal and informal sector, Indonesia and Papua New highlighting all relevant Guinea, as evident from a ILO instruments that can recent Greenpeace report protect their rights at work, on human-rights abuses and including social-security 3 illegal fishing in Thailand’s rights. overseas fishing industry We hope the news (www.greenpeace.org/ that C188 will soon enter seasia/PageFiles/745330/ into force encourages Turn-The-Tide.pdf). Vessels of Thai origin under more widespread ratification of this instrument, different flags, arguably, employ the largest number especially by Members who have already completed of migrant fishers in the world. the gap analysis of their national situation against Gap analyses undertaken by several ILO Members the requirements of C188. We hope both developed in view of ratifying C188 have led to identifying and developing Member States ratify the Convention, specific shortfalls in relation to the effective especially those States accounting for the largest implementation of its provisions, especially by share of fishers and fishworkers in the world, such as fishing, maritime safety, and labour authorities, and China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, and countries the need to strengthen organizations representing like Thailand that employ a large number of migrant fishers and fishing vessel owners at various levels fishers in their distant-water fishing operations. through capacity building. Awareness-raising A comprehensive and inclusive approach to workshops in different parts of the world, organized decent work of fishers and fishworkers in fishing and by ILO and its tripartite constituents—government, fishing-related activities can certainly ensure that employer and worker representatives—as well not only fishers on board fishing vessels, but also all as by civil society organizations (CSOs) and non- fishers and fishworkers in fishing and fishing-related governmental organizations (NGOs), have helped activities “by virtue of their work, do not fall through fishers to comprehend and demand their rights at the crack of social protection provided to other work, including social-security rights. workers”, as pointed out by the ILO Law and Practice We would like C188 to provide protection not only report of 2003, a precursor to the negotiations at to fishers on fishing vessels but also to those on rafts the International Labour Conference that led to the fishing far away from shore and facing precarious adoption of C188. working conditions (see for example, By implementing C188, it will be possible to get the article on Myanmar, pg.20). It should also extend rid of forced labour, eliminate unacceptable forms of protection to those transhipped by carrier boats or child labour, and ensure regular payment of wages, reefers to fishing vessels and stationary rafts. The better hours of work and rest, and occupational safety scope of commercial fishing should, at least, include and health to all fishers and fishworkers. Ensuring these fishing-related activities. The Member States, dignity at workplace can certainly guarantee supply while reporting to ILO on the implementation of C188, of a responsible workforce.

JANUARY 2017 Report ILO C188 A Milestone Reached

The Work in Fishing Convention, 2007 of the International Labour Organization (ILO) has received the required ratifi cations to enter into force

n 16 November 2016, shortly laws, regulations or other measures before World Fisheries Day, the are in line with the provisions of the OILO Work in Fishing Convention Convention. One way of achieving (No. 188) was ratified by Lithuania, this is to undertake an analysis of how bringing the number of ratifications their national situation compares with to the ten needed for the Convention the requirements of the Convention to enter into force in November 2017. they are considering to ratify, generally The pace of ratification had been referred to as a “gap analysis”. slow at first, but it has picked up There are many benefits to a “gap following increased attention on analysis”, even if a State decides not the need to ensure better protection to pursue ratification. Perhaps the of labour rights of fishers and the greatest benefit is that the Convention recognition that the Convention is can be used as a mirror of sorts, an important tool for putting such helping States take a good, hard look 4 protection in place. at what legal protection is really in pplace. Its requirements cover the key iissuess that are important to ensuring ggood conditions on board fishing States must report regularly to the ILO on the vvessels. States may find that, in some implementation of each Convention they have ratifi ed... aareas, their laws, regulations or oother measure exceed those of the CConvention. On the contrary, they mmay find that something is missing oor unclear, leaving what might Likeik all ll of f the h ILO’s’i international i l bbe considered a hole in the net of labour standards, the Work in Fishing protection for fishers. Convention, 2007, is backed by a Though a gap analysis may take a supervisory system that helps to narrative form, it is useful to visualize ensure that countries implement the it as a matrix. The rows set out the conventions they ratify. States must provisions of the Convention (for report regularly to the ILO on the example, the requirement to have implementation of each Convention medical supplies on a fishing vessel). they have ratified, indicating not The column headings concern the only whether national laws are in Convention No. 188’s requirement, conformity with the Convention the possible national requirement in question but also informing the (laws, regulations or other measures), ILO regarding what has been done the “gap” that is identified, and a to make sure the Convention has had suggestion on how to fill the gap (for an impact on a practical level. For example, by amending an existing the ten States which have ratified regulation or adopting a new one). Convention No. 188, their first reports Because Convention No. 188 covers so will be due in November 2018. many different issues (minimum age, medical examination, medical care, The gap analysis: what protection recruitment and placement, fishers’ This article is by Brandt Wagner is in place? work agreements, etc.) it is often ([email protected]), Head, Transport and Prior to ratification, many States necessary to look at many different Maritime Unit, Sectoral Polices Department, ILO want to ensure that their national laws and regulations (those normally

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 ILO C188 covering labour law, maritime safety, important areas where there is a lack fisheries regulation, immigration, of clarity in legal protection. The public health). This requires a review following are few of the substantial of those laws and communication issues that have been raised: among several ministries, agencies Sometimes, it has been found and departments, as well as reviewing that the main law protecting workers relevant case law. (for example, the “Labour Act”) As a tripartite organization, the specifically excludes certain categories ILO emphasizes the importance of of workers, including fishers. tripartite consultation and social Often, there is a seemingly relevant dialogue. Therefore, the next national law or regulation concerning recommended step in the gap “seafarers” or “ships” but it is not analysis process is for the competent clear whether “fishers” are considered authority to ask representative “seafarers” or whether “fishing vessels” organizations of fishing vessel owners are considered “ships”. In such cases, and fishers to review and comment it may be necessary to adopt new on the first version of the document. laws or regulation that specifically This is often done through a refers to fishers or fishing vessels. “validation” workshop or seminar. A regularly occurring issue The final document, even if not concerns whether laws or regulations immediately acted upon, provides implementing Convention No. 188 an excellent reference point for apply to “self-employed” fishers. future action. Convention No. 188, however, does not exclude self-employed share What has been seen? fishers. In one gap analysis exercise, In some States, the exercise has the national discussions on this issue 5 revealed major gaps or at least led to amending existing legislation

YIN NYEIN

A kyarr phong fi sherman on his bamboo raft in the Gulf of Mottama, Myanmar. All operations in the kyarr phong fi shery along the value chain are undertaken by hired workforce

JANUARY 2017 REPORT

bringing a large number of formally with national laws, regulations or “self-employed” fishers under the other measures but address such protection of the main labour law. matters as the need for clarifying Secondary legislation was adopted who has legal authority to do so to address specific characteristics of and how to ensure that inspectors, work on fishing vessels. whether working as individuals or There are often other challenging in teams, have appropriate training issues, such as moving from and experience. They also encourage traditional oral agreements to written co-ordination, where appropriate, agreements, or setting requirements with authorities responsible for for minimal rest periods. This often enforcement measures related to leads to intensive discussions among forced labour and child labour. all the concerned parties, and the use The ILO is preparing tools to assist of some of the “flexibility” provisions competent authorities to implement of the Convention. In most cases, the Guidelines. These will be pilot- these flexibility provisions can be tested by mid-2017 and should be used only “after consultation” and, available in late 2017. therefore, the gap analysis process It is increasingly recognized that itself creates opportunities for not there are links between IUU fishing, only fishers and their organizations maritime safety and unacceptable but also fishing vessel owners and forms of work at sea. Responsible and their organizations to participate in sustainable fishing cannot be achieved the shaping of new laws, regulations without tackling all these issues, and or other measures. In some States, this is best done in a co-ordinated this has led to the need to strengthen manner. It is likely that we will see 6 the role of those organizations in improvements in this co-ordination order to ensure effective dialogue. at all levels. Responsible and Another great benefit of the gap sustainable fishing now is seen analysis process is that it helps to to include ensuring decent work identify the roles and responsibilities for fishers by adopting or updating of different authorities having national laws, regulations or influence and jurisdiction of living other measures and by putting in and working conditions on vessels. place or updating the means of ensuring compliance. Putting in place the system to ensure compliance Equally important is to improve how States ensure compliance with the national laws, regulations or other measures that implement the provisions of Convention No. 188. In 2015, following the requests from ILO’s tripartite constituents, the ILO convened a tripartite meeting of experts which adopted Guidelines on flag State inspection of working and living conditions on board fishing vessels. The Guidelines, among other things, address not only how to carry For more out such inspections but provide guidance on how to put in place or ilo.org/fi shing improve the system for inspecting Fisheries page of the ILO labour conditions of fishers. They provide for the possibility of different approaches by member States. They leave it to the States to decide which authority or authorities are to undertake inspections for compliance

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 Tanzania SSF WORKSHOP Tackling a Dilemma

Follow-up activities, led by fi sheries offi cials and fi sher representatives, have begun in Tanzania on how to carry forward the process of implementing the FAO SSF Guidelines

rom September 2016, a team Ndumbani Tanga, to which office of the Mwambao Coastal bearers were selected, including FCommunity Network, Tanzania, a chairperson, a secretary, an in collaboration with the International accountant and a committee of Collective in Support of Fishworkers 15 for disaster management. (ICSF), carried out a series of • A series of successful individual follow-up activities in the wake of fishermen’s group meetings were the introductory awareness-raising conducted in three individual workshop on the FAO SSF Guidelines. villages in Somanga in Kilwa, The follow-on activities include two where it was agreed to set up main events plus an initial Mwambao/ the umbrella fishers association ICSF facilitators’ planning meeting. three days after the follow-up The main activities included a district visit. It was reported that the facilitators planning workshop, association has already been conducted in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, established, incorporating all the 7 where 20 participants were invited, office bearers. including districts and HQ fisheries officers, and two fisher representatives from selected pilot villages as the facilitators in the respective villages. The planning workshop came up with the action The workshop was followed up by plan based on the selected priorities activities from a visit by Mwambao facilitators to the SSF Guidelines. assess the progress of the prepared plans in three district villages. The planning workshop came up with the action plan based on • In KigamboniKigamboni ffeedbackeedback memeetingsetings the activities of selected priorities and awareness raising was carried from the SSF Guidelines. The planned out in three sub-villages of Kimbiji. follow-on activities include a series Other joint sub-village meetings of specific actions to establish a will be conducted later to help fishers’ umbrella association, form the umbrella fishermen’s promoted for the establishment and association. strengthen of village savings and loans (VSL) groups and preparation Resources needed of a communication strategy for A major challenge is on the way disaster management. forward for the implementation of A second activity was a follow- the SSF Guidelines. Although ICSF up visit by Mwambao facilitators, at has supported awareness-raising of the end of September, to assess the the SSF Guidelines among fishers in progress of the implementation of Tanzania, a dilemma exists among the action plan within the selected the facilitators, specifically the pilot villages. implementation point of view. Great The following are the results of the resources are needed in connection implementation of the SSF Guidelines with broad planning at the national This report is by Ali Thani action plan for the pilot areas: level and multi-stakeholder ([email protected] ) and Lorna Slade ([email protected]) Establishment of an umbrella involvement in order to ensure • of Mwambao Coastal Community Network, fishers association in MOA— effective implementation. Tanzania

JANUARY 2017 TANZANIA

MWAMBAO

8 Participants at the Bagamoyo workshop. Mwambao and its partners aim to place these lessons and challenges on the table and discuss with their partners strategies and potential solutions for future implementation of the SSF Guidelines

There is reluctance among some fishers—especially illegal fishers—to join the association as they consider this initiative will prevent them from continuing with illegal fishing. A national-level strategy is required to be formulated, in collaboration with local management institutions (beach management units), to address this issue. Mwambao and its partners aim to place these lessons and challenges on the table and discuss with its partners strategies and potential solutions for future implementation of the SSF Guidelines.

For more

igssf.icsf.net SSF Guidelines

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 Analysis HRBA Wicked Problems

In implementing the Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) in fi sheries, the roles of different players need to be judiciously factored in to ensure a level playing fi eld

he Voluntary Guidelines for SSF Guidelines. For those who reject Securing Sustainable Small- the idea that it is relevant to talk Tscale Fisheries in the Context about human rights in the context of of Food Security and Poverty fisheries, with the endorsement of (SSF Guidelines), shepherded the SSF Guidelines, the train has left primarily by the Food and Agriculture the station. We do not need to discuss Organization of the United Nations whether they are relevant or not; now (FAO), is the first document of a the issue is how to implement them. similar nature that talks about human The SSF Guidelines speak to rights in the context of small-scale states and civil society, and involve a fisheries, more generally. The Code broad set of players—or stakeholders of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries —who will vary according to which does not do it, for instance. The Tenure paragraph in the SSF Guidelines we Guidelines talk a lot about human are talking about. The word rights but mention small-scale fisheries ‘stakeholder’ suggests that there are 9 only briefly. groups within or outside small-scale The Human Rights-Based Approach fisheries who may have things to win (HRBA) is, therefore, a unique perspective on fisheries governance and management, with implications that are interesting and important. The SSF Guidelines speak to states and civil society, Some would perhaps argue that it and involve a broad set of players—or stakeholders... goes without saying. People in fisheries do, of course, enjoy the same universal human rights as anyone else. It is, nevertheless, sometimes important to state the or lose because of the SSF GuidelinesGuidelines. obvious, as a reminder, like when There is no reason to expect that Hillary Clinton in her famous speech they will sit still and passively witness at the World Women’s Conference in their implementation. The word 1995 declared that “women’s rights “players” indicates that they will act are human rights.” strategically, and that they will try to It is, however, a novel idea, but not outsmart or outmaneuver each other. an obvious thing, that fishing-rights This would perhaps not be so bad if regimes should undergo a human- the playing field was level. The SSF rights litmus test. There are people Guidelines would hardly have seen out there who think that fisheries are the light of day if that was not the case. too mundane for such lofty ideals and principles. They are more Interdependence comfortable talking about a “rights- As observed in the SSF Guidelines based approach” than a “human-rights- preface: “Small-scale fishing based approach”. We know that the communities also commonly suffer two concepts are different and from unequal power relations. In potentially in conflict, despite the fact many places, conflicts with large- that they sound alike. scale fishing operations are an This article is by Svein Jentoft The concept of the “rights-based issue, and there is increasingly high ([email protected]), from UiT, approach” does not appear in the interdependence or competition Arctic University of Norway, Norway

JANUARY 2017 ANALYSIS

between small-scale fisheries and thing, especially when your cause is other sectors. These other sectors legitimate. The implementation of can often have stronger political or the SSF Guidelines would require economic influence, and they include: a building of platforms where tourism, aquaculture, agriculture, stakeholders can argue about the energy, mining, industry and HRBA and its concrete implementation. infrastructure developments.” But one would need to be careful These sectors have players because about how small-scale fisheries are they are stakeholders, but they are secured and represented within such not equally equipped and capable of arrangements, because they come securing their interests, and they do from an underdog position. not always agree on things. Would There is a clear risk of small-scale they, for instance, yield to the concept fishworkers and their communities of “preferential treatment”, which becoming disempowered, rather than is mentioned, for example, in empowered, if one does not actively paragraph 5.4? try to hinder it. “States should take appropriate Government and civil society measures to identify, record and organizations have both a role to play respect legitimate tenure right in building such platforms and to holders and their rights. Local norms exercise control so that they remain and practices, as well as customary level. They should not need FAO to or otherwise preferential access to do it for them, but they may still need fishery resources and land by small- a push. Such platforms could be scale fishing communities, including anything from organizations to indigenous peoples and ethnic website forums. 10 minorities, should be recognized, The SSF Guidelines in section 11 respected and protected in ways that recognize the role of the academic are consistent with international community as provider of research- human rights law.” based knowledge. The academic One should not be surprised community also has an important when this, and many other paragraphs contribution to make as watchdog. in the SSF Guidelines, will meet Since knowledge is power, it can help resistance when implemented in to level the playing field. concrete playing fields. Even if the Social scientists often complain HRBA comes with an aura of that no one listens to them. With the righteousness and self-evidence, SSF Guidelines, I argue, they could its practical application may still be hardly ask for more. Now they need contested. Stakeholders tend to be to get involved. Now is their chance opportunistic if it serves their interests, to make a real difference. and they would know how to spin things to show goodwill. The question is what to do. The first thing, I believe, is to recognize that the SSF Guidelines are entering For more the playing field that, in many instances, look like a minefield, and Igssf.icsf.net I do not only mean this metaphorically, SSF Guidelines as the SSF Guidelines also mention “armed conflict.” They will have to maritimestudiesjournal.springeropen.com/ engage with stakeholders who may articles/10.1186/s40152-014-0016-3 not become sympathetic when they Walking the Talk: Implementing get to know about them. I think it the International Voluntary would, therefore, be essential to bring Guidelines for Securing stakeholders on board; they should Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries be invited in. It is better to have them inside the tent than outside, for reasons that are well known. Co-optation is not necessarily a bad

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 Report ICT Extending the Ripples

The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) can help promote equitable and sustainable small-scale fi sheries, a workshop in Cape Town, South Africa, stressed

ith the current worldwide that are “culturally appropriate” trends towards the (Section 9.9). Multiple entry points Wincreasing affordability of for the use of ICTs are evident in the mobile devices, rapid development call for the empowerment of SSF and of Internet connectivities, and their access to a range of resources, ease of use of web and mobile infrastructures, market opportunities applications (apps), information and and equitable participation in communication technologies (ICTs) research, monitoring and governance are increasingly being used to of fisheries. develop sophisticated systems to Towards this end, Serge address some of the world’s more Raemaekers, Member, International pressing social and ecological Collective in Support of Fishworkers challenges. Examples abound globally (ICSF) and founder of the Abalobi of development projects that are initiative in South Africa, co-ordinated making use of cellular technology the hosting of an international 11 to empower local communities to workshop on ICT for Fisheries (ICT4 monitor issues as diverse as natural- Fisheries) in November 2016 in Cape resource use, climate change and disaster risks, community health and water quality, and to empower these same communities with marketing and Multiple entry points for the use of ICTs are evident management tools. in the call for the empowerment of SSF and their access Implementation of the Voluntary to a range of resources... Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines), Town,Town South Africa. Africa Entitled “ ICTssfo forr developed mainly by the Food and equitable and sustainable small-scale Agriculture Organization of the fisheries: promoting international United Nations (FAO)—with a cross-learning”, the workshop was focus on fisher empowerment co-hosted by Abalobi, the University and transformation of unequal of Cape Town’s Centre for ICT4D and power dynamics—provides a Blue Ventures, and made possible critical opportunity to ensure that with funding from the Western marginalized small-scale fisher (SSF) Indian Ocean Marine Science communities are able to gain access Association (WIOMSA). to, and harness the power of, affordable and easy-to-use ICTs. Free mobile app The Guidelines specifically cite Abalobi is a free mobile app and the need for “digital inclusion and programme aimed at social justice other skills of a technical nature that and poverty alleviation in the SSF generate added value”, encouraging chain, transformation in the way States to ensure that fishers have we produce knowledge and access This article has been written by Members access to these services (Section 6), information, stewardship of our of ICSF: Serge Raemaekers and promoting the development of marine resources, and resilience- ([email protected]) (founder of Abalobi) and Jackie Sunde technologies that are able to support building in the face of climate ([email protected]), University of Cape women’s work (Section 8.4) and change. The Abalobi initiative Town, South Africa

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SERGE RAEMAKERS co-produce knowledge by collating their own catch data in a personal logbook with sharing options. The app includes planned safety-at-sea integrations and the opportunity to capture a range of climate-related data. Fishers download this for free, and are supported daily by Abalobi‘s field team, local fisher assistants and the Fisheries Authority’s fishery development workers. Fishers use the dashboard 12 Participants of the international workshop on ICTs for equitable and sustainable summaries in daily small-scale fi sheries: promoting international cross-learning, Cape Town, South Africa fishing operations and towards (www.abalobi.info) is an open co-management of their community source, transdisciplinary and social fisheries. learning endeavour, bringing together Abalobi Monitor—Digitised various rights and stakeholders in community catch monitoring at South Africa, with traditional fishers the landing site and along the taking centre stage. It is a participatory shoreline, with the ability to feed action project with a strong into a centralized information- community development interface. management system for enhanced The project was born out of a evidence-based decisionmaking and research collaboration between policy development. The Fisheries Serge Raemaekers, Nico Waldeck and Authority is rolling this app out Abongile Ngqonqwa in an attempt along South Africa’s coastline. to meet the need to develop an SSF The system detects fishers who information-management system openly use the Abalobi Fisher in South Africa that would facilitate logbook, thereby allowing data implementation of the country’s new validation and the use of real-time SSF policy and empower fishers to data for decisionmaking. participate fully in the management Abalobi Manager—Real- process. The Abalobi app suite time fishery data, access to comprises five inter-connected apps relevant oceanographic data and and an information management information and communications for system—conceptualised in a co-design co-management. This is the process and currently in various interface for government fisheries stages of development and testing managers and co-management —covering the full spectrum of committee members. stakeholders in the SSF sector from Abalobi Co-op—Co-operative hook to cook, governance and beyond. member and fleet management. These apps include: This includes a tool for collective Abalobi Fisher—The foundation accounting, enabling all members of of the app suite where fishers’ the co-operative to be accountable

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 ICT and transparent, thereby promoting The aims of this international equitable practice, and facilitating workshop were to: catch value-adding and the creation - bring together fisher groups, of opportunities for women and fisher leaders, non-governmental youth who may not be involved organizations (NGOs), academics and directly in harvesting activities. other stakeholders with experience Abalobi Co-op is intended to equip in the use of fisher-driven ICTs, to fisher co-operatives with the tools promote networking at international, that can drive the development of national and regional levels; community-based, sustainable small - build an understanding of business entities. The technology the contribution that ICTs can also allows co-operatives to connect make towards empowering SSF with FinTech (online banking, communities, enabling them to micro-credit) and InsureTech secure their human rights, share local (tailored life and fleet insurance). ecological knowledge and ensure Abalobi Marketplace—Fish the co-production of new knowledge with an ecological and social ‘story’. towards enhanced sustainability of A virtual market where fisher marine resources; co-operatives can share their stories - identify the right processes and post their daily catches for sale whereby fisher-driven mobile apps to consumers, restaurants and larger can contribute towards transparency, retailers. This component stimulates equity, sustainability and the idea of community-supported accountability; fisheries (CSF), empowers fishers - facilitate the sharing of in the value chain, and, at the same knowledge on best practices in time, allows for the development of supporting the development of free 13 fisher-community-based labelling or low-cost apps that can assist with and marketing mechanisms. the implementation of the SSF Abalobi Marketplace is currently in Guidelines; proof-of-concept phase with further - develop best-practice guidelines co-design and development planned for supporting the development of for 2017. apps for fisher knowledge and data Networking with other partners capture, data use, safety-at-sea, GRANT JOHNSON around the world who are at various stages of working with ICTs in SSF—EcoTrust Canada who have developed ThisFish; the Caribbean ICT Research Programme (CIRP) who have developed mFisheries; key persons working with Open Data Kit (ODK) in organizations such as Blue Ventures based in Madagascar, the World Bank and FAO; as well as organizations such as the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation ACP EU (CTA)—gave birth to the dream of hosting an international workshop that would enable the sharing of experiences and lessons in developing and using ICTs specifically for SSF. This workshop was the first- ever international workshop of this nature. The workshop was planned and co-facilitated by Serge Raemaekers and Jackie Sunde from the University of Cape Town, together with Steve Rocliffe and Tori Jeffers from Blue Ventures.

JANUARY 2017 REPORT

GRANT JOHNSON

communication and market-related safety, to local development and needs; and market opportunities. Critical - find practical ways to pool questions in this approach pertain to strengths and experiences and data ownership, protection of local thereby foster collaboration, with knowledge and power imbalances specific focus on the need for related to the use of new technologies integration of various apps, their ease and data. Further questions lie in the of use, sustainability and accessibility scale and uptake of such technologies across the globe. in regional fisheries management Over 50 participants attended the efforts. The workshop enabled a 14 workshop, including representatives process of interrogating some of these of fisher organisations, FAO, State key challenges and deepening the parties, NGOs and CBOs, as well as understanding of factors and processes research institutions and organizations that can enable ICTs to contribute providing technological support. towards the implementation of the Participants represented regions human-rights-based approach that from across the globe: Tanzania; underpins the SSF Guidelines. Seychelles; Mauritius; Mozambique; The workshop included a Madagascar; South Africa; Uganda; presentation on the SSF Guidelines Trinidad (representing the Caribbean and, linked to this, a presentation by countries); Canada; the US; UK; the Florence Poulain of FAO on how ICTs Netherlands; France; Belgium and can contribute towards achieving Italy. Key participating organizations the principles of the Guidelines, with with extensive presence in a number specific attention to the thematic area of countries included: the World of Disaster Risk and Climate Change. Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP); These presentations highlighted WIOMSA, working throughout the the fact that ICTs are central to all Indian Ocean region; as well as 13 themes of the SSF Guidelines. organizations such as the CTA which works in more than 79 countries. Sharing session Invited delegates were requested This was followed by a ‘tech sharing’ to list five key ICT4Fisheries session using Knowledge Café challenges prior to commencement Methodology. In small groups, of the workshop for discussion select ICT tools were demonstrated points—common themes identified and participants were given the are the following: opportunity to test the tools and From the outset, it was explore how each attempts to address apparent that various open-source key challenges faced by SSF and platforms, already in existence or in associated stakeholders. The tools development, can enable fisher included: This Fish (demonstrated by communities to be incorporated into Eric Tamm from EcoTrust Canada); information and resource networks: VMSTrack (Petrus van der Linde of from fishery monitoring and maritime Coastal Livelihoods Foundation);

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 ICT

Open Data Kit (ODK) (Thierry into community-focused issues Nohasirivielo, Steve Rocliffe and such as promoting safety at sea, but Tori Jeffers of Blue Ventures, and then also as a catalyst for further Gertjan de Graaf of FAO/World Bank social development. In particular, Artisanal Fisheries Data Programme); VMSTrack has contributed towards mFisheries (Kevon Andrews of CIRP); building community cohesion and and Abalobi (Serge Raemaekers, solidarity, which, in turn, provides a Abongile Ngqongwa, Andrew Cawood spring board for alternative and Nico Waldeck). livelihoods and community- Groups explored the way in which development projects. each tool contributes towards the The particularly innovative empowerment of fishers and which and powerful process of ‘graphic of the main SSF Guidelines principles harvesting’ was used for capturing or thematic issues are addressed. The the issues emerging from the report back to plenary highlighted discussions and outcomes of the a very rich harvest of lessons and workshop. emerging issues. It was apparent that Initial insights drawn from each of these tools is contributing the SSF Guidelines and ICT tool to a wide range of issues from fisher demonstrations identified the empowerment in data capture and contribution that ICTs are making management processes, to how to safety at sea, climate-change traceability can empower SSF and help adaptation and disaster-risk them build leverage in the value chain. management, data capturing, The use of ODK in African artisanal research and monitoring, building fisheries has provided an efficient, accountability and transparency. This time- and cost-saving mechanism for was followed by a vibrant exchange 15 capturing data in the vast and very between the ‘techies’: Taylor Downs widely spread context of many African (OpenFN), Andrew Cawood (Abalobi) SSF communities. Key questions and Kevon Andrews (mFisheries) remaining include issues such as how that provided insights into the to validate data quality and how to process of developing a simple tool empower fishers to be able to use using ODK, but left the participants the data to engage in climate change with the strong message that while research from a position of strength “technology is not the answer and hold governments to account. to sustainable fisheries, it should GRANT JOHNSON The ODK used by Blue Ventures also not be the problem”. They has enabled women fishers to be emphasized a three-step process, empowered and to take their skills with: (i) knowing what information back to their households and share you need, (ii) communicating this them with their male partners as the most important steps, and and youth. (iii) developing the technology to Participants were struck by the follow this, as the last step. way that Abalobi has empowered fishers through the co-production Methodology of the platform from the onset. The The workshop discussions mFisheries app demonstrated that indicated that process and use of simple technology can be methodology for developing extended to capture fishers’ stories ICTs are as important, if not as well as provide an accessible more important, than the tool platform for multimedia training and itself. This includes ensuring that capacity building on issues such as development is a participatory, safety at sea. It also provides access bottom-up process that identifies to real-time information from the champions in the local community cloud on a range of oceanographic and builds trust. It must not be data for fishers. A key insight a case of parachuting in and out emerging from VMSTrack has been of the community, but rather the manner in which an ICT tool of ensuring a sustainable, can serve not only as an entry point co-development of knowledge. In

JANUARY 2017 REPORT

GRANT JOHNSON These male fishers expressed their eagerness to return home and ensure that they extended their work to include women and all activities along the value chain when developing their Abalobi platform further. A key outcome of the workshop has been the establishment of a website and platform for networking on ICT4Fisheries (www.ict4fisheries. org). The objective is to create an easily accessible portal where fisher groups, organizations and other stakeholders can gain a glimpse of the types of ICT4Fisheries projects that are in existence, and share lessons learnt. It aims to promote the use of the SSF Guidelines and ICT development as a key tool for implementation of the Guidelines in the coming years. the words of one participant: “... human Already there are resources connectivity is important in addition emerging as Blue Ventures has to internet connectivity ... relationships written a handy manual on ODK to 16 matter!” share and EcoTrust Canada has Abongile Ngqongwa emphasized explored the issue of traceability in that the approach to assisting the value chain. The intention is that communities to access technology the portal will create a starting point is very important. Once you have where the group and others can introduced the idea of using the connect with each other, network technology, then make sure that and extend the ripples outwards you develop the technology with as ICTs become a key means of the communities—once the tech is communicating, monitoring and developed collaboratively, it takes documenting the implementation away the burden of training, as of the SSF Guidelines. fishers own the system that they are The minutes, graphics and reports developing, so the skills are from this workshop and further developed along the way. This theme information about the ICT tools that of empowerment and the need to were demonstrated at the workshop ensure that fishers retain control are all available on the website. over their own data was a consistent See www.ict4fisheries.org. thread running throughout the discussions. The local South African fishers who have pioneered the For more development of Abalobi shared their journey with other fisher ict4fi sheries.org/#blog representatives from Mozambique, Storify Summary from The Three Mauritius and the Seychelles, Days of The Workshop and a rich exchange of ideas and experiences led to a commitment to blueventures.org/catalysing-use-mobile- continue this exchange and attempt technology-small-scale-fi sheries/ to extend the reach of Abalobi across Blue Ventures Report from The the Indian Ocean. In return, the Workshop, ‘Catalysing the Use of Abalobi fishers appreciated the ideas Mobile Technology in Small-scale on how to promote gender equality Fisheries that the Blue Ventures experience with their ODK tool highlighted.

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 ReportIndia LABOURICT Heading West

The diffi cult working conditions of migrant labourers in the fi sheries of the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra raise both social and human-rights issues that need to be solved

he sound of many voices Previous studies on migrant labour harmonizing together in song from Andhra Pradesh have focused Tfilter across the courtyard on their contribution to fisheries in of Shammi Kelaskar’s house, near the state of Gujarat, particularly in Vengurla in the Sindhudurg district of the important fish-landing centres of Maharashtra state, on the west coast Veraval and Porbandar. These studies of India. Shammi identifies himself as have revealed the organized nature a fisherman, although he rarely goes of this labour market, with a system fishing these days. The men singing of advance payment to the migrants, folk songs in his yard are the real followed by a fixed monthly wage. fishermen. In contrast, the migrant labour system I meet them the next morning, in Sindhudurg is poorly organized, sitting on a huge pile of red fishing being much newer, and migrants often nets, their fingers working at lightning enter into direct verbal agreements speed to mend the nets, while they with boatowners, rather than going 17 chat with each other in a language through contractors. that seems extremely out of place. The fishermen speak Telugu, a language from the east coast of India. I wonder ...hiring migrant labour from Andhra Pradesh is a what they are doing in this remote part of the Konkan coast. “They have regular practice among purse-seine fi shing boatowners come here from the state of Andhra in Sindhudurg. Pradesh”, says Shammi. “I hire them to help with my purse-seine net”. The fishers of Sindhudurg may be far removed from the bustling fish Purse-seinePi operations i in i markets of Mumbai, yet individuals Sindhudurg are relatively recent, like Shammi need to employ a sizeable adapted by locals who had contact crew of 10-15 men to run their small with fishermen from other states who purse-seine operations that supply use this fishing technology. A purse- sardines for export. seine boatowner from Sindhudurg The migrant fishermen working says, “Purse-seines and mini purse- on Shammi’s net are not unique. seines are new fishing gears in During subsequent visits to the area, I Maharashtra. We don’t have a lot of have found that hiring migrant labour experience using them. They have from Andhra Pradesh is a regular been using purse-seines in Andhra for practice among purse-seine fishing a long time and so those fishermen are boatowners in Sindhudurg. While experienced with making and using migration is not unusual in marine these nets. That is why we prefer to fisheries, it is usually seen along the hire crew members from Andhra”. same coast, or at least within the While this statement reveals one bounds of recognition of fishing of the reasons for the migrants’ cultures or castes. To see such long- presence in Sindhudurg, it is not the This article is by Divya Karnad distance migration, to a region like whole story. ([email protected]), a graduate student Sindhudurg that is not well connected Many Ghabhit fishermen, who at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, US and a Senior Research Fellow with the nor very well known for well-developed make up the majority fishing caste in Foundation for Ecological Research Advocacy fisheries, is highly surprising. Sindhudurg district, have reservations and Learning, Puducherry, India

JANUARY 2017 INDIA

about using the purse-seine. As in negotiate the terms of employment, many other fishing villages across wages, living conditions and so on. India, a big concern is that the use of This inability to communicate well, mechanized fishing gear, like the purse along with the social ostracism that seine, will threaten the livelihoods they face, means both an inability of artisanal fisherman, by hauling in and impossibility of the migrants’ disproportionately large fish catches. participation in village activities Therefore, many fishing villages in in Sindhudurg. The songs I heard Sindhudurg have come together to that evening at Shammi Kelaskar’s ban the use of purse-seines. Not only house were a symptom of that social do the village rules prevent village isolation. These men come prepared members from owning and operating to create their own entertainment purse-seines, the village members to pass the evenings, travelling with will also not tolerate purse-seine musical instruments and armed with operations in their area, by outsiders. the knowledge of folk songs. For migrant labourers in Sindhudurg’s Working conditions for migrant purse-seine fishery, this translates labour in fisheries are notorious into a high degree of social ostracism. and Sindhudurg is no exception. A migrant labourer from the The Srikakulam fisherman whom I Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh interviewed reported: “There have says, “We are usually not allowed to been times when I have spent up stay in the fishing villages during to 20 days on a fishing trip. During our time in Maharashtra. This means this time, I dare not bathe or wash that we have to stay on board the clothes, because I would have to use fishing vessel for the entire fishing sea water and thereafter my skin 18 season [four months in his case, but it would be chafed by the salt that can extend to eight months for some remains on the dry clothes.” While migrants]. Because of this, we do not first-aid kits are available on the vessels,v there is no concept of health insurance.in “If we fall sick, we have toto take care of ourselves. We go to Working conditions for migrant labour in fi sheries are theth government hospital for free notorious and Sindhudurg is no exception. treatment,tr but our wages for those daysd are cut. The [boat] owner doesd not pay for our treatment”, said theth migrant. Payment is often in the form of hhave regularl access to ffreshh water ffor a lump sum given at the end of the bathing and washing clothes. We are fishing season, which the migrants often not served by the shopkeepers sometimes prefer because they have within the fishing village, and have no place to store the money during to walk further [to the larger the fishing season. This is because the marketplace in the town] to use migrants do not have bank accounts or these facilities.” Such migrants are access to safe storage in Sindhudurg. completely dependent on the The payment is supposed to take the boatowners, being unfamiliar with form of a daily wage plus a share the language, local culture, customs, of the profit, but since it is paid in a and so on. lump sum, the migrants often find it Many of the migrants that I came difficult to calculate how the final across in Sindhudurg travel together amount was arrived at. The migrants in groups. These men are related or perspective is expressed thus: “The are from the same village and can fishing is so variable...one day we therefore look out for, and support, may have a bumper catch and then we one another. In each of these groups may not get anything for weeks. there are one or two people who speak At the end the [boat] owner will say Hindi or a smattering of Marathi, that he is running at a loss, and we and serve as the spokesperson(s) for can’t say anything. We have to take the group. It is up to this person to whatever he gives us.” This lump-sum

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 LABOUR

DIVYA KARNAD payment also means that if a migrant has to leave mid-season, he will have to forfeit his payment. Given these difficult working conditions, it is hard to understand what drives the migrants to return to these fisheries year after year. In a study titled ‘Inter-state migration of fishers from Srikakulam district’, by Bhaskara Sarma and Venkatesh Salagrama report that among fishing communities there, working in mechanized fisheries is considered a respectable occupation, in comparison with participating in traditional or artisanal fisheries in Andhra Pradesh. These workers command higher rates of dowry and their lump-sum payments or advances are useful Mini purse-seine boats are docked at a fi shing jetty in Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra, to clear loans or debts. Migrant India. The owners of such boats are the main employers of migrant labour labour is also related to lower rates of alcoholism. Being confined to the Vizianagaram district of Andhra boat during the fishing season, the Pradesh have also begun to migrate migrants have little access to alcohol. to Sindhudurg. This glut of labour The wives of some of the migrant availability has potentially worsened labourers say, “We prefer our the bargaining position of the 19 husbands to work on the west coast, migrants. Migrants to Sindhudurg and because the alternative would Goa report lower wages and overall be to work on the trawlers of the earnings than those who find work Vishakapatnam harbour. At the gate in the big fishing harbours of Veraval of the harbour is a liquor shop, where or Mumbai. most of the day’s earnings are usually In Sindhudurg, the migrants’ spent, before the men come home”. presence has translated into ensuring While there are clearly social and the persistence of the purse-seine some health benefits to migration, fishery. Despite protests by local the monetary and financial benefits fishermen, the purse-seine has been For more to choosing to migrate are still retained due to the easy availability difficult to quantify. Bhaskara of experienced crew from Andhra thehindubusinessline.com/news/ Sarma and Venkatesh Salagrama Pradesh. The escalating conflict national/maharashtra-govt-to-stop-new- judge the overall impact between purse-seine boatowners and licenses-to-purse-seining-type-of-fi shing/ of migrant labour on the family local artisanal fishermen once again article8203512.ece income of the Srikakulam fishermen sees migrants caught in the crossfire. Maharashtra Government Stops to be low, especially for the poorest They are often the targets of physical Purse Seine New Licences families. While this is increasingly altercations at sea over purse-seine the case in the bigger fishing usage in artisanal fishing areas. An academia.edu/10610681/Inter-state_ destinations, like Porbandar and artisanal fisherman even reported migration_of_fi shers_from_Srikakulam_ Veraval, (Gujarat) where the fisheries having held a couple of migrant crew district_Andhra_Pradesh are in decline, the problem is only members hostage for a day in order Inter-state Migration of Fishers exacerbated in destinations like to demand compensation from the from Srikakulam District, Sindhudurg where migrant labour boatowner. The migrants’ situation not Andhra Pradesh is not well organized. Many of the only results in their own exploitation workers in Sindhudurg report having but also exacerbates conflicts between originally come looking for work in users of different types of fishing Goa’s fisheries and upon not finding technology in Sindhudurg. As a case any, they wandered north into of ‘neobondage’, migrant labour in Sindhudurg. Now that news of this Sindhudurg’s fisheries is both a social new destination for migrant labour and a human-rights issue that needs to has spread, fishermen from be solved.

JANUARY 2017 Myanmar KYARR PHONG FISHERY The Tiger’s Mouth

By enacting new legislation and policies on tenure rights, labour rights and fi shing rights the unique kyarr phong fi shery in the Gulf of Mottama, Myanmar, can be substantially improved

yarr in Burmese means ‘tiger’ Ayeyarwady, Salween and Sittang and kyarr phong literally means drain into the Gulf, carrying huge K‘tiger mouth net’. It is the most loads of sediment. The Gulf, according abundant fishing gear in the Republic to a 2004 paper published in of the Union of Myanmar after bottom Marine Geology, is one of the largest trawl, purse-seine and drift-net. mud belts in the world’s oceans, The kyarr phong fishery—a bag net measuring over 45,000 sq km during attached underneath a bamboo raft, spring tide and about 15,000 sq km. both anchored together—is a unique during neap tide. The sediments are fishery, an adaptation of stow-nets loaded with minerals and nutrients and stow-boats, originally used in large favouring abundant fishery resources, rivers for catching small prawns. It is comprising many tropical species. The now practised in the Gulf of Mottama mud belt, according to the National (previously known as Martaban), Institute of Oceanography (NIO), 20 between September and May, at a India, moves in sync with the tidal distance between 14 to 40 nautical cycle every 14 days. The kyarr phong miles from the low-water mark. The fishing operations are believed to be period June-August is the closed carried out in the 150-km belt along season. the edge of the turbid zone, roughly in ana area the size of Belgium. Although kyarr phong in the rivers The kyarr phong fi shery—a bag net attached oof Myanmar have been reported, there sseems to be no written account of underneath a bamboo raft, both anchored together—is a kykyarr phong fishery in the Gulf of unique fi shery... MMottama. This fishery in waters bbeyond the 15-m isobath is believed to have started in the southwest of ththe Gulf of Mottama, off Pyapon, In spite offh operating at such Ayeyarwady Division in the early distances, these rafts fish entirely 1970s. It was practised initially for a within the internal waters of period of just two months a year. It Myanmar. The straight baseline— is now a nine-month operation. In extending 222 nautical miles and the the early 1990s, kyarr phong owners longest notified straight baseline in from Pyapon started moving to the the world—closing the Gulf of southeast of the Gulf, off Mottama between Alguada Reef Mawlamyine, in Mon State, where (Pathein Light) and the Western Point the fishing grounds are more gradual of Long Island is over 150 nautical and better suited for kyarr phong miles away from the apex of the Gulf. operations. The movement of owners Kyarr phong came to the notice of was further intensified post-Nargis the world when thousands of fishers since the impact of the cyclone was This article is by Yin Nyein perished on these rafts at sea in early less pronounced in Mon state. There ([email protected]) May 2008 during Cyclone Nargis, at are between 5,000 and 10,000 bamboo Program Manager, Delta and Coastal wind speeds of over 100 knots. rafts associated with this fishery Programme, Network Activities Group (NAG), The Gulf of Mottama is shallow currently in operation. Myanmar and Sebastian Mathew (less than 30-m depth), turbid and The bag nets associated with ([email protected]), Executive Secretary of ICSF dominated by tides. The rivers kyarr phong are fabricated from

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 KYARR PHONG FISHERY polyethylene. Each bag net is about neap tide it is nearly 3 m)—like the 20 ft to 30 ft long, with 0.25-inch mesh mouth of a tiger. The net is emptied size (the legal mesh size for bag nets every six hours or so from the cod end is 2 inches). It is operated attached right beneath by drawing it onto the beneath a 40-ft long and 15-ft wide raft. The bag net site is changed two unpowered raft made of 80-120 or three times during a fishing season. bamboo poles—totally biodegradable. About 10,000 tonnes of fish are The rafts are designed to withstand reportedly harvested in this fishery tropical storms of up to 45 knots every year. The mainstay of kyarr wind speed. The rafts are towed to phong fisheries is the rich shrimp the fishing ground by a global resources that are gathered in the positioning system (GPS)-enabled bag net, boiled using mangrove wood carrier boat, powered by a 100-hp and dried on the raft. In addition to Honda engine, once every year, shrimp, Bombay duck, pomfret, in September. They are anchored grenadier anchovies, ribbon fish, at designated places at depths of seabass, hilsa shad, trevally and 10 fathoms (nearly 20 m). In May, several other species are harvested. at the end of the fishing season, The carrier boats take the boiled and while the bamboo rafts are abandoned dried shrimp, iced high-value species at sea, the fishing gear is taken back to like seabass and hilsa shad, along with shore to be reused in the next season. others to the landing sites, several Owners of kyarr phong units do times a month. Kyarr phong owners not participate in fishing, although sell boiled and dried shrimp to dry- some are involved in fabricating fish merchants for export to China, bamboo rafts. They are, however, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore involved in deciding the fishing spots. after shelling it using women’s labour. 21 All of them are members of various Other species are also exported or kyarr associations. All operations sold in the domestic market. in this fishery along the value chain Shrimp wastes are converted to are undertaken by hired workforce. pelleted feed for export to Vietnam. Towards procuring labour, an advance Kyarr phong operations are believed payment system is in place (normally, to be very profitable for fish traders five months’ wages) to fishers as well and owners. as to women fishyard workers who The carrier boats that tow the shell dried shrimp. rafts to the fishing ground and transfer The most productive days for the harvest from the rafts to landing kyarr phong fishery are the sixth to sites also bring provisions, ice, ninth days and the 12th to 15th days YIN NYEIN before, and the sixth to ninth days and the 12th to 15th days after, the full moon. The bulk of the harvest is thus taken during 144 days in a fishing season of nine months. Sixty-four days during September and December, and 16 days in the month of April, are particularly considered the best fishing season. (Interestingly, September-December is the season when surface currents in the Bay of Bengal are moving counter-clockwise). When it comes to the fishing operation, the bottom panel of the bag net is anchored to the sea floor together with the raft. The top panel is attached to the raft. The bag net mouth is held vertically open against The kyarr phong fi shery—a bag net attached underneath a bamboo raft, both anchored the tide (the tidal range during the together—is now practised in the Gulf of Mottama between September and May spring tide is nearly 7 m and during

JANUARY 2017 MYANMAR

mangrove wood and water to the three nautical miles is maintained anchored rafts, several times a month. between different clusters. Officially, there are about 349 bamboo There are about 20,000 to rafts for operating kyarr phong. 40,000 fishers at work on rafts and But according to U Han Tun, Chief another 4,000 to 7,000 workers Executive Officer, Myanmar Fisheries working on carrier vessels. Excluding Federation, there are between 5,000 women fishworkers engaged in fish and 10,000 such rafts and bag nets in processing on land, kyarr phong employse a maximum of 50,000 fishers—allfi men and mostly unskilled. MoreM than 50 per cent of this There are about 20,000 to 40,000 fi shers at work workforcew comprises internal on rafts and another 4,000 to 7,000 workers working migrants.m Each raft has about four on carrier vessels. workersw living almost continuously ono it during the fishing season of ninen months. The fisher in charge ofo the raft is called oo si and he is operation,ti along l with ith 6600 tto 1,200 assisted by kyan kyin lote thar, a carrier boats. A raft and bag net skilled fisher and two lote thar, or together would cost about five million unskilled fishers. (On some rafts MMK (US$4,000 )—two million MMK the crew size is three, especially in (US$1,500) for the raft and three the Mon state). The cluster of eight million MMK (US$2,500) for the bag rafts and associated gear form a unit net (2016 prices) (1,200 MMK is equal under a skipper called oo si choke, to a US$). or chief of the unit, who is stationed 22 All kyarr phong units are expected on the carrier boat. He supervises to pay royalty on marine fisheries the operations of the rafts in his under Schedule Five, Myanmar cluster and, sometimes, even Constitution (2008) to the Union/ supervises an additional cluster. Region/State government. This While the unskilled workers are includes water transportation tax, reportedly from the dry zone, spread fishing gear tax, fresh fish tax and across Sagaing, Mandalay and income tax. The carrier boats, Magway Regions, the skilled workers depending on their size and area of and supervisors are reportedly from fishing, are expected to pay a licence the delta region of Myanmar. The age fee. If small and fishing in the inshore of workers is stated to range between area (from the low-water mark to 18 and 56 for men and between 18 10 nautical miles), a boat, on the and 40 for women fishyard workers. one hand, has to pay 15,000 to 30,000 About half the population of unskilled MMK (US$12.5 to US$25) as annual workers have no prior exposure to license fee to the Region/State marine fishing. government. Large boats, on the other hand, fishing in the offshore fishing Basic salary area (the area from the 15 isobath in Regarding payment, a lote thar and the internal waters out to the limit of kyan kyin lote thar are paid a basic Myanmar’s exclusive economic zone monthly salary of about 50,000 to or EEZ) have to pay an annual licence 60,000 MMK (US$42 to US$50). The fee of 100,000 to 300,000 MMK oo si is paid 60,000 to 70,000 MMK (US$80 to US$250) per boat to the (US$50 to US$58). The fishers, over Union government. and above wages, also receive a The rafts are normally in clusters 10 per cent bonus based on the of eight that operate in a fairly quantity of shrimp processed on the labour-intensive manner. Each cluster rafts, especially if it is above a certain and its carrier boat employ about threshold. Together with commission, 40 fishers—mostly Buddhist Burmese these fishers earn between 120,000 in origin. A raft in the same cluster is to 130,000 MMK (US$100 to US$108), at a minimum distance of 100 m from per month. The oo si choke, however, other rafts. A minimum distance of receives between 500,000 MMK to

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 KYARR PHONG FISHERY

700,000 MMK (US$416 to US$583) but also to fishyards processing per month in payment (as of kyarr phong landings. In some yards, November 2016). additional fortifications are made There is radio communication to prevent women workers from between oo si choke and the cluster running away. of rafts. The oo si choke also keeps in Established owners of kyarr phong touch with owners over a mobile are of the view that there should be phone, and owners, in turn, are no further addition of units since in contact with dry-fish traders in there are already too many at work. Yangon. Although working Although there are some fears of continuously in offshore fishing declining catches in Pyapon, there grounds for nine months, there are no such fears in Mawlamyine does not seem to be any protection where the owners are of the view that afforded to fishers on these rafts. “the deep pools in their undulating Existing labour laws do not apply fishing grounds are for fish and the to fishers. The kyarr phong owners shallow grounds are for fishers”. These issue identity cards to fishers. pools provide sufficient protection, in Until recently there was no written their view, to breeders and juveniles. contract of work but, of late, annual Suggestions for improving kyarr written contracts are drawn with phong fisheries include extending fishers and fishyard workers. There the closed season from three months, is no off-season allowance for replacing mangrove firewood with workers. Although exposed to other sources, and promoting value tropical storms and cyclones, addition and further diversification fishermen receive no training in sea of export markets for dry shrimp. safety. Many fishers on rafts do not From a sea-safety perspective, 23 even know how to swim, nor are they however, the annual fishing season supplied with life jackets or lifebuoys. can definitely be shortened by a After taking an advance on month from September to May to wages, some migrant fishers have September to April. The month been reported to have deserted from of May, according to the Myanmar the kyarr phong without completing Department of Meteorology and their term of employment. Other Hydrology—based on analyzing than the oo si choke, anyone can landfall of cyclones between 1887 desert. The frequency of desertion and 2005—is the month with the has increased and is in tandem, on highest number of cyclones crossing the one hand, with a fall in labour the Myanmar coast. supply to precarious kyarr phong YIN NYEIN operations, post-2008 Nargis, and on the other hand, with an increase in the number of kyarr phong units, especially in the Mon state, in response to good shrimp harvests after the cyclone. Shortage of labour has made it easy for the runaways to find work on rafts under a new ownership. The owners also find it difficult to aggregate sufficient number of workers at the beginning of the fishing season. In fact, most of the kyarr phong owners have a different set of migrant workers each season. Sea safety is further compromised due to desertion because the owners fear that workers, if supplied with sea safety equipment, will escape. There are about 20,000 to 40,000 fi shers at work on rafts and another 4,000 to 7,000 Desertion from work place is not workers working on carrier vessels. Owners of kyarr phong units do not participate in fi shing only confined to fishing operations,

JANUARY 2017 MYANMAR

YIN NYEIN A comprehensive co-management approach to kyarr phong by enacting new legislation and policies on tenure rights to the internal waters of the Gulf of Mottama, combined with interlocking rights and duties in relation to work in fishing, could assist in integrating sea safety and decent work into a new framework for conservation and sustainable use of fisheries resources. It could very well be based on the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication; the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests The carrier boats that tow the rafts to the fi shing ground and transfer in the Context of National Food the harvest from the rafts to landing sites also bring provisions Security and the Work in Fishing Convention, 2007. Such a framework From a socio-ecological perspective, can promote responsible fisheries the kyarr phong fishery is welcome and labour, and protect the lives since, unlike bottom trawling, it is a and livelihoods of thousands of passive, labour-intensive, unpowered fishers engaged in the precarious 24 fishing operation, which does little kyarr phong fisheries in the Gulf damage to the sea bottom and does of Mottama and their families in not cause destruction of marine the hinterland. biological diversity. Considering the shortage of labour in this fishery, the number of units, however, can definitely be scaled down to better utilize the available workforce. From the perspective of decent working and living conditions on what is manifestly a hazardous work environment, there are concerns with regard to meeting minimum requirements for work on a raft continuously for eight For more months (minimum age, medical examination, basic training in sea iucn.org/news/gulf-mottama-navigating- safety, etc.), conditions of work muddy-waters (inclement weather, cyclones, Gulf of Mottamma: Navigating etc), accommodation and food, Muddy Waters occupational safety and health myanmar.helvetas.org/en/projects/ protection, and medical care and clcmgomp/ social security. Community Led Coastal Improving conditions of Management in Gulf of work, including enhancing wages Mottamma and incentives, providing better conditions of life on rafts at sea and nagmyanmar.org/ more frequent access to land, and Network Activities Group imparting training in sea safety in line with good practices can indeed mould a responsible workforce and arrest the issue of desertion from the workplace.

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 South Africa MPAS Reaffirming Rights

The traditional net fi shers of Langebaan Lagoon MPA in South Africa have proved victorious in adopting a human-rights-based approach to small-scale fi sheries

recent High Court Judgement of the boats and how to manage in support of small-scale conflict. Specific fishing grounds Afishers’ rights lays the were recognized by the authorities as foundation for a human-rights-based their customary fishing grounds and approach towards the implementation the oral histories of the Langebaan of the policy on small-scale fisheries net fishing families indicate that the and future Marine Protected Area names of as many as 20 fishing sites (MPA) planning and governance in in the lagoon were commonly known. South Africa. The customary fishing rules that The Langebaan Lagoon MPA lies evolved were woven into the social approximately 120 km northwest relations of the small, close-knit of Cape Town, along the western fishing community that describe Atlantic coastline of South Africa. themselves as a ‘fishing family’. The lagoon is home to one of South Traditional knowledge was passed Africa’s oldest traditional net on from generation to generation, 25 fisheries. Originally inhabited by and young children grew up with the indigenous Cochoqua who were a strong identity attached to their gradually chased out of the region, the area was settled by the Dutch during colonial times and they established farms along the shores The customary fi shing rules that evolved were woven of the lagoon. These waters gained a into the social relations of the small, close-knit fi shing reputation for fine fish, particularly community that describe themselves as a ‘fi shing family’. the large mullet (known locally as ‘harders’) caught in the sheltered, nutrient-rich lagoon. The small group of traditional net fishers of families’families’ interaction with the lagoonlagoon. Langebaan Lagoon who continue to The Langebaan fishers considered fish today are mostly descendants of themselves the rightful users and the Malay slaves and other residents owners of the lagoon and membership of mixed race who eked out an of the net fishery was limited to existence as labourers on these farms this group. following the emancipation of slaves at the Cape. Most of them fished Apartheid using beach-seines, gill-nets and In the 1960s the fishers were handlines to supplement their impacted by the steady introduction meagre wages. of apartheid-based racial planning as In time, the net fishers evolved a well as the growing, predominantly system of customary rules to manage white, tourism industry and their fishing activities and to avoid recreational fishing sector in conflict amongst the different net Langebaan. During this period the fishing boats on the lagoon. This fishers who were classified according included a range of local customary to the apartheid race-based norms and laws related to how they classification system as ‘coloured’, worked together on the water, how the were forced to relocate to a new area This article is by Jackie Sunde ([email protected]), Member of ICSF, catch was shared amongst the crew, designated for coloured residence, and researcher at University of Cape Town, who was responsible for maintenance which was some distance from South Africa

JANUARY 2017 SOUTH AFRICA

their homes adjacent to the lagoon. to the lagoon, the eviction of fishing In addition, growing numbers of families from the farms that were recreational fishers on the waters later incorporated into the National disturbed their net fishing and led Park, and the perceived preference to increasing conflicts. In 1969 the given to white landowners to fishers requested the local municipal continue residing in the Park and board to establish a zone specifically fishing in restricted zones were for them, and two buoys were placed associated with the concomitant in the lagoon, effectively creating a increase in restrictive conservation protected zone for the traditional net measures which led to the zonation fishers only. of the lagoon. The lagoon was zonedz into three zones. Both line fishingfi and recreational fishing, as In 1973 the lagoon was declared a marine reserve in wellw as a range of other non- terms of the Sea Fisheries Act and, subsequently, in 1985, consumptivec uses, were permitted it was incorporated into the West Coast National Park. inin Zone A; Zone B was restricted for traditionaltr net fishers; and Zone C wasw a no-take sanctuary area. When theth National Parks Board took over theth management of the lagoon, they However, in the decade that confirmed this zonation, introducing followed, the Department of Sea a set of regulations restricting fishing Fisheries introduced a range of and motor vessels in Zone B unless conservation measures and, drawing in possession of a permit from the on the original line that had been Parks Board. In the late 1980s the trek 26 established to protect the fishers, net fishery—shore-based, drag-net used this zonation to establish three fishery—was outlawed and fishers zones—a sanctuary zone, a zone were forced to rely on their gill-nets for non-motorized net fishing and to target harders only. an open, multi-use zone. In 1973 the In 1992, following the signing of an lagoon was declared a marine agreement with the local landowners, reserve in terms of the Sea Fisheries the Parks Board introduced a Act and, subsequently, in 1985, it differential set of permit regulations was incorporated into the West in which the local white landowners Coast National Park. The National still resident in the Park were Parks began acquiring farm land for permitted to fish in Zone B for inclusion in the Park and purchased harders using their drift-nets, but the a number of white-owned farms fishers resident in Langebaan were adjacent to the lagoon. The Park not. The net fishers resisted these authorities entered into agreements permit regulations and over time with the owners of these farms and the Park authorities permitted those the West Coast National Park became traditional fishers with a history of the first contractual park in South fishing on the lagoon to continue Africa. Many of the white property net fishing in Zone B. owners retained certain residential rights in sections of the Park whilst Conditions and restrictions the coloured fishers were forced In 2003 the National Environmental to move to Langebaan town. The Management: Protected Areas Act, local fishing community were not 2003 (NEMPAA), was promulgated, consulted when the marine reserve granting the National Parks the was declared. authority to introduce specific permit This simultaneous introduction conditions and restrictions on use of conservation and fisheries in certain zones. The conservation management measures in the lagoon authorities used this legislation to coincided with the introduction of prohibit the Langebaan net fishers apartheid spatial planning measures. from fishing in Zone B, which was The forced relocation of the coloured their traditional fishing grounds, community from their homes adjacent although the white landowners were

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 MPAS able to continue. This policy dovetailed of the scientific data upon which with the fisheries authority’s policy decisions have been made. of restricting the net fishing effort on The Langebaan net fishing the lagoon. community has been one of the The Langebaan net fishers have leading communities participating argued that these restrictions are in the small-scale fisheries campaign discriminatory. Firstly, three white in South Africa since 2004 that has landowners who have a contract demanded recognition that their linked to their continued residence in ‘fisher rights are human rights’. They the Park with the conservation have advocated strongly for their authorities have retained the right right to preferential access to their to continue fishing in Zone B, and traditional waters and to participate the traditional net fishers, who in management in line with the FAO depend on the net fishery for their Code of Conduct for Responsible livelihoods but were forced away Fisheries. They cite the customary from the Park, have to compete system of local fisheries management with the growing recreational sector developed by their forefathers as the in Zone A. The conservation authority basis for their claims in addition to and the department responsible for their human right to food security fisheries management have argued and to practice their occupation. In strongly that the zonation is needed the absence of any real consultation to protect key line fish and shark that took their histories and needs species that use the shallow waters seriously, and faced with their of the lagoon as a nursery ground. continued exclusion from their Zone B acts an important buffer traditional fishing grounds, zone within the MPA. However, the and increasing conflict with the 27 scientific evidence used to motivate recreational fishers, the Langebaan these restrictions on the harder fishers launched legal action in 2013 fishery draw largely on national-level against the Minister of Environmental data for harders and is also outdated. Affairs, as the governance authority As the fishers were not consulted of the lagoon, the Minister of Fisheries about the restrictions and the as the authority responsible for zonation, they question the legitimacy allocating fishing rights and of the MPA zonation and the accuracy the SANPARKS as the contracted JACKIE SUNDE

Langebaan fi shers listen to the legal advisers from Legal Resource Centre outside the Cape Town High Court, South Africa, June 2016. The Langebaan fi shers considered themselves the rightful users and owners of the lagoon

JANUARY 2017 SOUTH AFRICA

management agency for the • any alternatives to a complete Langebaan Lagoon MPA (Coastal limitation of the right to access Zone Links Langebaan and others versus B; and the Minister of the Department of • the applicable legal framework, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry including domestic and (DAFF) and others, 2013). Represented international law and policy, and, by the Legal Resources Centre, a in particular, the new SSF Policy. human rights public litigation NGO, They argued that the zonation the fishers argued that the permit underpinning the MPA was not based condition that “prevents us from on scientific evidence and hence fishing in a part of the Langebaan it is arbitrary and irrational to Lagoon known as ‘Zone B’... has continue to employ this same line in serious consequences for our the name of ‘conservation’ and restrict livelihoods, and threatens the their rights. As such, the decision by continued existence of the custom the Minister and the harsh of traditional net fishing in restrictions on the harders net fishers Langebaan. Drawing on the Bill are unreasonable in terms of the of Rights in the South African Constitutional obligation of the Constitution, they argued that the Minister to seek the least restrictive fisheries regulations imposed on them limitations on their rights (Section are irrational, unreasonable, and 36 of the Constitution). They allege unfairly discriminate indirectly on that the scientific evidence available the basis of race” (Coastal Links does not indicate that net fishing in Langebaan versus the Minister of Zone B will have an unacceptable DAFF and others, 2013). ecological impact. They also argue 28 Further, the fishers argued that it that the current restriction unfairly is ironic that the line that was discriminates against them on the originally drawn to protect them, grounds of race and perpetuates is the same line “now used to keep past patterns of discrimination. us from our traditional fishing The fishers cite the Policy on Small- grounds and threatens our ability to scale Fisheries (DAFF 2012) in their survive. It is significant that the line argument, citing again the principle was not drawn on the basis of any that small-scale fishers who depend conservation imperative; it was on fisheries for their livelihood drawn to solve a dispute between should be given preferential access tto resources. They challenge ttheh conservation authorities for They argued that the zonation underpinning the MPA was sseemingly turning a blind eye to the not based on scientifi c evidence and hence it is arbitrary tthousandsh of recreational fishers and irrational to continue to employ this same line in the wwho are catching the same threatened name of ‘conservation’ and restrict their rights. llinei fish species that the MPA zonationz allegedly seeks to protect. TThey also document the impact of ttheh conflict with the recreational traditionaldi i l and d recreational i l fifishers h sector on their livelihoods. over 40 years ago” (Coastal Links The High Court judgement and others versus the Minister and delivered on 31 October 2016 has far- others 2013,CASE NO: 11907/13). reaching implications for the future The founding legal papers argued management of small-scale fisheries that the Minister of DAFF and other in South Africa. In particular, it sets respondents acted unconstitutionally an important precedent for how the in that they should, at minimum, have rights of small-scale fishers should be considered: considered when planning, managing • the available science pertaining to or evaluating existing MPAs. In his the Langebaan Lagoon relevant to judgement, the Honourable Judge the specific species and net fishery; Sher highlighted the fact that the • the socioeconomic status of the national statute legislating the fishers impacted by the decision; management of marine living

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 MPAS

JACKIE SUNDE resources in South Africa, the Marine Living Resources Act of 1998, provides guidance in section two of the Act to the Minister to have regard for a number of principles and objectives when developing management mechanisms, not just objectives narrowly restricted to protection of the marine ecosystem. This includes the need to achieve “the ‘optimum utilisation’ and ecologically sustainable development of such resources, and the re-structuring of the fishing industry in order to address historical imbalances, and to promote ‘equitable access to, and involvement in,’ all aspects of the fishing industry (with particular reference to the need to rectify past Langebaan leader Norton Dowries outside the Cape Town High Court,South Africa. prejudice against women, youth and The Langebaan community members have advocated for their right to preferential access disabled persons) and to achieve equity within all branches of the and irrational. He argued that the industry.” (Langebaan Coastal Links decisionmakers did not take important versus the Minister and others 2016, factors into consideration such as the 11907/13 ). fishers’ “historical claim to traditional The judgement gave visibility fishing rights, the imperatives of 29 to the Small-scale Fisheries Policy transformation and the need for which, like the SSF Guidelines adopted ecological conservation whilst also by the FAO Committee on Fisheries allowing for sustainable utilisation (COFI), stresses the centrality of the and development of the resources principles of equity and equality. concerned” (Langebaan Coastal Links The Policy on SSF has, as one of its versus the Minister and others, 2016). principal objectives, the promotion Importantly, the Judge found of “equitable access to, and benefits that the Court cannot determine from, marine living resources, taking the new regulations and permit the historical background of the conditions, but the parties to the fishers into account”. The vision action must sit and negotiate new For more outlined in the SSF Policy is of a terms, by taking into consideration sustainable, equitable, small-scale these important social imperatives. lrc.org.za/lrcarchive/press-releases/3704- fishing sector in which the “wellbeing In reaffirming these socioeconomic press-release-court-fi nds-fi shing- and livelihood of fishing and coastal rights as integral to the governance restrictions-at-langebaan-irrational-calls- communities is secured and the health and management of fisheries and for-transformation of the marine ecosystem is conservation, this judgement Court Finds Fishing Restrictions maintained”. It also recognizes confirms a core principle at the at Langebaan Irrational–Calls for that in order to achieve effective heart of the SSF Guidelines, that of Transformation transformation, small-scale fishers the indivisibility of human rights, need to regain their lost access to sustainable development and safl ii.org/za/cases/ZAWCHC/2016/150. their traditional areas. responsible governance of fisheries. html The judgement draws on Section Coastal Links Langebaan and (9 (3) of the Bill of Rights in the Others v Minister of Agriculture, Constitution, noting that the State Forestry and Fisheries and Others may not unfairly discriminate, either (11907/13) [2016] ZAWCHC 150 directly or indirectly, against anyone (31 October 2016)s on a number of grounds, including race. In this instance, the Judge found that the permit conditions imposed on the Langebaan traditional net fishers were discriminatory

JANUARY 2017 India MUD BANKS Muddy Waters

As mud banks along the southwest coast of India dwindle, several concerns and societal implications have been articulated regarding this unique oceanographic phenomenon

ecades back, at the early June, with raging seas and Smithsonian Air and Space heavy rainstorms. This is the time DMuseum in Washington D.C, when the mud banks intermittently there used to be a regular show in appear as patches of calm and wide screen on ‘Mud Banks of turbid seas with copious fish stocks. Kerala’—an awe-inspiring event The news spreads like wildfire and which was given equal importance immediately transforms the entire to the launch of a space mission or coastline to a festive mood. Makeshift an expedition to the rain forests of townships emerge with gatherings the Amazon! Mud banks (locally of thousands and thousands of called Chakara) appear in the south people, when numerous canoes and Indian state of Kerala in the littoral nets are transported over land to the zones of the Arabian Sea during adjacent beaches. the summer southwest monsoon The hub of life and bustle is 30 and remain calm with exceptional unimaginable, with huge baskets biological production and represent a lined up to be filled to the brim with unique oceanographic phenomenon. shrimps and fishes, and hundreds oof refrigerated trucks to carry them to different parts of the country. Mud banks (locally called Chakara) appear in the A single cast of net during these ddays can yield a bumper harvest south Indian state of Kerala in the littoral zones of the oof mackerel, prawns, sardines and Arabian Sea during the summer southwest monsoon oother fish species. Seafood processors aand exporters queue up to buy the bbumper crop and cash in on the aabundance, and the whole crop is TheyTh are tranquilil marinei areas purchased in auction onshore itself. hugging the coast, which develop Thus, the mud banks of Kerala during the roughest monsoon have provided bountiful living period. They have a special feature resources to the needy, and helped of dampening high waves due to the to enhance their livelihoods for huge quantities of mud in suspension centuries. The mud banks of Kerala close to the bottom. differ from mud banks reported from The mud banks appear as an other muddy coasts worldwide, as undisturbed sheet of water, when they do not form a regular relief- blustery conditions prevail along the forming feature. The huge abundance outer periphery. Towards the end of of the fishery makes the Kerala mud a hot, humid summer season, every banks iconic. citizen in the region, perspiring and sweating, looks eagerly towards the God’s own country sky for the onset of the monsoon With a narrow strip of lush green rains. When strong winds and high land bounded on the east by high hills waves make it impossible to go out laced with rivers and on the west by into the sea, the entire fisherfolk the Arabian Sea, Kerala is hailed This article is by P.K. Dinesh Kumar pray for the appearance of mud as ‘God’s own country’ by admiring ([email protected]) is Chief Scientist at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, banks. The southwest monsoon tourists. Kerala lies along the Regional Centre, Kochi, Kerala, India arrives in Kerala with all its fury by southwest corner of the Indian

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 MUD BANKS peninsula, between 8° 18’ and all mud banks need not be productive. 12° 48’ N and 74°52’ and 77° 22’ E. Therefore, the success or failure of The coastline has been subjected to mud banks is judged from the severe alterations over a geological quantity of fish caught during the timescale due to a variety of factors, season. Studies have shown that the including the changing weather mud banks sustain a high fishery and climate, particularly the Indian potential, since the pelagic fishes monsoon. The region receives about and prawns move from deeper 300 cm of annual rainfall, as the waters to closer to shore during 44 rivers and numerous creeks of the southwest monsoon, following Kerala remain connected with lakes, upwelling. lagoons and channels. A major part The general tendency of fish of the rains flows through rivers being to swim against the prevailing and creeks to eventually reach the current (which is southerly), it is Arabian Sea. possible that they move in shoals This particular extent of northward and some of the fish, on 40,000 sq km of the continental passing through the mud bank area, shelf of Kerala is considered as the are easily caught by the numerous most productive zone in the Arabian canoes operating in, and outside, the Sea. Coastal upwelling enhances the mud banks. If so, it is also possible biological activity, leading to high that a shoal of a particular fish production in the region. Since composition, after its passing, is time immemorial, fish and fisheries followed by another of entirely have played a crucial role in the different composition. It is, therefore, economic growth of the country. likely that the monsoon catches Although Kerala has a coastline of from the mud bank area are from the 31 only about one-tenth of the Indian moving shoals as they are caught coastline, the fish landing from the from this region because fishing is state has contributed more than one- possible only from this region. fourth of the country’s total marine Another argument is that fish production. The sustainable upwelling causes the development of fish yield from the southwest coast hypoxia over the shelf, which creates is estimated to be between 0.8 - 1.2 stress on the fishes and prawns, as mn tonnes per year, of which only they move either shoreward or to about half is currently exploited. deeper waters. Such a condition The coastal and nearshore waters occurs throughout the coast where are most important as they sustain a upwelling is intense. During this large population of traditional migration, these shoals may also cross fishermen. The sector provides the the mud bank zones. source of income for hundreds of thousands of active fishermen and P.K. DINESH KUMAR others engaged in allied activities. Therefore, a decline in the fishery potential can be a major concern to the state and the coastal community. The situation is precarious now, following a dwindling trend in the total fish landings, surprisingly due to the reduction in the appearance of mud banks along the southwest coast of India. The mud banks and fishery are, in fact, interdependent, as when the former occurs, the latter should follow. To many residents, a good mud bank means a good fishery. Since the calmness of the sea and Sheer monsoon fi shery magic! Mud banks are tranquil marine areas mud accumulation are not significant, hugging the coast, which develop during the roughest monsoon period

JANUARY 2017 INDIA

With the onset of the southwest them (including the lagoons and monsoon, fishing activities come to a rivers emptying into them) and the standstill, and operations are possible transformations that have taken place only at locations where calm zones there. There have been significant prevail. The monsoon fishery enjoys changes in the land-use pattern in legal protection from the government, the hinterlands. These changes have which provides exclusive operational dramatically altered the fertility, soil rights to traditional crafts and has erosion, groundwater resources and banned large mechanized vessels surface water flow. There are about from fishing during the season. 15 built dams in the rivers of Kerala, During this time of idling and poverty, where a large part of water is retained. only the calm zones brought in by The silt and clay brought from the mud banks can support fishermen catchment areas of these dams are as centres of intense fishing activity. completely settled inside the dams. Almost the entire fish landings during Once, the entire watersheds and the monsoon season take place at lagoons were spread from the south these mud bank sites. end to the north end of the state, to History tells us that the ships of make the region a dense cover for Vasco da Gama anchored in the open mangroves. However, an explosive sea off Kozhikode (erstwhile Calicut) growth in the population and from 20 May to 26 August during urbanization have adversely affected the southwest monsoon of 1498. the ecological stability of mangroves. It was probably due to the mud banks The formation of mud banks along prevalent in those regions, where the coast of Kerala and the seasonal the calm sea enabled the navigators windfall fishery associated with them 32 a safe anchorage. Consequently, the are interesting. A phenomenon like this big vessels could remain in the sea, has not been reported from anywhere and canoes and small boats were used else. Therefore, the dwindling and to reach the shore during the the worst-case scenarios of the monsoon season. extinction risk associated with these Documented records on the mud very specialized ecosystems in this banks of Kerala are available from part of the world raise serious societal the 1840s. At least a dozen mud banks concerns about the future of the were known to have existed in the lifeline of this region. Therefore, the region for several centuries. Of these, issues associated with the dwindling some were sited either at, or near of mud banks need to be pushed to, the outlets of rivers and lagoons. to the centre of debate to facilitate From the shore, the mud banks can an ecosystem- based approach to be easily distinguished as zones with fisheries management. Serious total absence of waves, while high environmental management strategies swells break outside their periphery. should be initiated immediately by In recent times, over 20 locations involving researchers, economists, along the coast are found to have community people, fisherfolk and developed mud banks at some time policy-makers. or the other. Prominent mud banks documented in the 1980s have For more now vanished, and the remaining reported great characteristic changes eprints.cmfri.org.in/7309/1/315- in appearance and sustenance. Since IJMS_1974.pdf 2010, mud banks have been isolated Mud Banks of Kerala: Their in appearance along the coast at only Formation and Characteristics two or three locations, and concerns have been raised about the total drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/4940 disappearance. Mud Banks of Kerala: Mystery Yet Looking into the factors leading to to be Unrevealed the dwindling of the mud banks, we may have to consider the geographical features of the areas surrounding

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 Mexico CONSERVATION Alienated, Marginalized

The unintended consequences of conservation action has had several impacts on protected species and fi shing communities of Pacifi c Mexico

onservation initiatives are local fisheries production for both often urgently undertaken nutrition and revenue. Cespecially when they concern More than a livelihood and food the protection of endangered species. source, fishing represents a strong Furthermore, these agendas are culture and way of life for these often focused on narrow or even coastal communities and provides singular objectives (that is, saving the backbone for social organization. a single species from functional As in many other coastal communities extinction), which, in turn, mount across Mexico, this region supports pressure on national governments to dozens of small cooperatives (each take immediate action. When such comprising six to 12 persons) and pressure forces quick actions with four larger cooperatives (up to inadequate deliberation, resources 140 persons). These four larger for enforcement and monitoring, cooperatives have been granted or appreciation for local context, long-term concessions where they 33 conservation policies can harm have exclusive rights to lucrative both human wellbeing and the benthic resources like lobster and environment. Here we share a case study about how well-intentioned conservation efforts designed to protect vulnerable species have Small-scale fi shing is critically important for the coastal caused a series of cascading effects communities of the Gulf of Ulloa in Baja California Sur, for coastal communities in Mexico Mexico. and the marine environments on which they depend. Small-scale fishing is critically important for the coastal communities abalone,abalone and, and in some cases, cases contribute contribute of the Gulf of Ulloa in Baja California considerably to management and Sur, Mexico (Figure 1). Over 1,000 stewardship of these resources. fishers make their livelihood off Communication among fishers in the 300 km stretch of productive the region is further promoted by coastline where the cold California cooperative federations organized Current converges with the tropical at higher scales, strong family ties Costa Rica Current, assembling a across communities, and a local unique composition of temperate and baseball league in which cooperatives tropical species. Depending on the compete against one another. season and oceanographic conditions, small-scale fishers in the Gulf of Ulloa Conservation action? This article is by Elena M. Finkbeiner may use gillnets, hookah diving, This story commences when ([email protected]) of the Hopkins traps, hook-and-line, and artisanal Mexico, the world’s sixth largest Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, California, USA, and the Center longline or trawl gear from their 6-9 shark producer, was citedby the for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University, m vessels, targeting a diversity of international conservation community Monterey, California, Timothy H. finfish, sharks, rays, bivalves, for inadequate management and Frawley of the Hopkins Marine Station, abalone, lobster, octopus and shrimp. conservation of shark and ray Stanford University, S. Hoyt Peckham While some products go straight (elasmobranch) species. A year later, of the Center for Ocean Solutions and SmartFish, La Paz, México, and Larry B. to international markets, coastal Mexico enacted a moratorium on the Crowder of the Hopkins Marine Station communities strongly depend on fishing of all elasmobranch species and the Center for Ocean Solutions

JANUARY 2017 MEXICO

throughout the nation’s exclusive before the closure was enacted. economic zone (EEZ) for almost two In addition to having social and months during the first summer and economic repercussions for the three months during subsequent coastal communities of the Gulf summers. The small-scale sector in of Ulloa, the closure did little to the Gulf of Ulloa relies heavily on the protect sharks and rays the first elasmobranch fishery during summer summer it was enacted. months, using artisanal longlines Simultaneously during the and driftnets offshore to target elasmobranch closure, evidence larger migratory sharks and bottom- suggests that fishers were set gillnets and longlines inshore accidentally catching loggerhead turtles in their bottom-set nets with rrecorde high frequency. The unusually Although warning of the new law was reportedly ggoodo halibut catch coinciding with disseminated in advance to fi sher leaders and federations, ttheh elasmobranch closure attracted ununprecedented numbers of fishers the shark fi shing closure took most fi shers completely ttoo the bottom-set fishery in 2012, by surprise... cconcentratingo fishers in space and titimem in a sea turtle hotspot in the ssoutherno Gulf of Ulloa. Subsequently, to targettarget smallersmaller coastalcoastal sharkssharks aandnd rerecord high numbers of loggerheads rays. Although warning of the new stranded during July and August law was reportedly disseminated 2012 along the shoreline adjacent to in advance to fisher leaders and primary halibut fishing area; federations, the shark fishing 600 per cent more loggerheads 34 closure took most fishers completely stranded during these two months by surprise; the closure was in 2012 than the average rate announced and enacted right at the documented over the prior 10 years start of the elasmobranch season during systematic shoreline surveys. well after most fishers had already The dramatic increase in sea made their important seasonal turtle bycatch rates and strandings, investments in preparation for the officially documented by the Mexican fishery. According to one fisher, government and independent “the [shark fishery] closure was a researchers, culminated in a United failure and nobody could work. One States’ citation of Mexico for its lack bought nets, bought everything, of bycatch management and the and we were left without work. threat of trade sanctions, and The fishermen did not receive notice raised alarm in the international of the closure; nothing arrived and conservation community. In response, suddenly there was a fishery closure”. Mexico developed a bycatch After the elasmobranch closure reduction programme in the Gulf of was enacted, to sustain their Ulloa, beginning with the livelihoods many fishers retooled establishment of a sea turtle refuge their nets to bottom set for finfish, (Figure 1), fishing gear restrictions, including halibut and grouper. and a fisheries observer programme. Fortunately, the summer of 2012 was Thereafter, Mexico enacted a an unusually good year for halibut, Gulf-wide closure of all finfish species but, to the fishers’ frustration, while for a four-month period during the fishing for halibut they caught summer of 2016. substantial amounts of valuable sharks and rays, which they had to Unintended consequences discard at sea, dead and unused. While most sea turtle bycatch in the Anecdotal evidence suggests that this Gulf of Ulloa has historically been incidental capture of elasmobranchs confined to a small geographic during the first summer of the region in the south related to specific closure was comparable to the gear types, the blanket closure targeted capture of elasmobranch unnecessarily affected fishers species during previous summers throughout the entire Gulf, and,

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 CONSERVATION combined with the shark closure by governments. Thus, at the effectively shut down over 1,000 intersection of competing and fishers during their critical summer powerful interests, who is speaking fishing season. Though the for the needs of marginalized closure was accompanied with a communities? Who is bearing the compensation plan, the rent-out majority of costs of decisions made unfortunately failed to benefit the at higher levels? In this case, fishers fishers who needed it the most. from the Gulf of Ulloa are having Over the course of these to pay the costs of conservation while events, social and political conflict also bearing witness to potentially intensified at the local level as destructive and unsustainable the situation became increasingly practices by other, more powerful polarized. Feelings of mistrust among sectors including industrial fishing fishers, conservation organizations, and mining. Furthermore, both the researchers, and authorities elasmobranch and finfish closures culminated in the suspension of a were autocratic processes that participatory bycatch research and failed to adequately involve fishers mitigation programme. through consultation or meaningful Meanwhile, the continuing participation. Unsurprisingly, presence of industrial trawl vessels, feelings of political alienation from other states of Mexico, fishing and social marginalization are a offshore in the Gulf of Ulloa, potentially consistent theme in the region, contributing to resource decline further undermining objectives of and sea turtle bycatch, exacerbated conservation and sustainable fisheries feelings of mistrust and resentment management. FIGURE 1 among small-scale fishers in the 35 region. And furthermore, a proposed underwater phosphate mine placed in the middle of the turtle refuge and two of the benthic fishing concessions, represents another compounding threat to local fishers’ livelihoods and the local marine environment (Figure 1). In this case, multiple processes and actors have combined to create a situation with undesirable and unjust outcomes. There is a strong incongruence across scales with respect to value orientation and power. While the international conservation community plays an important role as an advocate for biodiversity conservation and vulnerable species, this advocacy may fail to integrate local knowledge, culture, and context. Meanwhile nations are tasked with potentially conflicting duties of conservation of public trust resources, development of the fisheries sector, and protection of livelihoods. Given the complex duties of protecting trade agreements, fostering economic growth, and adhering to evolving international conservation standards, ensuring local livelihoods Small-scale fi shing is critically important for the coastal communities of the Gulf of Ulloa in and wellbeing may not be prioritized Baja California Sur, Mexico

JANUARY 2017 MEXICO

Lessons learned longer-term solutions by including There are important lessons to be local stakeholders throughout learned from this story, applicable the development of conservation to conservation efforts within strategies. In particular, authorities small-scale fisheries around the world. should seek out stakeholders’ First, we argue for greater coherence narratives concerning conservation among international conservation threats and solutions. In this case, efforts, national policy making, and fishers’ perception of the problem the realities faced by local strongly dictated perceived legitimacy communities. This requires a refocus and efficacy of the enacted policies. of attention on how we integrate As such, fishers’ unique perspectives multiple value orientations and and long-standing ecological objectives across scales to achieve knowledge should be incorporated just outcomes for biodiversity and into the design of conservation and human wellbeing. This also requires management policies. Furthermore, addressing power relations occurring increasing stakeholder consultation across scales (from international to and participation has the potential local), and recognition of how the to achieve socially just outcomes for costs and benefits of biodiversity local communities in addition to conservation are distributed among biodiversity conservation. In fact, stakeholders. There is also a critical we argue, you can’t have one without need to recognize the historical the other. and cultural context of proposed conservation solutions. Are there histories of inconsistency, mistrust, 36 or marginalization? If so, how might they impact the efficacy of a proposed conservation action, and what might the ancillary consequences be? Second, conservation actions are likely to be more effective if they address interactions occurring beyond a single species, and integrate For more broader concerns beyond just that of biodiversity conservation. A focus on sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ protecting single species may lead S0959378015000461 to cascading effects for other species E. M. Finkbeiner, The Role of or entire ecosystem especially if the Diversifi cation in Dynamic policies are not thought through or Small-scale Fisheries: Lessons do not consider potential feedbacks from Baja California Sur, Mexico. resulting from social, cultural, or Glob. Environ. Chang. 32, economic realities. This was evidently 139–152 (2015) the case with Mexico’s effort to protect shark species, as the shark researchgate.net/publication/6229591_ closure inadvertently caused increases State_Intervention_and_Abuse_of_the_ in bycatch of both elasmobranchs Commons_Fisheries_Development_in_ and sea turtles. Most importantly, Baja_California_Sur_Mexico biodiversity conservation efforts E. Young, State Intervention and must also integrate human wellbeing Abuse of the Commons: Fisheries considerations to minimize human Development in Baja California cost and maximize the potential for Sur, Mexico. Ann. Assoc. Am. long-term sustainability outcomes. Geogr. 91, 283–306 (2001) Finally, we suggest that resource management and conservation should avoid negative impacts to local resource-dependent communities and engender more robust and

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 Report INLAND FISHERIES Development Refugees

Fishworker representatives from seven states of India converged at Kolkata to discuss the creation of a National Platform for Small-scale Fish Workers (Inland)

or the 20 mn strong population of industries and real estate projects. small-scale fishing communities Poor watershed management in Fworking on inland fisheries in catchment areas is cutting down India, 20-21 September 2016 proved the sources of water for rivers, lakes to be days of immense importance. and wetlands. Natural storm water Fishworker representatives from drainage is intervened by construction seven states converged at Kolkata of roads, railway tracks and buildings, and pledged to fight jointly to end the thus subjecting large number of marginalization and deprivation of ponds to intermittent overflow. small-sale fishing communities and Run-off from chemical agriculture also to end the destruction of water is destroying the fish resources of bodies and fish resources. wetlands and paddy fields. India is gifted with vast and varied The first victims are the small- inland water bodies that bear rich scale fishers and fish farmers whose fish resources. Rivers and canals, livelihood is inseparably linked with 37 reservoirs, ponds and tanks, oxbow the quality of the water bodies. These lakes, wetlands, backwaters and small-scale fishers and fish farmers estuaries yield 6.14 mn tonnes of fish which is more than 64 per cent of the total fish production of the country. The sector sustains about 4 mn It is estimated that less than 10 per cent of the country’s fishworkers and a total population of natural potential is used for freshwater aquaculture... around 20 mn. Still, the potential of inland fishery resources is far from fully utilized. It is estimated that less than are,are, byby far,far, the largestlargest primaryprimary 10 per cent of the country’s natural stakeholders and natural custodians potential is used for freshwater of our water bodies. Losing their aquaculture and for brackish sources of livelihood, they are water aquaculture, the area under being turned into development cultivation is just above 13 per cent refugees and have to migrate to of the potential area available. In the other occupations and areas in search case of flood-plain wetlands, the of a living. present fish production of around Most ironically, thousands of these 50,000 tonnes can be increased six- small-scale and traditional fisher fold to 3,00,000 tonnes and in the people, who have been struggling to case of reservoirs, the present yield of protect their livelihood and the water 93,000 tonnes can be enhanced bodies, are being driven out of the by more than ten times to 9,83,000 aquatic areas falling within protected tonnes. areas like reserve forests, wildlife These huge resources are under sanctuaries and reserves. severe stress. Rivers are poisoned with heavy pollution loads. Diversion Inland water bodies of water from rivers for industry and Utilization of vast potentials of This report is by Pradip Chatterjee agriculture is killing their ecological inland fisheries, as well as the ([email protected]), Chief Co-ordinator of Direct Initiative flow. Wetlands, lakes and ponds are protection of the inland water bodies, for Social and Health Action (DISHA), being encroached and filled up by are issues that need to be addressed. West Bengal, India

JANUARY 2017 REPORT

These issues include river, watershed Pradip Chatterjee welcomed and water body management, all representatives of fishing together with the rights and communities, resource persons, entitlements of the small-scale government officials and fishers and fish farmers to sustainably other participants on behalf of use and protect the fish resources Dakshinbanga Matsyajibi Forum and their habitats. The issues and the (DMF). He was followed by ways and means to address them cut Chittaranjan Mondal, Regional across state boundaries and are truly Manager of ActionAid, and Sasanka national in nature. Dev, Secretary, DISHA, who wished Thus there is a clear need for a the meeting all success. National Policy on Inland Fisheries Sebastian Mathew of ICSF and a National Platform for Inland presented the key note address. He Fisheries Groups and Organizations indicated the non-consumptive use to discuss issues of concern to the of water resources by the fishing inland fishing and fish-farming communities and stressed the communities, and take appropriate importance of human rights over the action. use of water. He narrated matters In view of the above concerns, of state policy related to inland Dakshinbanga Matsyajibi Forum fisheries, commitments that our (DMF), an organization of small-scale country bears to international fishworkers in West Bengal, decided conventions and also stressed the to organize a series of meetings in issues of governance. collaboration with concerned groups Saptarshi Biswas, Deputy Director over the coming years. The first of Fisheries, Government of West 38 such meeting was held in Kolkata Bengal, described the efforts of the on 20 and 21 September 2016, with government, along with their scopes the participation of groups from the and limitations. He stressed the states of Odisha, West Bengal, need for fishing community Assam, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, organizations to emerge. Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar Archan Kumar Das, Principal and Maharashtra. The NGOs DISHA Scientist, Central Inland Fisheries and ActionAid actively collaborated Research Institute (CIFRI), gave in holding the meeting and the an overall picture of the inland International Colletive in Support fisheries and dwelt on its problems of Fishworkers (ICSF) facilitated and prospects. the effort. B K Mahapatra, Principal Scientist, The meeting witnessed the Central Institute for Fisheries agonies and desperations of small Education (CIFE), enlightened -scale fishing communities working the participants with a short but in rivers, lakes, wetlands and ponds significant discourse on the statutory as their representatives, one by one, directives on inland fisheries. described how the rivers are polluted Fourteen different groups and dried up by townships, industries from seven states presented their and chemical agriculture, how the respective situations, mentioning the lakes are shrinking, and how the problems they are facing and how ponds are being filled up and they think they can overcome them. encroached. The fishing community The groups hailed from Loktak Lake representatives also narrated in Manipur; Madhubani in Bihar; how, with the connivance of the Chandil Dam in Jharkhand; Chilika, government, subsistence fishers and Bhitarkanika, Mahanadi river basin fish farmers are being edged out from and Brahmani river basin in Odisha; the sector by moneyed investors. Godavari river basin in Andhra The meeting also witnessed the Pradesh; Bagri Dam and Tikamgarh resolve and enthusiasm of the fishing in Madhya Pradesh; pond- and river- community representatives to close based groups in Hooghly and Howrah their ranks and negotiate for better districts, Jangal Mahal fishers in future. Paschim Medinipur and mangrove

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 INLAND FISHERIES

PRADIP CHATTERJEE forest fishers in the Sundarbans of West Bengal. Then the participants were regrouped, based on categories of water bodies like rivers, lakes, ponds and reservoirs they are attached with. The groups worked to identify the chief problems confronting fishworkers attached with each kind of water body, and explored how the problems could be dealt with. The groups also worked to indicate the government protections and schemes available to them. After the rigorous group work that continued for two hours, each group presented their Participants at the workshop. The meeting witnessed the agonies and desperations findings to all the participants. of small-scale fi shing communities working in rivers, lakes, wetlands and ponds The group work and its presentations were followed by a fed fisheries or cold-water fisheries panel discussion on policy elements to develop a comprehensive policy for inland fisheries. The panellists recommendation. It was also decided were Sebastian Mathew, Nalini Nayak, that while efforts would be taken to Suman Singh, Mukut Roy Chaudhury, connect with fishworker communities Neelkanth Mishra and Pradip in different states that are still not Chatterjee. represented, representatives hailing It was reiterated that: from different states would strive 39 • the small-scale fishworkers to build up networks with fishing are, by far, the largest primary communities in their respective states. (non-consumptive) stakeholders It was further decided that a draft and natural custodians of our position paper would be prepared and water bodies; circulated in one month’s time, and • the state policy on fisheries should the next meeting of the alliance would aim at sustainable use of water take place in six months. The name of and fish resources as well as the the alliance was decided to be wellbeing of the small-scale fishing the National Platform for Small- communities. It should not take scale Fish Workers (Inland). enhancement of productivity or To take the work forward, a ten- investment in the sector as its member Preparatory Committee primary or overarching goal; was constituted with the following • the small-scale fishing communities activists: 1. K. S. Deben (Manipur), have to be empowered with Tenure 2. Suman Singh (Bihar), 3. O. P. Rawat Rights that include sustainable (Madhya Pradesh), 4. Munna Barman access to, and use of, water and (Madhya Pradesh), 5. Milan Das (West fish resources; Governance Rights Bengal), 6. Sannyasi Pradhan (Odisha), to protect water and fish resources 7. Amulya Kumar Nayak (Odisha), from pollution, encroachments and 8. Dharam Pal Minj (Jharkhand), For more overfishing and destructive fishing; 9. Debasis Pal (Andhra Pradesh), and and Rights to finance, infrastructure, 10. Pradip Chatterjee (Convener, millenniumpost.in/NewsContent. technology, market and social West Bengal). To advise and facilitate aspx?NID=327620 security. Further, there should the Preparatory Committee, an Centre to Roll Out Policy to be Residual Rights to access and eight-member Advisory Committee Support Small-scale, Inland utilize the resources for alternative was constituted with the following Fishermen livelihood generation. members: 1. Nalini Nayak, The panellists also mentioned 2. Sebastian Mathew, 3. Mukut Roy the need to connect with important Chaudhury, 4. Neelkanth Mishra, fisheries hubs across the country 5. Chittaranjan Mondal, 6. Soumen and incorporate the issues of other Ray, 7. Neeraj Verma, and 8. Viren categories of fisheries like sewage- Lobo.

JANUARY 2017 Ivory Coast WOMEN A Desperate Search

Women fi sh processors in Côte d’Ivoire in Western Africa face a bleak future, with fewer fi sh and declining incomes

n Côte d’Ivoire, the low fishing from the artisanal sector but also season lasts eight months of the from intermediaries who sell small Iyear. For women fish processors, pelagics species caught by industrial this translates into a relative trawlers in Mauritania, frozen and abundance of raw material between boxed on board. Some years ago, mid-July and mid-November, when 60 per cent of the supply of women they are supplied directly by the fleet fish processors would come from of local artisanal vessels. During the small-scale fisheries and 40 per cent low fishing season, there is almost consisted of frozen fish imports. nothing—four months of fish to But the situation has changed. process, too short a time to make a On the one hand, in the last decade, decent living. Women have, therefore, maritime artisanal fisheries landings to turn to imported fish, but this have constantly gone down. Artisanal market is in the hands of greedy fishermen face many difficulties. 40 intermediaries. Micheline Dion Fishermen stories about trawlers, Somplehi, President of the Côte mostly Korean and Chinese, fishing d’Ivoire National Union of Women illegally in the coastal zone and in Fisheries Societies, provides ideas destroying their nets, are multiplying. on how this can change, including Unsustainable fishing methods by industrialin boats, such as pair trawling, haveh added to the problems. But it is ...in the last decade, maritime artisanal fi sheries landings notn just the unsustainable and illegal have constantly gone down. Artisanal fi shermen face fishingf by vessels of foreign origin that many diffi culties. isis a cause for concern. As Micheline Dion Somplehi explains:e “The area reserved for artisanala fishing is reduced, and lately, tthroughhrough new reregionalgional fish-supplyfish-supply itit is even more reduced because of channels as well as through the tuna offshore oil development. The richest fisheries agreement between Côte fishing areas are where the oil wells d’Ivoire and the European Union (EU). are located, so fishermen have Like most of West African difficulties to gain access, and with the countries, fish is the main source of maritime traffic that this generates, animal protein for the Côte d’Ivoire many have already lost their fishing population. A narrow continental equipment, carried away by passing shelf limits marine artisanal fisheries ships, without compensation”. activities. However, almost three- quarters of the total production of Small pelagics the national maritime fisheries come For women fish processors, one would from this artisanal sector. But, as in think that imported small pelagic other countries such as Nigeria, Côte species may provide an alternative d’Ivoire fish supply depends largely source of raw material. That is not on imports. Over three-quarters of the case. The trade of imported small the fish consumed in Côte d’Ivoire are pelagics, landed frozen at the port This article is by Beatrice Gorez imported. of Abidjan, is in the hands of a few ([email protected]), Co-ordinator of Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements Côte d’Ivoire women fish intermediaries, whose main objective (CFFA), Belgium processors source their raw material is to make the highest profit, not

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 WOMEN to supply women fish processors. availability of affordable, good- Moreover, overall, the quantities of quality small pelagics for Côte d’Ivoire small pelagics landed in Abidjan have women fish processors. decreased and, therefore, inevitably, Micheline Dion believes things prices have increased. Indeed, in have to change: “I think we have to recent years, in West Africa, a develop an alternative supply chain combination of factors has affected based on artisanal fisheries. We the supply of small pelagics by should think about setting up a trade industrial vessels to markets such route between areas where small as Côte d’Ivoire. In Mauritania, for pelagics are found in abundance, conservation reasons and to avoid and where small-scale fishing can competition with artisanal fishermen, develop its capacity to catch them the fishing zone for European pelagic and conserve their quality, such as trawlers was pushed out further in Mauritania, and see the possibility from the coast in the last fishing to organize transport by container, agreement. And this new zoning was by sea, to our country where the applied to Russian vessels as well. demand is. With the support of GIZ There is also an increasing fishmeal (German Development Co-operation industry developing in the region, Agency), our Mauritanian fishermen’s fuelled by attractive world prices for colleagues have a project to develop fishmeal. In Mauritania, where the a small fleet of artisanal seiners to majority of the small pelagics destined develop such a supply chain”. for the region’s markets are caught, The future may look brighter, but the government gave approval for nowadays, with a declining supply the construction of about 40 fishmeal from artisanal fishing limited to four plants. In 2015, 24 of these plants months of the year, and with greater 41 were already in operation, swallowing difficulties to afford diminishing vast quantities of the small pelagics quantities of imported small pelagics, caught in Mauritanian waters, women are left with no fish and no including by artisanal fishermen. income.

These factors negatively affect the MICHELINE DION SOMPLEHI / CMATPHA

Faux thon trade in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Today, this faux thon is landed in Abidjan by the tuna boats’ crew, and sold without control to local intermediaries, who then sell it to the women

JANUARY 2017 IVORY COAST

A source of supply which could a woman works hard to earn almost help the women fish processors nothing. Worse yet, as often the in their quest for raw material, is intermediary makes her an advance the ‘faux thon’ landed by European to buy this overpriced raw material, vessels in Abidjan under the European she is obliged to continue to work Union—Côte d’Ivoire fisheries at a loss to repay her loan and ends partnership agreement. In the Gulf ultimately in debt and in greater of Guinea, Abidjan is the most poverty.” important port for the landing of That is why, on behalf of the tropical tuna. Three canneries—Scodi, Côte d’Ivoire women fish processors, Pêche et Froid and Castelli—deal Micheline Dion asked the European PParliament to support, under the ppartnership agreement between tthe EU and Côte d’Ivoire, a formalized Damaged, undersized tuna and by-catches which are not llanding of faux thon and its direct used by the canneries constitute the faux thon. ssale to women through their national oorganization, in order to ensure the qquality of the fish landed, and fair pprices by escaping the intermediaries. TThe European Commission—the mainly with yellowfin, skipjack and administration that negotiates and bigeye tuna. Damaged, undersized manages the EU fishing agreements tuna and by-catches which are not —has accepted to put the topic on used by the canneries constitute the the table at the next EU-Côte d’Ivoire faux thon. Today, this faux thon is fishing agreement committee, to meet 42 landed in Abidjan by the tuna boats’ in December 2016. crew, and sold without control to local While such proposals are intermediaries, who then sell it to the being considered, it is vital for women. The quantities of this faux decisionmakers to appreciate the role thon are estimated at between 5,000 of Côte d’Ivoire women, not only in and 8,000 tonnes a year. In recent terms of the local economy and food years, European purse-seiners land security, but for the whole artisanal on average 48 tonnes of faux thon sector. As in many African countries, per landing. This fish could constitute it is the women who often pre-finance an interesting alternative to small fishing trips in the artisanal sector. pelagics for supplying the Abidjan The way in which both artisanal women fish processors when there’s fishing is protected, and the trade in nothing else to process. imported fish is regulated to benefit But things are far from simple. women traders is, therefore, critical. At a hearing at the European Without urgent reforms, women Parliament on the role of women fish processors are facing a in fisheries in May 2016, Micheline bleak future, with fewer fish and Dion explained: “At the port of declining incomes. Abidjan, women fish processors currently buy the faux thon from Lebanese and Burkinabe intermediaries. They pay around 1,000 For more CFA per kilo (2 euros). During the processing—drying, smoking—the cape-cffa.org/new-blog/women-fi sh- faux thon loses a third of its weight. processors-in-cte-divoire-desperately- It is necessary therefore to buy 1.5 kg, seeking-fi sh spending 1500 CFA (around 3 euros), Women Fish Processors in Ivory to get a kilo of processed product. Coast: Desperately Seeking Fish The woman must also pay for transport and firewood. Ultimately, the kilo of processed faux thon is sold at 2800 CFA per kilo (4 euros). With the price of the raw material,

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 Costa Rica SHRIMP FISHERY Achieving a Balance

Traditional knowledge has proved to be relevant for the management of shrimp fi sheries on the Pacifi c and Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica

he Discussion Table for the respect among the participants of the sustainable use of shrimp in research group towards the TCosta Rica, organized by the sustainable harvest of shrimp. Research Group, which is part of Historically, the development the National Dialogue Round Table in Costa Rica has disregarded the geared towards sustainable shrimp sea and its people. This has meant exploitation, was a space for dialogue that fisheries have not been given and consensus proposals that took proper consideration. As a result, the into consideration both scientific following consequences have arisen: and traditional knowledge. These weak institutional structures for inputs were reflected in the process regulating sea-based activities; poor of participatory mapping. The political support for comprehensive mapping was developed with the development; ecosystem degradation idea of generating a marine spatial and declining resources due to planning process that can reconcile overfishing as well as other human- 43 conservation and utilization of coastal induced and natural causes. and marine resources in a more equitable manner. In this research experience, traditional knowledge has played a Historically, the development in Costa Rica has prominent role not only because of the disregarded the sea and its people. scarcity of scientific information, but by opening a space for the considered discussions of all the participants. The process has incorporated the Conflicts arise specifically immeasurable contributions generated because there are no arrangements to from the practical experience of demarcate zones for the activities of fishers (these have had a high level of different fleets, and with the increase agreement with regard to scientific in fishing effort (number of boats knowledge). and hours of work), there is a In this case study, other aspects reduction in fishery resources. This were also considered related to the generates interactions between subject, for example, promoting the small-scale artisanal sector and the use of traditional knowledge the semi-industrial trawl fleet, giving in decisionmaking, the role of rise to conflicts characterized by participatory mapping in the competition for resources and/or the application of different types of destruction of artisanal fishing gears knowledge, and assessment of the (this situation has been going on for interaction between scientists and some 20 years or more). fishers, among others. The article is a synthesis of the case study undertaken as part of a regional Among the main results that have Co-operation research project organized by ICSF and been generated is the formulation Apart from the tensions that exist CoopeSoliDar R.L, on traditional of a first sampling on ecosystems between the sectors, there are also knowledge and the fisheries of the and coastal resources in the Pacific forms of co-operation both on land Central American region. It was written and Caribbean (Barra del Colorado) and at sea. Unfortunately, these latter by Carlos Andrés Brenes Tencio ([email protected]), social coasts of Costa Rica. Furthermore, relationships are not visible, which anthropologist and researcher associated it was important to build trust and widens the gap between fishermen. with CoopeSoliDar R.L., Costa Rica

JANUARY 2017 COSTA RICA

Due to the lack of regulatory knowledge was not only applied to capacity and incapacity of the fill the gaps where scientific data was different users (direct and indirect) lacking, but also, from the outset, it to remedy the situation, the dispute was taken into account in the work was partially resolved by the of the Research Group with the same Constitutional Assembly (the nation’s weighting as scientific knowledge. highest legal body), through Bill In this sense, the willingness of the No. 201310540 in 2013. The Assembly participants to engage in a dialogue made the renewal and issuing of facilitated both kinds of knowledge to new fishing licences for trawlers be incorporated. conditional on legal and scientific The methodological tool that enablede traditional knowledge anda scientific knowledge to be The Assembly made the renewal and issuing of new incorporatedi (and actually proved to fi shing licences for trawlers conditional on legal and beb the main source of information) scientifi c reform... wasw participative mapping. This tool wasw successful because it provides visualv representation (therefore accessiblea to anyone who cannot read reformreform ssoo as ttoo rereduceduce tthehe oro write). Also, participants were environmental and social impacts quite familiar with it, which enabled of this fishery activity (both semi- everyone to apply their knowledge industrial and artisanal). directly. At the start of 2015, the Thanks to participative mapping, Government of the Republic of the following aspects could be 44 Costa Rica issued the “Directive for identified: areas of interaction generating a national policy for the between fleets (areas where shrimp is sustainable exploitation of shrimp, to exploited by each fleet and of latent generate employment, and to combat conflicts); climatic conditions (that poverty”, thanks to the outcomes give rise to natural fishery closures); of the first stage in the dialogue determination of the species that process towards managing the shrimp live in these areas (commercial and trawl fishery (artisanal and semi- non-commercial), species and critical industrial). The Directive envisaged habitats in need of conserving and/ the creation of a body where the or further research (information technical and scientific options for provided by academia); types of mitigating significantly the impacts of seabed; varieties of shrimp, their trawling could be discussed, as ordered depth zones, and the environmental by the Constitutional Assembly. implications of their capture. It was in this way that the Research Group for the sustainable Power balance exploitation of shrimp was initiated, What is more, the use of with representatives of the University traditional knowledge has brought of Costa Rica (through the CIMAR), about—albeit not in a premeditated the Costa Rica Institute for Fisheries way—a balancing of the power and Aquaculture (INCOPESCA) and relations between scientists and other participant institutions being fishers. Generally, it is considered incorporated into it, along with that scientists are the only ones representatives from the fisheries sector possessing knowledge and thus— on the Pacific and Caribbean (from the wilfully or unwittingly—the debate Barra del Colorado area) coasts. is biased by the information or vision Without the contribution of that they have; but thanks to the traditional knowledge, it would not contribution made by the people have been possible to undertake such of the sea, we have been able to a detailed analysis of the different equalize the power balance between areas and of the fishery resources of the protagonists. In addition, both the Costa Rican Pacific and Caribbean scientists and fishers have taken (Barra del Colorado area) coasts. This one another’s views into account—

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 SHRIMP FISHERY conservation and exploitation, and (b) as a kind of “arbiter” through respectively—to achieve a balance. its impartiality, such as when the Since it has not been the practice artisanal and semi-industrial trawling to take fishers’ knowledge into sectors could not reach agreement consideration when binding decisions on how the zoning of their activities are made at the national level could be established, they requested (according to those interviewed), the the academics to provide criteria fishers’ representatives were asked and they came up with an option how they felt about sharing their that benefited exploitation as well traditional knowledge with the as resource conservation. (It must Research Group. The reply was be underscored that academic unanimous, mainly for two reasons: participation in this process of (a) because historically no one had fisheries management does not imply taken their views into account in that this endorses the process that making the decisions that had affected is being undertaken. Its function them directly, but now this was is to incorporate the best scientific happening; and (b) because a space information to achieve the best had been opened up for scientists to decisionmaking possible). listen to them. Below, we provide a proposal on However, it is necessary that zoning presented to a representative traditional knowledge is transmitted of academia, with the objective of verbally and it can vary according to defining an isobath (depth gradient the expertise of each person; above all, on the map) to protect gravid female it must be systematized and verified. sharks. “Only artisanal fisheries can During the sessions of the Research fish from 0-40 m depth and up to the Group, it was possible to cross-check Eastern end of Caño Island, and this 45 the contributions made by the artisanal should be a priority research area and semi-industrial trawler sectors. (to define which kind of fleets “Because each sector was implicated and fisheries can be undertaken)”, in the contributions presented, it is said Borrás possible to confirm the validity of the In addition, the role of the information provided by each sector” Research Group is not only relevant said Molina. because it facilitated the incorporation Regarding the degree of of traditional and scientific consistency between traditional and knowledge, but also because it scientific knowledge, both types of facilitated the interaction of scientists knowledge have a wide margin of and fishers. Both scientists and coincidence (although not total), fishing-sector representatives felt judging by what representatives of that there was a good interaction, a both the sectors implicated and the positive assessment that was due to team facilitator told us. This confirms a complex and wide process of work the validity and relevance of the undertaken in its entirety by the all knowledge of the people of the sea. LORNA MARCHENA / INCOPESCA Scientific knowledge was provided thanks to the participation of academia, represented by two officials from the Centre for Marine and Limnology Research (CIMAR) of Costa Rica University. Academia played a double role in this context: (a) as participants, because they complemented the information provided by the fishers, and for the inputs that they brought into the discussion (regarding shrimp and other species that inhabit the zones exploited by the two fleets), which Without the contribution of traditional knowledge, it would not have been possible to significantly enriched the discussion; undertake such a detailed analysis of the different areas and of the fi shery resources

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the parties. And despite the differences productive (especially for fishers between, and within, the sectors, the who are not used to sitting for long participants were open to dialogue in only one place); and (c) should and to achieving consensus in order enable participants to develop to generate sustainable exploitation in-depth discussions, and not just of shrimp resources. reply to a particular interviewer. The incorporation of traditional The work of the Research Group knowledge also responds to a marks a milestone in the way “democratic ideal” on knowledge and fisheries resources are managed in the management of natural resources, Costa Rica. However, it involved as it incorporates different uses and a lengthy process of agreeing and perspectives on a public resource. disagreeing (with a high level of Historically, the fisheries sector has conflict), where trust and dialogue been marginalized at the political became necessary vehicles “to manage level and in the taking of decisions. the human activities that depend on But through the application of their these resources, because the resources knowledge in the Research Group, manage themselves alone.” (Molina, fishery-sector representatives were personal communication, 2016). empowered in a context where the Through the management process, contributions provided by them were relationships have improved between taken into account in decisionmaking some representatives of the artisanal at the national level. sector and some representatives of Without the contributions the semi-industrial trawl sector provided by traditional knowledge, (which has a long history of disputes it would not have been possible to over the use of different resources). 46 achieve the level of detail about Both sides recognize that they both marine resources in the different must eat (through their fishery zones mapped. Neither would it have activities), but they must also carry been possible to achieve consensus out their activities in an on the criteria applied for using the environmentally sustainable way. resources of each area. During the process of participative Participative mapping was a mapping, both sectors were able to tool that facilitated exchange of define their criteria with respect to knowledge; however, there are other the different zones where shrimp and kinds of technical methodologies that the other species found are exploited could be used to achieve this. But within a particular area (there exists more important than the technique a great deal of similarity between is what is conveyed by it; those the knowledge contributed by the interviewed in this investigation representatives of the artisanal and highlighted the following points semi-industrial sectors, according to with regards to the development their respective areas of expertise). of a methodological proposal for This contributed to the resolution of this: “definition of a clear goal and a conflicts between the parties. methodology to break down this fear In order for traditional knowledge (between scientists and fishers)”, said to be incorporated into decision- Wehrtmann; “should be visual, in a making processes at the policy level, form that allows the contributions it must first of all be systematized to be understood immediately, and and verified. In this sense, the work to allow those who don’t know how of the Research Group, which is part to read and/or write to understand of the National Dialogue Round Table what is going on” said Solis Aguilar geared towards sustainable shrimp and Muñoz; “should be interactive in exploitation, has been successful. three ways: (a) not to listen for four hours to the same person talking, For more while we are seated listening”, said Chacón (b) the tool should enable coopesolidar.org/ participants to move about, to CoopeSoliDar make these lengthy sessions more

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 Report SSF GUIDELINES Linking Up

A workshop on enhancing the capacities of women fi shworkers in India for the implementation of the SSF Guidelines led to clear and positive outcomes

lose to 60 women fishworkers The Chennai workshop was, from nine coastal states of therefore, proposed as a follow-up to CIndia met over three days in the 2010 workshop, keeping in mind November 2016 in Chennai, India, to the opportunities presented with the learn about the Voluntary Guidelines Tenure and SSF Guidelines, changes for Securing Sustainable Small-scale in the last half decade for women Fisheries in the Context of Food in fisheries in India, the challenges Security and Poverty Eradication they face in the current context of (SSF Guidelines) and how it was development and their attempts to relevant in their contexts, to overcome these. The workshop also understand how existing laws, took into account the gendered schemes and provisions are being components of the subregional, and can be used, and to develop regional and national-level a holistic framework to life and consultations/meetings that have livelihood in the small-scale fisheries, been held on the SSF Guidelines in the 47 with a critique on the existing forms past couple of years. of fisheries development. This national workshop on “Enhancing capacities of The Chennai workshop was, therefore, proposed women fishworkers in India for as a follow-up to the 2010 workshop, keeping the implementation of the SSF in mind the opportunities presented with the Tenure Guidelines” was planned as a follow- and SSF Guidelines... up to another workshop held in 2010, titled “Enhancing Women’s Roles in Fisheries in India”, organized by the International Collective in Support Several months prior to the of Fishworkers (ICSF) Trust, which workshop, participants were sent discussed and analyzed the role of questionnaires regarding the situation women in fisheries, and reflected of women in small-scale fisheries in on issues facing women in fishing their areas, their organization profiles, communities in India. At the successful campaigns undertaken as 2010 workshop, ICSF, along with well as their expectations of the representatives of fishworker workshop. The responses received organizations and civil society were collated and informed the representatives, adopted the workshop content. Material was also Global “Shared Gender Agenda for collected from state governments, Sustaining Life and Livelihoods particularly the Fisheries Departments, in Fishing Communities” (http:// regarding the schemes they had for wifworkshop.icsf.net/en/page/855- small-scale fishworkers, focusing on reports.html). The action plans different aspects of the SSF Guidelines highlighted in the Shared Gender (housing, education, social protection, Agenda were further used for social security aspects, fish-processing including the gender equality and industries, work-in-fishing sector, equity sections of the SSF Guidelines human rights, discrimination issues, adopted by the Food and Agriculture and rural and urban livelihood This article is by Mariette Correa Organization of the United Nations aspects). Information on legal ([email protected]), Senior Programme (FAO) in June 2014. frameworks that are relevant to Co-ordinator, ICSF

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women in SSF in India, especially on resources, markets. These discussions social issues and within a human- drew on lessons and learnings from rights-based approach was collected. actions that women have initiated in All this material was compiled, their areas. The groups shared their translated into the various Indian experiences, with facilitators for languages used in the coastal states each session then supplementing the of India and distributed prior to inputs with legal provisions and the workshop. schemes on those specific topics. Deploring the lack of facilities in fish markets—like drainage systems, storage systems, infrastructure, These discussions drew on lessons and learnings from drinking water, electrical power actions that women have initiated in their areas. and toilets, lack of regulation in the markets, increasing distances to travel to access fish, as well as direct or subtle displacement from markets spaces—participants suggested Participants at the workshop were ways to address these problems. The given an overview of the situation of suggestions included price fixation, women in fisheries in India. Using co-management, establishment of national and state-level statistics retail outlets, education of women and development indicators, it was fishworkers, strengthening of clear that the situation in fishing market linkages, lobbying for policy communities was poor in terms of changes, participating actively in sex ratio as well access to health, the formulation of city development 48 education and housing. The myth that plans, and demanding that customary falls in fish catch were responsible for rights be upheld. Various Acts and decreasing access of women to fish schemes could be used to address was dispelled, with national statistics these issues such as The Street showing how fish catches were Vendors (Protection of Livelihood actually increasing over the years and Regulation of Street Vending) in marine and inland fisheries and Act, 2014, which give street vendors especially in aquaculture. The lack of the right against eviction; the access of women to fish was mainly Unorganized Workers Social Security the result of increasing exports, most Act, 2008, which protected rights often by large fish merchants from of unorganized workers; schemes the same communities as the small- under NABARD, NFDB, NCDC and the scale women vendors. Putting in Department of Animal Husbandry, perspective the weakening situation Dairying and Fisheries (DADF), of women in small-scale fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, which could links were made to other marginalized be used for market development, and vulnerable sections of society, including development of retail all of whom were facing threats to fish markets, assistance to artisanal their lives and livelihoods with the fishermen, insulated box for ice heightening pressure on land and holding, ice plant or cold storage, water resources through government and fish outlets. policies favouring the powerful, the increasing privatization of resources, A focus on rights and the adverse affects of global At the workshop, the history of warming and climate change. struggles to achieve human rights, Much of the workshop was the importance of cusomary rights devoted to discussing and highlighting in the Indian context, and the rights the social dimensions of small-scale granted by the Indian constitution, fisheries, with participants grouping were contextualized in terms of together to discuss issues of health, the SSF Guidelines. Gaps between education, violence, housing, water the rights granted by the Indian and sanitation, social security and constitution and what the SSF human rights as well as access to Guidelines proposed helped

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 SSF GUIDELINES participants identify areas in which to forest produce of tribals and forest further lobbying was necessary. dwellers who have been living there Rights and opportunities presented for generations. by various Acts that could protect Misuse of the Coastal Regulation women and improve their situation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 2011, included the Protection of Human shrinking of spaces for fishing Rights Act (1993), the National Food communities in development plans Security Act (2013), The Constitution and lack of housing pattas (title (Seventy-Third Amendment) Act, deeds) given to coastal communities, 1992, and the Right to Information were highlighted in terms of access Act (2005). to housing. Government schemes Access to resources, the workshop related to housing and funds are participants noted, has been reducing available under the National Housing for multiple reasons, with traditional Development Board, and states lands and fishing rights taken away also have schemes but access often from communities, land diverted for depended on political patronage, industrial and other ‘development’ it was pointed out. projects, urbanization processes The various health problems divesting people of their traditional faced by women vendors and those spaces for fisheries-related activities, working in fish-processing units were establishment of National Parks largely due to the abysmal working and Sanctuaries limiting traditional conditions—lack of access to water rights of communities to resources, and toilets, long hours in the sun, and bureaucratic hurdles to get rights to poor access to healthcare facilities. these areas, mechanization of fishing, Apart from suggestions to address and lack of spaces for women in these problems, several central and 49 fisheries management discussions. state schemes were discussed at Demands to improve access to fish the workshop, related to solid and were made by various groups. These biowaste management, health- included giving women rights as first insurance schemes, public-health vendors, fishworkers determining the schemes, and health-promotion price for fish, banning foreign direct schemes. investment (FDI) in retail marketing Violence against women, as and fish imports, levying higher taxes participants at the workshop pointed on large fishing vessels, the proceeds out, starts from the womb with of which could be used for welfare sex-selective abortion, and continues schemes for, and implemented by, ICSF fisherwomen, and enacting a separate law where fishers have customary rights over fishing resources and coastal lands. The 2002 and 2006 amendments to the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, protected the basic occupational rights and livelihoods of communities traditionally living in National Parks and Sanctuaries, with opportunities for participation in discussions prior to notification of the areas as protected. The Biological Diversity Act of 2002, called for the conservation of resources and the equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of these resources. Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Participants at the workshop. The groups shared their experiences, with facilitators for each (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, session then supplementing the inputs with legal provisions and schemes on those topics 2006, recognize the traditional rights

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against the girl-child into adulthood, all children; amendments made with new forms of dowry and to the RTE Act and ensuring its heightened consumerism correlated implementation; stopping further to expenses on larger boats and privatization of education; and fishing gear, making the girl-child ensuring severe punishment to a burden on families. Increasing teachers involved in corporal violence and lack of safety in the punishment or sexual abuse. workplace and discrimination It was also recommended that panchayats form—as they are supposed to—standing committees Increasing violence and lack of safety in the workplace for education and allocate them funds appropriately. School management and discrimination against women in society and caste committees ought to function and panchayats were common across states. professional guidance given to youth from fishing communities for vocations and employment. Quota systems whould also be made against women in society and caste available for these youth in fisheries- panchayats were common across related jobs. According to RTE Act, states. 25 per cent of seats have to be reserved Opportunities to address these for the poor and other categories, issues, apart from the campaigns no donations are allowed, no child launched by NGOs, presented can be held back until completion themselves in the form of laws and of elementary education, and mechanisms that protected women. special training needs to be given 50 These included the Protection of to school dropouts. Schemes to Women from Domestic Violence Act promote education among poor (2005), the Sexual Harassment of and marginalized sections included Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (education for Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, all movement) and its components, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, the mid-day meal scheme, the more which has increased penalties for recent Swacch Vidyalaya (clean sexual violence, and the Protection schools) Initiative scheme from of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2014 which provides toilets to all the (2012). Schemes to provide women schools, reducing dropouts, especially survivors of violence and women in of girl children. Apart from this, difficult circumstances food, shelter, most states have schemes under the clothing, medical care, legal aid and various departments (fisheries, SC/ short-stay facilities were discussed. ST department, etc) for scholarships, The Right of Children to Free and loans, and cash awards that can be Compulsory Education Act, 2009 accessed by fishing communities. (RTE Act), was poorly implemented across states, and with increased Relief schemes mechanization of fisheries, young Social-protection schemes were boys were in demand as labour, available in most states for housing, resulting in drop-out before water and sanitation, roads, electricity completion of schooling. Problems and saving-cum-relief, while very few with government schools, including states had schemes for life insurance lack of infrastructure, constant and natural disasters, the workshop transfer of teachers, and the was told. Most states had group lack of affordability of quality accident insurance schemes, but private education, resulted in poor only Kerala had rehabilitation educational levels among the schemes for sea erosion, eviction for fishing communities. Suggestions port development, old-age pension for improvement included a ban on for allied workers and insurance certain types of fishing craft and for allied workers. Overall, credit gear; free, compulsory and quality support system and debt relief education upto the age of 18 years for were very weak and only three states

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 SSF GUIDELINES had schemes for skill development from shore, depth, gear, craft training, with Odisha spending large and propulsion. It was clear that sums on non-conventional sources definitions would have to be area of energy. specific using a combination of Recommendations were made for criteria, and ideally codified, schemes that could be taken up like thus providing a list of contextual natural disaster compensation/sea definitions of SSF at the national level. erosion/loss of coastal space due to Putting into perspective the changes in coastal landforms, payment various social issues raised by to displaced fishers to find alternative participants, links were made to the employment due to development, changes in fisheries practices and compensation against loss of what was happening in the livelihood against oil spill and communities. Destruction of the environmental hazards like pollution. fisheries and resources went hand Specifically, in the post-harvest in hand with destruction of social sector, it was suggested that identity norms and values, abdicating all cards be given to bona fide fish responsibility for future generations, vendors; potable water at fish-landing it was pointed out. The relevance of centres, harbours and fish markets; what was happening in the fisheries better sanitation facilities; schemes to to the changes in the social fabric have clean non-conventional energy were emphasized and participants sources; mobile banking facility at fish were urged to reflect on what they markets and at fish-landing centres wanted for the future and demand could be developed; and, as in changes accordingly. Tamil Nadu, other states could ask Presentations were made for legislative or policy support for by participants with a history of 51 fishers involved in post harvest organizing various types of activities. NFDB’s climate change organizations, who talked about fund could support schemes for how they dealt with issues faced protection from extreme weather by women in small-scale fisheries, events at fish markets. Due to as well as the challenges they faced seasonal fluctuations in the market within their structures, within their and fishing bans, allowances communities and at the political level. could be given to women vendors, It was clear that patriarchal norms alongside support schemes related to within the communities, the caste occupational hazards, as panchayats, fishworker organizations well as support schemes for ICSF traditional fish processors, women headload workers, bicycle fish vendors, petty sellers and those involved in ancillary activities like basket weaving. Additionally, nutritional support schemes for the children are needed, as well as assistance to families of fishers arrested (as in Tamil Nadu); coverage of insurance to houses due to sea erosion or cyclones; better scholarships for studying at maritime universities; and support schemes like pension for widows. The groups at the workshop discussed their understanding of what constituted small-scale fisheries. Emerging from the discussions were the six criteria that could be used Field visits to various fi sh markets in Chennai helped participants observe situations that to determine small-scale fisheries, were different from their states, raising issues that they could discuss with each other namely area of fishing, distance

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ICSF

Participants decided on their action plans for the future, which included surveying of numbers of women in small-scale fi sheries in different roles. A clear outcome of the workshop was the need expressed by several groups for a national platform for women in small-scale fi sheries

and the political system prevented overcome largely through ensuring 52 them from voicing their concerns, that each group had a person familiar leave alone actively participating with English and the loal state in the fisheries management and in language. Field visits to various areas that affected their lives and fish markets in Chennai helped livelihood. Despite this, successes participants observe situations that had been achieved through were different from their states, protracted struggles, in cases where raising issues that they could discuss organizations were strong and united with each other. Documentary films and had clearly defined perspectives screened were eye-openers to the and priorities. The importance of majority of the participants, most of groups coming together, ideally whom were unfamiliar with issues in linking to broader movements and the National Parks and Sanctuaries. trade unions, was clearly articulated. One was on the mangrove forests of Participants from several states Sunderbans in South 24 Parganas in decided on their action plans for the West Bengal and the struggles of the future, which included surveying and local canoe fisherwomen; another mapping their markets and numbers was on women seaweed collectors in of women in small-scale fisheries the Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu. in different roles; taking up social issues that they had learnt from the workshop through identification For more of schemes in their states and demanding their implementation, sites.google.com/view/trainingwomenicsf/ strengthening the membership base home of their associations or organizations Website of the Training and disseminating information on Programme “Enhancing laws and schemes relevant to them. Capacities of Women Fishworkers A clear outcome of the workshop in India for The Implementation was the need expressed by several of The SSF Guidelines” groups for a national platform for women in small-scale fisheries. The diversity of languages posed a challenge at the workshop. That was

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 Report CBD COP13 Mainstreaming Biodiversity

Several important decisions relating to biodiversity were taken at the UN Biodiversity Convention, attended by over 7,000 participants from 170 countries and over 400 organizations

he 13th meeting of the Conference Caribbean, including large parts of of the Parties (COP13) to the the Meso-American Barrier Reef TConvention on Biological and deep-water zones in the Gulf of Diversity (CBD), one of the most Mexico. important global tools for the The pledge will increase marine conservation of the biological and protection in Mexico to 23 per cent, cultural resources of the planet, more than double the 10 per cent met in Cancún, Mexico, during two target. He acknowledge the good weeks from 2 to 17 December 2016 nature of consultation and agreement to discuss topics with its current among all sectors on the need for 196 member countries. The UN conservation, even though later Biodiversity Conference was attended the indigenous communities and by over 7,000 participants, including other Mexican civil society groups some 4,000 delegates from 170 questioned the consultation, pointing countries and over 400 organizations. to the absence of prior informed 53 COP13 discussed biodiversity consent of local and indigenous conservation as usual, but for the people living in those areas for the first time the environment ministries, creation of the reserve. along with institutions of agriculture, fisheries and tourism, joined in the discussions of a political panel, in the search for balance towards the The UN Biodiversity Conference was attended by over sustainable use of resources in a unique 7,000 participants, including some 4,000 delegates from policy session on 2 and 3 December, 170 countries and over 400 organizations. prior to the start of the meeting. While the ministers of environment, agriculture and tourism gathered for the first time to consider subjects “We must protect and conserve of the agreement like a positive and biodiversity because it contributes propositional action, civil society to the survival and development organizations (CSOs) conducted of communities,” said the Mexican side events and sessions to discuss President, Enrique Peña Nieto. important subjects on the better management of the biological Aichi Targets (including marine and continental) The debate on the Aichi Targets began and cultural resources, some on the first day of the meeting in within the framework of the Aichi Group 2. The big non-governmental Biodiversity Targets 11 and 12. COP13 environment organizations also touched on some critical issues (including WWF, the Royal Society related to the implementation of the for the Protection of Birds, Nature Nagoya Protocol, one of the protocols Conservancy and Conservation that form part of the CBD process. International, among others) The President of Mexico, Enrique presented a report that said “unless Peña Nieto, announced the pledge to countries significantly increase their establish three new marine Biosphere ambition through more resources This report has been written by Vivienne Solis Rivera ([email protected]), Reserves that will conserve important and improved policies for biodiversity Member of ICSF, and from CoopeSoliDar R.L, habitats in both the Pacific and the protection, the Aichi Targets will Costa Rica

JANUARY 2017 REPORT

not be met, and the Planet will be ICSF also mentioned as important, increasingly undermining the long- the recognition of the value and term wellbeing of humanity”. integration of traditional knowledge On the other hand, indigenous in the management of marine and peoples and local communities, coastal resources as well as other supported by other small-scale hydro-ecological ecosystems and organizations, stressed the strong need the need to strengthen community for community governance models and indigenous peoples’ governance based on traditional knowledge and models and capacities for their recognition of territorial rights in management. The ICSF presentation Ecologically or Biologically Significant also invoked the spirit of Chandrika Marine Areas (EBSAS), which are also Sharma, long-time Executive needed in efforts to reach the Aichi Secretary of ICSF, who fought Targets by governments. intensively at CBD meetings to An interesting result of a study highlight the importance of involving presented by the Big International the social sectors interested in marine NGOs (BINGOS), which surely would conservation. warrant further discussion, is that, in general, the higher-income countries Ancestral marine and inland proposed weaker goals compared to water territories: Customary the low-income countries, but showed use of marine and inland waters more progress in their conservation biodiversity in Central America achievement. ICSF, CoopeSoliDar RL, the A number of parallel events at TICCA Consortium and the National COP13 tried to draw the attention of Indigenous Bureau of Costa Rica, 54 governments to subjects of interest for organized this parallel event. Jesús civil society. Among them were: Amadeo Martinez, representative of the Central American Indigenous The Night of the Oceans Council (CICA) and Donald Rojas of the The governments and CSOs of National Indigenous Bureau of Costa France, Japan, Germany, Mexico Rica opened the event. and the Convention Secretariat Both mentioned the need for organized this event. Its objective was a discussion on marine and inland water territories that transcended The event presented how important actions of the biological issue to address the importance of culture in the indigenous peoples’ struggles are being developed in discussions towards the achievement relation to hydrobiological resources in Guatemala, of the Aichi Targets. Indigenous Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. peoples, despite having been displaced in many cases from their territories, continue to maintain to draw attention to promoting the ancestral and current contact with the achievement of the Aichi Targets marine biodiversity and continental and the Sustainable Development waters, and these areas remain of Goals prioritizing Objective 14 of fundamental importance for life and the Sustainable Development Goals conservation. The event presented (SDG) concerning the oceans. The how important actions of indigenous International Collective in Support peoples’ struggles are being developed of Fishworkers (ICSF) had a space to in relation to hydrobiological express recognition of the importance resources in Guatemala, Nicaragua, of the contribution of small- Costa Rica and Panama. scale fisheries, developed by local Lastly, Alvaro Pop, Chair of the communities and indigenous peoples, United Nations Permanent Forum to the food security of the planet, on Indigenous Peoples, thanked and advocated a vision oriented not the participants and mentioned only to the preservation of the ocean the importance of advancing the but to its sustainable use based on discussion, as well as advocating respect for human rights. for the implementation of the FAO

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 CBD COP13

COOPESOLIDAR R.L.

Donald Rojas, President of the National Indigenous Bureau of Costa Rica, opens up the side event. Indigenous peoples, despite having been displaced in many cases from their territories, continue to maintain ancestral and current contact with the marine biodiversity

SSF Guidelines as ways to fulfill the and curb production and consumption 55 objectives of sustainable development of plastics. Parties also requested the and the wellbeing of thousands of CBD Secretariat to continue compiling indigenous peoples throughout our and disseminating information on planet. scientific research related to the Following up on the marine adverse impacts of underwater noise agenda of the meeting, a new set on marine and coastal biodiversity. of EBSAs in the seas of East Asia, Finally, it was suggested that the the Northwest Indian Ocean and FAO SSF Guidelines be included in the Northeast Indian Ocean were item 10, drawing the attention of the discussed in the framework of Parties to the Convention to this scientific methodologies, traditional important tool and, hopefully, knowledge and socioeconomic promoting its implementation in parameters dealing with human- the future. rights issues and the concerns of local It was pointed out that the Nagoya communities and indigenous peoples. Protocol on Access and Benefit The application of marine spatial Sharing, which entered into force For more planning should be encouraged and in 2014, has now seen Antigua and training initiatives for it organized, Barbuda and Argentina depositing cbd.int/cop2016 it was suggested, and requests were their instruments of ratification to Thirteenth Session of the made for further technical work by the Protocol during the meeting, thus Conference of Parties to the the CBD Secretariat as well as further bringing the total number of ratifying Convention on Biological capacity-building efforts under the Parties to 93. Diversity (CBD) Sustainable Ocean Initiative. Decisions at COP13 were also The issues of mitigating the taken on synthetic biology, invasive cbd.int/conferences/2016/cop-13/ impacts of marine debris on marine alien species, sustainable wildlife documents and coastal biodiversity and habitats management and other topics under The Cancún Agreement were considered and suggestions the Convention and its protocols. approved by the parties, who also The decisions, in the form they were called for actions to enhance presented to the Parties for adoption, understanding of the scale of the are available on the website of impacts, and the need to improve the Convention at www.cbd.int/ waste management and recycling, cop2016.

JANUARY 2017 India MIGRANT FISHERS Following Fish

Since the late 1980s, thousands of men from the coastal villages of Andhra Pradesh, India, have travelled to Gujarat to work as skippers and crew on board mechanized fi shing boats

n clear nights, when the fish trade—which was losing out to are aplenty in the nets and he modern shipping—and moved into Ocan take a break from steering, fishing. Today, Gujarat’s boats account S Apparao thinks of his little house in for a quarter of the country’s marine Srikakulam on the northern coast of fish catch and over 8,000 registered the south Indian state of Andhra boats pass through the state’s busiest Pradesh. Two lamps, one in the cabin harbour, Veraval, alone. and another on the mast of his 15-m Over the years, deep-sea fishermen boat, Parshuram, light up a tiny circle from Andhra Pradesh have replaced of the sea as it rolls under him. The those from Valsad and Kerala as first time he’d been out to sea as a boy, workers on the boats. Though there is fishing near Visakhapatnam in his no official count, anecdotal estimates home state, this gentle motion that now put the number of migrants at 25,000 rocks him to sleep had nearly thrown every season. They earn up to three 56 him overboard; he’d been sick for times as much in Gujarat as they do several hours afterwards. fishing in small traditional canoes That day, he’d set out before dawn, back home. A tandel like Apparao, with and the sun had risen ahead of the boat. over 10 years of experience, makes Rs These days, he looks toward the land 21,000 every month and a khalasi is paidp about half that sum (one US$ was equale to Rs. 68 in December 2016). Today, Gujarat’s boats account for a quarter of the The highlight, they said, is the country’s marine fi sh catch and over 8,000 registered steadys salary, paid in a lumpsum at boats pass through the state’s busiest harbour, thet start of the fishing season. “Fishing isis a gamble,” Apparao told me in Veraval, alone. July,J standing outside his home in SrikurmamS Machilesam village. “You don’td know if you’ll catch anything on forfor thethe sunrise;sunrise; onon thethe smallsmall radioradio in a given day.” Apparao himself only the cabin, the voices of other fishermen studied till the fifth grade but he said in Marathi or Malayalam alert him to that most of the migrants over 40 had where he is on the Arabian Sea. never gone to school. After nearly a Since the late 1980s—when there decade in Gujarat, Apparao was able to were too many fishermen and too rebuild his mud house with brick and few fish in the water—thousands of cement, and aims to complete another men from Andhra Pradesh’s coastal floor for his son by next year. districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam, have travelled to Punishing work the busy fishing harbours of Gujarat, In Gujarat, the money is steady but the working as tandels (skippers) and work is punishing: an average fishing khalasis (crewmen) on mechanized trip is nearly 20 days long and the fishing boats owned by local kharwa men—nine to a cabin the length of a merchants. Only a fraction of Gujaratis small car—have no steady work and eat fish but in the 1960s the state’s rest hours. The hunt for a big catch enterprising sea-faring castes had takes them as far south as Karnataka This article is by Manas Roshan ([email protected]), independent spotted the opportunity early and and Kerala, which doesn’t win them researcher shifted from traditional maritime any friends among local fishermen.

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 MIGRANT FISHERS

“We’re in trouble if we ever run out of its residents, but for a few old Muslim fuel in these areas,” said M Sandiyya, sailors, that its merchants traded in a khalasi also from Machilesam. “The textiles, dates and—even earlier—in local fishermen don’t allow us to dock horses, from West Asia and the Arabian our boats on shore and sometimes Peninsula. they even confiscate our catch.” A few old merchant buildings Back at the Veraval harbour, the crumbling in the sea air—one houses boats dock for just a day or two to the Customs Department—hint at restock fuel, ice and rations. During the this history. But the Gujarati business eight months they spend in Gujarat, the classes are not the nostalgic kind; men wake up every morning on a boat. there’s little time for anything but work Veraval lies three hours south of and the aartis at the famous temple Porbandar on Gujarat’s 1,600-km-long next door. Most conversations begin coastline. On streets that smell of fish with the salutation “Jai Somnath”, and damp wood, almost everybody is even among the Andhra fishermen employed in the fishing industry, but when they’re in Veraval. The closest the town is better known on Gujarat’s movie theatre is nearly two hours cultural map for a few shabby hotels away in Junagadh. (Srikakulam has at that house pilgrims to the Somnath least seven theatres, all packed through temple 7 km away. Once every week, the day.) In most cabins on the boats, the Dwarka Express travels 52 hours the tiny 10-inch television-cum-DVD- and nearly 3,000 km from Puri— player is equipment as essential to mostly ferrying migrant workers the men as Garmin GPS systems or from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh to fish-finders. industrial centres in Gujarat—stopping Besides being the country’s biggest at the Veraval railway station to drop fishing harbour, the town has a thriving 57 off fishermen like Apparao. But in boat-manufacturing industry, a large earlier times the port saw visitors number of ice factories and over 100 from other places than Srikakulam. fish-processing units, most of which It’s now forgotten history to most of export to Europe and China. One such NIKHIL ROSHAN

Workers pack fi sh into crates to be unloaded from the fi shing craft as it returns to the Veraval harbour, Gujarat, India. The boats dock for just a day or two to restock fuel, ice and rations. During the eight months they spend in Gujarat, the men wake up every morning on a boat

JANUARY 2017 INDIA

unit is managed by Kenny Thomas, the compensation promised by state whose company Jinny Marine is one laws. He didn’t expect a reply from of the larger exporters approved by the Government but claimed that the European Union (EU). Inside there’s been no action from the its sterilized factory, over 300 local Fisheries Departments of any state. women clean, sort and pack squid and In the Srikakulam villages I visited, shrimp into neat, impeccably labelled some of the men spoke a little Hindi containers headed for supermarkets and Gujarati but the women only in Spain and Portugal. “Women are Telugu, and they’d never talked to preferred because they can do this sort their husbands’ employers in Veraval. of work faster and more efficiently,” Apparao remembered the time when said Thomas. Nimble hands, he one of his crewmen fell into the sea explained with a shrug, for customers and was later found tangled in the that wouldn’t want any grazed nets. “It was too late when we brought calamari on their plates. him up. We packed the body with ice Thomas, though, is one of the in the fish hold and turned back responsible employers in a more towards Veraval,” he said. But in that regulated arm of the industry. Kenny’s instance, the seth sent the body back father, K M Thomas, arrived in to the village with another khalasi. Bharuch as a fisheries officer in 1963 Apparao’s seth, Tulsibhai Gohel, and was instrumental in introducing is president of Veraval’s boat owners mechanized fishing in the area. He association, the Kharva Sanyukta later became a fisherman and went Machhimar Boat Association. It’s the into the export business himself. only grouping resembling a union but Jinny Marine has fair working designed to service capital rather than 58 conditions and even hostels for its labour. Gohel is a lean, light-eyed and migrant workers; labour inspectors respected president who, like several and EU norms ensure greater labour investors in the trade, owns about half protection in the processing units than a dozen boats. Apparao said his seth on the boats. is a good man, one of the few who gives his crew a bonus every year and doesn’t grudge when they return with a meagre catch. ...over 300 local women clean, sort and pack squid and When I met him in Veraval in July, shrimp into neat, impeccably labelled containers headed Gohel was finishing with a meeting for supermarkets in Spain and Portugal. with local officials to launch a Swachh BBharat (clean India) drive at the boat jjetty. Dressed in a formal shirt and derby leather shoes, he was driven Srikakulam is a bustling coastal in his Toyota Innova to a modest town nearly three hours northeast association office, where, seated on a of Vishakhapatnam. There, I met faded cushion on the floor, he oversaw Mylapalli Trinada Rao, who has tried the settlement of a few minor disputes. to draw the government’s attention There was no mention of the workers to a darker side of the migrant’s in the matters that came up for experience. Last year, Rao, a stocky, discussion. Later, I asked Gohel how affable director of the state Fishermen he dealt with cases of men drowning Co-operative’s Federation (APCOF), at sea. “There are very few because wrote to Prime Minister with a list we don’t let the men carry alcohol on of over 60 names, of fishermen from the boats,” he assured me. “All the the district who had drowned in accidents happen at the harbour when Gujarat, Goa and Odisha since 1990. the boats are back. The men sometimes The number may not seem alarming drink at night and fall into the water in a country where industrial between the parked boats.” accidents and farmer suicides are all Apparao agrees. (He stopped too common, but Rao pointed out drinking a few years ago while on that not one body has been returned vacation in Srikakulam when he to the families, who have also not got realized he was draining his savings.)

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 MIGRANT FISHERS

NIKHIL ROSHAN

Migrant and local fi shers always work separately to avoid fi ghts. Labour inspectors and EU norms ensure greater labour protection in the processing units than on the boats

But others in his village denied that his crew. This was the last trip of 59 the deaths were caused by drinking the season. The radio crackled with alone. “How many deaths can you greetings of “Jai Somnath” between have at the harbour?” asked Sandiyya. the other boats sailing out, and Marine fishing laws require all boats through his cabin window Apparao to be equipped with lifejackets, buoys could see the giant temple on the and even portable toilets. Few boats edge of the coastline. They’d pass in Veraval have lifejackets and for Mumbai in a day or two. The sea was toilets the men sit precariously on the a lot rougher because of the strong narrow bulwark, hold on to the monsoon winds, and the men held rigging and point their backsides on to the ropes. Normally, they could outward as the sea pitches the boat stand on their feet as the sea tossed from side to side. the boat and still haul in the nets In Veraval, the sun-bleached and sort the fish, but the men hadn’t marine police station sits on a deserted been home in eight months. No beach outside the town. Inside, a accidents on this last trip. Constable, thumbed through a large Apparao thought about the register to find me the information festivities in Machilesam the previous on deaths at sea this year. There were year. It had been his village’s turn to two: a Bhagwan-bhai from a village host the panchayat for the feast of in Valsad and Ramlu Badi of Dagalu their guardian deity, Polamamba- in Srikakulam, as they appeared in mata. Most of the other tandels did For more the careless handwriting of a nothing but eat and drink for the four station officer. There was no other months they were home. Not him; icsf.net/en/occasional-papers/article/ information; when I tried to find there were debts to settle and work EN/160-a-study-of-migr.html?limitstart=0 Dagalu in Srikakulam, I was told that needed to be done on that first- A Study of Migrant Fishers from there’s no such village. floor bedroom. He felt the engine Andhra Pradesh in the Gujarat One morning at the start of June, roaring under him as he turned the Marine Fishing Industry with the sun rising over Veraval boat southward in the direction of bundur, the Parashuram set out on the other boats. The screen of his another long trip down the western fish-finder glowed with numbers and coast, packed with over 7 tonnes of ice broad strokes of blue. Somewhere in and enough ration for Apparao and there was that prize catch.

JANUARY 2017 Report SSF WORKSHOP Looking Ahead

Implementation of the FAO SSF Guidelines, through appropriate legislation, would go a long way to help shore up the livelihoods of the small-scale fi sherfolk of Pakistan

he Committee on Fisheries (COFI) The participants of the national of the Food and Agriculture workshop included: women and men TOrganization of the United leaders of inland, marine and coastal Nations (FAO), at its Thirty-first fisheries; fishworkers and fishing Session in June 2014, formally communities from across the entire adopted the Voluntary Guidelines country; representatives of federal for Securing Sustainable Small-scale and provincial agencies, particularly Fisheries in the Context of Food those dealing with fisheries, Security and Poverty Eradication environment, labour, trade and (SSF Guidelines). human development; representatives The International Fund for of civil society organizations (CSOs) Agricultural Development (IFAD), and NGOs, scientific organizations, and a specialized agency of the United the representatives of FAO, IFAD, ILO Nations, granted a project in and others in Pakistan. 60 December 2015 to a consortium At the outset, the participants paid comprising the World Forum of tribute to the late Tahira Ali Shah, Fisher Peoples (WFFP), the World the PFF’s leader who lost her life in Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish March 2015 during one of the major Workers (WFF), the International campaigns of PFF. Her struggle for the uplift of the marginalized fishing anda peasant communities of Pakistan wasw acknowledged at the occasion. (The workshop) was the fi rst in a series in Pakistan Jamil Junejo, Manager, as part of the efforts to mobilize support for the ProgrammesP of the PFF, welcomed implementation of the SSF Guidelines. alla the participants of the workshop. MuhammadM Ali Shah, Chairperson, PFFP and WFFP, gave a detailed and ttechnical presentation on the SSF CollectiveCollective iinn SuSupportpport of FFishworkersishworkers Guidelines.G He said the major role of (ICSF) and Centro Internazionale the guidelines was to move towards Crocevia (CIC) to promote responsible fisheries. “Until and unless awareness about the SSF Guidelines this objective is achieved, we cannot and to mobilize support for their save the fisheries and protect the lives implementation across countries of of the fisher people,” he said. He also the Global South. presented the history and salient The National Workshop on features of the SSF Guidelines. Capacity-building for the Implementation of the SSF Guidelines, Human-rights laws held in Karachi, was the first in a The opening session discussed series in Pakistan as part of the implementation of the guiding efforts to mobilize support for the principles of the SSF Guidelines, implementation of the SSF Guidelines. human-rights laws and the The workshop was organized constitution of Pakistan. Mir Hasil This article is by Muhammed Ali Shah by the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum Khan Bizanjo, the Federal Minister ([email protected]), and Roshan in collaboration with WFFP at Hotel for Port and Shipping, was the key Bhatti ([email protected]) Regent Plaza, Karachi during 24-25 speaker. “Small-scale fishermen of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), Karachi, Pakistan August 2016. suffer from starvation while the mafia

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 SSF WORKSHOP is depleting the marine resources account. At the federal level, a draft badly,” said the federal minister. of the policy is not enough. Natural He further added that the use of the resources should be used in a way that destructive nets is a major threat they are not wasted and the policy to small-scale fishing and must be should follow the SSF Guidelines. banned. Sindh and Baluchistan governments should take notice of it, PANEL DISCUSSIONS he suggested. The Minister for Livestock and Social Development, Employment Fisheries Sindh, Muhammad Ali and Decent Work for Responsible/ Malkani, said that until and unless Sustainable Fisheries there is an effective endorsement of Caroline Bates, Officer-in-Charge, the SSF Guidelines from all ILO, said oceans are resources for fish stakeholders, implementation will be and sources of livelihood. In many a challenge. He announced that countries, fishing is the only way of the Sindh government would soon eking out a livelihood. So, decent establish a Fisheries Advisory Council working conditions for the fishing for which he seeks guidance of the community are essential. She said that fishing communities. providing decent working conditions Haji Shafi Muhammad Jamote, to the fishing community was part of member of the Sindh Assembly, said ratification and implementation of the that the human and industrial waste ILO conventions. However, Pakistan in the canal waters and the sea was has not yet ratified the Work in Fishing affecting the common citizens and Convention, 200 (No. 188). marine resources. He said overfishing Saeed Baloch, Secretary General, was a big issue and suggested that PFF, said under the Sustainable 61 industrialists be discouraged from Development Goals 2030, ILO discusses fishing and the small-scale bona fide improvement of working conditions fishermen be encouraged. of the workers. However, fishermen Nasar Hayat, Assistant have not been considered. The Representative, Head of Progaramme, social development of fishworkers, FAO Pakistan, said that every including basic amenities of living, legislation is made for the benefit has not been provided for. Female of the small-scale fishers and they workers should get equal wages and should be made part of it. Under the must not face harassment. He said the SSF Guidelines, access to resources sustainable fisheries policy in Pakistan is the basis for poverty alleviation in GUL HASSAN the world and these Guidelines were made under such a programme. If people have sustainable access to resources, they will have food security and their poverty would also reduce. Pakistan was part of the process of the SSF Guidelines in a significant way during the consultation phase. Pakistan has a big role in the development of the SSF Guidelines and now it is the responsibility of the government to implement it in their legislation. He assured the technical assistance of FAO, if required at any level. Aly Ercelan, senior researcher, said that national policy on food security is under the consideration of the federal government as well as in The National Workshop on the SSF Guidelines was held in Karachi, Pakistan, as part the provinces. The SSF Guidelines of the efforts to mobilize support for the implementation of the SSF Guidelines should be seriously taken into

JANUARY 2017 REPORT

Box ofo Baluchistan, Sindh and Punjab • PFF has always played a major role in the abolition of illegal occupation of Rangers provinces;p Marine Fisheries, WWF- on the inland water bodies on the coastal belt of Sindh. However, this still needs to PPakistan; IUCN and the Labour Adviser be implemented in its true sense for which PFF has been consistently advocating. tto the Chief Minister, Balochistan. As the feudal lords and various other infl uential people exploit the fi shing in inland The current status of actions under waters, there is a need to gain support from legislation to make the inland waters rrelevant laws remains inadequate, immune from private contractors who exploit the poor fi shermen. mmissing or adverse as compared to • Fishing communities remain aloof from developmental work. Several water bodies in tthose required to acknowledge and Punjab are auctioned off. ppromote livelihoods of peasants, in • Providing basic facilities of life to fi shermen has been a long-standing issue. No ggeneral, and fishers, in particular, benefi t has been provided by the government to the poor fi shermen. Rights-based wwhen compared to the Tenure social movements, NGOs and the work of civil society for the uplift of poor fi shermen GGuidelines of Land, Fisheries and remain neglected by the state authorities. FForests. Fishers are even more • The sea belongs to the small-scale poor fi shermen who deserve a good standard iinsecurely placed than land-based of life. In order to meet European Union (EU) requirements, whole fi sheries were ppeasants, though perhaps the latter revamped without considering the adverse impacts on small-scale fi sher peoples. aare often more harshly treated by • Around 1.5 mn people live along the coastal areas of Pakistan and while they llandowners and the state than are contribute to the nation’s gross domestic product, they suffer the most. Marine ffishers. The SSF Guidelines could resources are at the bottom of the federal development agenda. anda should be used but they have not resultedr in a Food Security Policy that isi serious about eradicating hunger shouldhldlf also focus on these h matters in and malnutrition. Agrarian reforms the light of the SSF Guidelines. that include redistribution of access Khawer Parvez Awan, Director to water and land have not been Inland Fisheries, Sindh, said until all seriously reconsidered since 62 stakeholders, including fishermen, the 1970s. In the face of current boatowners and the government, threats to tenure, compensation for work together, decent work would voluntary displacement remains a not become practical. He said the distant hope for fishers—of which Sindh government fully supports the two examples are most odious: the SSF Guidelines. continuing land and water grabs of Zulfiqar Shah, Co-director, Pakistan the Defence Housing Authority, and Institute of Labour Education and forced dispossession of fishers by Research, said that work of fishermen new housing and industrial schemes is no more a decent work in the on the Sindh Coast such as the conditions they are currently working Zulfikarabad city scheme and the in. After the 18th amendment of the Special Economic Zones. Constitution, labour issues in Pakistan are to be sorted out by the labour Natural and Man-made disasters and department. He said that PFF model Climate change is effective. He urged FAO and ILO Experts on environmental to push the Pakistan government governance, representatives from towards the implementation of the the Meteorological Department, the SSF Guidelines. National Institute of Oceanography, the Provincial Disaster Management Tenure rights to land and water Authority and others participated in bodies, livelihoods and responsible/ the discussion. It was noted that sustainable fi sheries in light of national climate change was not a sudden and international laws, especially occurrence. Anthropogenic activities the Voluntary Guidelines on the have increased carbon discharge Responsible Governance of Tenure or emissions. Developed countries of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the are creating a fund that would give context of National Food Security US$1 bn annually to the developing Representatives from the countries for the purpose of following governmental and civil mitigation and adaptation to climate society organizations participated in change. Natural disasters would be the discussion: fishing community of short duration but they would persons; the Fisheries Departments be intense. As per the research

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 SSF WORKSHOP

conducted by IUCN, which was also authorities of many countries have endorsed by the Senate of Pakistan, endorsed the SSF Guidelines. sea intrusion will adversely affect A responsible fishery is not only the coast of Sindh by 2030 and 2060. the responsibility of the government, It was suggested that the he said, but also of all other • The adverse impacts of climate stakeholders. Participatory policies change on fisheries must be taken should be formed and the SSF into consideration while devising Guidelines present an example of the policies related to the fishing participatory guidelines. He sought profession. a national commission on the • Degradation of mangrove forests implementation of the SSF Guidelines. on the coast of Sindh is underway. He endorsed the Advisory Council Only 15 per cent of the plants suggested by the provincial minister. are healthy, out of the total of The Director General of Fisheries of 80,000 acres. all the four provinces must be part • The frequency of cyclones, floods of it. Representatives of the fisheries and other disaster has increased sector and environmentalists must on the coast of Sindh. As a result, be part of it. The SSF Guidelines are the poor populations are subject meant for the whole country. to displacement. Consultation meetings for Baluchistan • The Sindh coast, mainly because and Sindh would soon be called. of natural disasters and sea water intrusion, has been affected Way Forward along with the local population. The participants of the workshop There is a rise of 1.7 mm in sea unanimously agreed on the formation level annually. There are 17 of a committee for the implementation 63 major creeks in the Indus and legislation on the SSF Guidelines. Delta on the left bank and The committee would communicate the right bank, starting from the with the participants of the workshop Korangi creek from Karachi to the and the legislators, in order to enact Pakistan-India border. a law for the implementation of • According to revenue department the SSF Guidelines under the local data, 132,000 acres of land have circumstances. The committee would come under water in the Indus write letters to the concerned people delta. The tidal link, instead of in this regard and the process of the discharging the saline water of implementation of the SSF Guidelines Sindh into the sea, is flowing in the would be carried forward. reverse direction, and sea water is moving upwards through the river gateway.

Protecting life and livelihoods: SSF Guidelines for legislation, policies and research for fi sheries and fi shing For more communities Muhammad Ali Shah said the SSF sites.google.com/site/ssfguidelines/ Guidelines are an instrument of FAO. pakistan Around 200 mn fishermen in the Pakistan: Implementation of the world depend on fisheries, of which Voluntary Guidelines for Securing 90 per cent of are small-scale Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries fishermen. Their future is endangered. in the context of Food Security Now, the time has come for and Poverty Eradication responsible fisheries. FAO has realized (SSF Guidelines) it and the issue of food security would be addressed through the SSF Guidelines. The goal cannot be achieved without the participation of fisher communities. The fisheries

JANUARY 2017 India AQUACULTURE Boon or Doom?

While cage culture in inland open waters can help increase fi sh production in India, there is a need to be wary of hasty and arbitrary policymaking

age aquaculture, though receives in the form of unused feed relatively new to the inland and metabolic wastes of caged fishes. Caquaculture scenario of Equally important is the physical India, brings in new opportunities obstruction to the fishing activities of for optimizing fish production traditional fishers and the resultant from reservoirs and lakes, and also conflicts. Exotic species, after developing new skills among fishers escapement from cages, can play and entrepreneurs to enhance their havoc with the ecosystem and its earnings. Generally perceived as a biodiversity. High input of feeds can boon for increasing production, this lead to eutrophication and mode of production can as well turn related damage to the ecosystem. out to be a harbinger of doom, if Eutrophication upsets the nutrient allowed to grow unchecked. This cycles and the community metabolism article stresses the importance of of reservoirs, making them barren. 64 (a) following the existing guidelines It must be borne in mind that our on cage culture, (b) the need reservoirs support fisheries on which for developing norms for better the livelihoods of thousands depend. environmental impact assessments, After the recent introduction and (c) the importance of exercising of pangas (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus), which is an air- bbreathing fish allowing high stocking ddensity, 3-5 tonnes of fish are being ...culture of fi sh in enclosures such as cages and pens pproduced from a small cage of 6m x installed in open water bodies offer scope for increasing 44m x 4m. Considering that at least production... 6 - 10 tonnes of feed go into the system pper cage per production cycle, the sstaggering scale of artificial nutrient lloadingo it can cause is mind boggling. cacautionution whwhileile agaggressivelygressively ppursuingursuing A mad rush for cage culture in cage culture in inland open waters reservoirs has already started in the of India. country and if continued unabated, Considering the ever-increasing the situation might go out of control, and often conflicting cross-sectoral leading to a disaster, much greater in demands for water and land, there scale than the shrimp culture debacle are limitations for growth in pond- of the 1990s. based aquaculture. In this context, culture of fish in enclosures such Ecological disaster as cages and pens installed in Laguna de Bay is a living example open water bodies offer scope for of how uncontrolled growth of pen increasing production, obviating the culture triggered off an ecological need for more land-based fish farms. disaster in the Philippines. Cage However, mindless proliferation of culture is a relatively new area of this activity for increased production fish production in India and its can lead to some very serious environmental impacts are not fully This article is by V V Sugunan environmental and social problems. understood. There is a wealth of ([email protected]), Senior Consultant, National Fisheries The first and foremost is the high literature abroad on assessing the Development Board, Hyderabad, India nutrient input that the water body nutrient loading, which is directly

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 AQUACULTURE related to the feed input and feed developed a set of guidelines that conversion rate (FCR). But these provide several recommendations models are not directly applicable covering many aspects on cage culture in India due to the different such as (1) the relevance and scope for environmental regimes under which cage culture in inland open waters, these have been developed, especially (2) definition of cage and cage culture, the variations in temperature and (3) cage size, shape and materials, trophic status. Efforts are on to (4) site selection, (5) cage develop such models in India, but the maintenance, (6) species selection, results will not be available for a while. (7) stocking density, (8) feed and Research institutes in India that feeding and FCR, (9) fish health develop cage-culture technologies monitoring, (10) safety measures, often neglect studies on its (11) market, post-harvest facilities and environmental impact, although infrastructure, (12) environmental such studies are essential and precautions and impact assessment, complementary. Our research (13) carrying capacity, (14) ownership, institutes should pay attention to (15) beneficiaries, (16) governance, assessing the carrying capacity of (17) and (18) social relevance. reservoirs and inform the government These guidelines are addressed and policy-makers how to proceed to all stakeholders, including with developing cage culture in farmers, self-help groups (SHGs), the country. Hasty and arbitrary co-operative societies, other policymaking at the state level to community organizations, business allow cages in large numbers in process development facilitators reservoirs without assessing the (BDFs), farmer producer organizations environmental impacts is a matter (FPOs), Fisheries Departments of 65 of deep concern, especially in the the Indian states, the Department backdrop of our bad experience with of Animal Husbandry Dairying and coastal aquaculture in the 1980s and Fisheries, Government of India, and 1990s when unregulated growth its institutes, research organizations without addressing environmental and environmentalists. But it is concerns resulted in disastrous pertinent to note that at present, India consequences to ecosystems. does not have an umbrella agency Following the guidelines of the Code that oversees/regulates freshwater of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries aquaculture activities or implements of the Food and Agriculture guidelines/best management Organization of the United Nations practices (BMPs). Equally glaring is (FAO-CCRF) for dealing with data- the lack of a uniform policy across deficient systems, our policy towards the country that governs freshwater environmental impact assessment NFDB (EIA) of cage culture should be based on a precautionary approach. Recognizing the importance of cage culture in inland open waters, a National Level Committee was set up on 25 April 2016 to develop guidelines with a mandate to (a) assess the potential of this culture system to contribute to increased production, employment, income generation and other benefits, (b) assess the possible environmental and socioeconomic impact, (c) suggest precautions to be taken, and (d) suggest the modes of propagating and scaling up this Cage culture in Chandi Reservoir, India. Generally perceived as a boon for increasing technology to optimize benefits in a production, this mode of production can as well turn out to be a harbinger of doom sustainable manner. The committee

JANUARY 2017 INDIA

aquaculture. Thus, there is no (GIS) platform with the help scope for these guidelines to be concerned institutions. readily implemented at this stage. • It will be mandatory for the cage- Nevertheless, these can still (a) guide culture operators to record the the departments/agencies of the water quality parameters like state and central governments in dissolved oxygen, pH, CO2 and formulating development plans total alkalinity, inside and outside based on cage culture, (b) inform the cages, from day one of the policies to be framed in future, and operation, keeping in view the (c) guide farmers and entrepreneurs need for long-term environmental for practising responsible cage culture impact. Any increase in nutrients in the country. level away from the cage area The following are the major should be taken as a warning. highlights of the guidelines: • It will be mandatory for the • Due to ecological reasons, cage cage-culture operators to collect culture in rivers needs to be data on the trophic status in and discouraged. around the cages as well as the • Subject to other conditions, it areas away from the cages can be practised in estuaries, periodically and report to the lagoons, lakes and large/medium authorities to assess the impacts reservoirs. in terms of nutrient loading. • Cage culture shall be allowed in Studies on other chemical and water bodies having a surface physical quality parameters of area 1,000 ha or more at FRL. water and sediments also shall be (Exception to this can be made only collected as per the risk perception. 66 in case of ‘very deep abandoned • NFDB and central organizations mines’, which are less than 1,000 ha will build capacity at state in area, but too deep for practising governments to interpret such data culture-based fisheries, subject and arrive at conclusion. to all other conditions prescribed). • Pangasianodon hypophthalmus • Cage culture shall be allowed in and Genetically Improved Farmed reservoirs with an average depth of Tilapia (GIFT tilapia) are allowed 10 m (average depth is calculated to be cultured, but all other exotic as: area in hectares divided by species (including illegally water holding capacity in m3). introduced fishes) are strictly • The cage site at the reservoir prohibited for cage culture. should have at least 10 m depth • As far as possible, use of round the year. antibiotics and chemicals should • Cage culture should not be be avoided. However, in the event attempted in any water body of it becoming necessary under having total phosphorus and exceptional circumstances, the total nitrogen levels in the water use should be judicious and it exceeding 0.02 mg/l and 1.2 mg/l, must be clearly understood that respectively. only approved drugs/chemicals, • Environmental impact assessment permitted by government is necessary before clearing cage- regulatory authorities at standard culture projects. This will be doses shall be used. done/facilitated by recognized The carrying capacity of a water organizations, following the body to hold cages is the most vital standard procedure. input for decisionmaking in cage • The state governments should culture. But, unfortunately, we are demarcate, list and notify water not in a position to arrive at carrying bodies that are suitable for cage capacity at decent precision levels culture on the basis of its trophic due to paucity of data. Therefore, characteristics and other criteria of guidelines on carrying capacity site selection, and upload the list of have been based on a precautionary water bodies and their suitability approach. Provisions of the FAO-CCRF on geographic information system clearly stipulate the need to follow

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 AQUACULTURE the ‘precautionary approach’ while services’, on which the traditional dealing with data-deficient systems. and local fi sh communities have the Accordingly, taking into account the ‘natural primary rights’. general trend of nutrients in Indian c. The livelihoods of many poor reservoirs and the possibility of people depend on catching fi sh nutrient loading from cage culture, from reservoirs. the guidelines prescribe the following d. Reservoir fi shing is used carrying capacity on a precautionary- sometimes as a means to approach basis (Table 1): rehabilitate people ousted from the dam projects. Table 1. Limits set for cage culture Considering the above facts, it is in reservoirs under the guidelines essential to ensure that expansion Reservoir area Maximum number of cage culture does not impair the (ha) of cages allowed livelihoods and income of fishers. (1 unit is 6m x 4m Cage culture can adversely impact the x 4m) interests of local fishers by denying < 1000 Not allowed them access to fishing grounds, 1001 to 2000 500 obstructing their pathways, and by 2001 to 3000 1000 way of a decline in fish catch. Fish 3001 to 4000 1500 catch can be adversely affected in 4001 to 5000 1900 many ways such as by lowering the 5001 to 10000 3000 natural productivity, eutrophication, >10000 5000 algal blooms or through the impact As standalone or in in batteries of exotic species. At the same time, (of 6, 12, or 24 units) as required it is equally important to utilize the Large-scale production through additional fish production potential 67 cage culture can adversely impact through cage culture. Considering prices, leading to a glut in the the need to avoid conflicts, the market, which can act as a major best way to achieve the goal is to disincentive to present and potential empower fishers to take up this entrepreneurs. A few cases of glut activity collectively. Pursuing a have been reported, especially with purely revenue approach (as being regard to problems in marketing of followed by some of the state pangas. With many newer species governments) by allowing individual such as tilapia, seabass, cobia, etc, investors and corporate houses to lined up for cage culture, a careful undertake cage culture will be against strategy involving marketing the spirit of inclusive growth and plans, value addition and market can create social tensions. Thus, infrastructure should be evolved. the community (or a group of Unlike land-based aquaculture members of the community) should undertaken on private land, cage own the cages as a common property culture is practised in common- and they should be the beneficiaries property resources. Therefore, of this technology. the question “who owns the cages installed in reservoirs” needs an Co-management principles important consideration. While A strong governance platform based answering the question, the following on co-management principles is facts need to be considered: essential for responsible cage- a. Almost all large and medium culture operations to be undertaken reservoirs in the country are by the community. But the existing owned by the government or fishermen’s co-operative societies government-controlled agencies, have a poor track record of which are used by fi shers as functioning responsibly to work ‘common-property resources’ with as a group. This throws up a big ‘free’ or ‘almost free’ access. challenge to the government on how b. Fish produced from the reservoirs to organize and empower the is essentially a natural resource in fisher communities and develop the form of ‘ecosystem goods and capacity among them to enable

JANUARY 2017 INDIA

NFDB Considering India’s rich and varied open-water resources like reservoirs, lakes and floodplain wetlands, enormous scope exists to increase production through enclosure aquaculture. Utilizing a modest fraction of their surface area, large and medium reservoirs can contribute a substantial quantity of fish to the total inland fish production. Although cage culture has not yet reached the desired commercial proportions capable of making any impact on the production figures, it is growing at a very fast pace, giving hopes and also causing some concern. The reservoir ecosystem is complex and Preparation of a bamboo cage. Drafting hasty policies without delving deep into the areas so are its problems. Concerted efforts such as ecosystem processes can cause irreversible damage to the sector and the ecosystem by scientists, government agencies and policy-makers and, above all, them to take up cage culture. SHGs, the community organizations and co-operative societies or other such NGOs, will be required to optimize the groups should be given licenses to benefits from reservoirs and to keep undertake cage culture. Under any off undesirable paths by learning 68 special circumstances, should a lessons from our past ecological private entrepreneur or investor be mistakes, including those of other brought to the scene, governments, countries. Evolving simplistic through strong policies, should solutions to problems and drafting protect the interest of the local hasty policies without delving deep fishers and fisher communities, into the areas such as ecosystem who have the primary rights to processes, socioeconomic milieus and the natural resource. A Conflict governance regimes, will not only Management Cell should be be useless, but can also cause established to address complaints. irreversible damage to the sector and Cage culture in inland open the ecosystem. waters is a fast-growing activity that could have many environmental and social impacts, which may not be predictable. But adequate precautions need to be taken. The ultimate goal should be increased fish production through environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive means. The additional income generated For more from the reservoirs through the growth of cage culture should be nfdb.gov.in/PDF/GUIDELINES/ shared by the fisher community rather Guidelines%20for%20Cage%20 than an investor walking away with Culture%20in%20Inland%20Open%20 all the benefits, while the fishers get Water%20Bodies%20of%20India.pdf only wages. Apart from an increase Guidelines for cage culture in in fish production, a meaningful inland open water bodies of India social impact should be in the form of generating additional income and improved standard of living for the fisher—the main stakeholder— who belongs to one of the weakest sections of society.

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 Tanzania SSF GUIDELINES Lake Appeal

A workshop in Tanzania focused on building capacity to improve small-scale fi sheries in the context of food security and poverty eradication

he Tanzania national capacity- guidelines described in the SSF building workshop towards Guidelines, drawing on the 2008 Timplementation of the Voluntary Bangkok Global Conference on Guidelines for Sustainable Small- Small-scale Fisheries towards securing scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries, Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF during which the idea for putting a Guidelines) took place at Monarch specific focus on small-scale fisheries Hotel, Mwanza, on 31 August and 1 was conceived, and going forward to September 2016. It was attended by June 2014 when the 31st session of 52 participants (45 per cent, women), COFI endorsed the SSF Guidelines. representing a wide spectrum of The two presentations that small-scale fisheries stakeholders, followed were meant to give a including civil society organizations background to the workshop. They (CSOs), academia, research included a feedback on the East institutuions, the government, Africa Consultation Workshop on 69 fisheries training institution, private improving small-scale fisheries in the sector organizations and the women context of food security and poverty fish processors and traders from the eradication that was hosted by the FAO major great lakes of Tanzania, namely; Victoria, Nyasa and Tanganyika. This was the first workshop conducted This was the fi rst workshop conducted in the counry in the counry since the adoption of the since the adoption of the SSF Guidelines by the FAO SSF Guidelines by the FAO Committee Committee on Fisheries (COFI) at its 31st Session on Fisheries (COFI) at its 31st Session in Rome in June 2014. in Rome in June 2014. The workshop aimed to set a stage for implementing the SSF Guidelines in Tanzania. More than a half of the Sub-Regional Office for Eastern Africa participants were hearing about the in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during guidelines for the very first time; 15-18 September 2015. The workshop hence there was a need to first raise facilitated an understanding of the awareness to improve understanding principles of the SSF Guidelines and of the SSF Guidelines and their their application in order to support guiding principles; and their relevance their implementation for sustainable for resolving some of the issues small-scale fisheries at regional and confronting fishing communities at national levels. The third presentation the intra- and inter-sectoral levels in highlighted the important and the inland fisheries in Tanzania as significant role played by CSOs in the well as to to identify strategies to be SSF Guidelines development process. put in place in order to implement the SSF Guidelines. Thematic areas The workshop was organized Of particular interest were the around plenary presentations and plenary presentations that unpacked discussions, and working group the contents of the key thematic sessions. There were ten plenary areas of the SSF Guidelines, namely, This article is by Editrudith Lukanga presentations. The first was an governance of tenure in small-scale ([email protected]), Executive Director, overview on the small-scale fisheries fisheries and resource management; EMEDO, Tanzania

JANUARY 2017 TANZANIA

social development, employment the SSF Guidelines can be used to and decent work; value chains, post- improve the situation of small-scale harvest and trade; gender equality; and fisheries. disaster risks and climate change. The • Working Group 1: Social role of research in the implementation development, employment and of the guidelines was also explored. decent work Resource materials for capacity- (a) What needs to be done to promote building programmes were developed the social development of small-scale prior to, and during, the workshop fishing communities (for example, to be used as training tools for future the coherence amongst agencies/ training programmes. departments, policy development, Videos developed with the support implementation measures and of the International Collective in schemes, and capacity development). Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) were (b) Employment and decent work played to aide in raising awareness What needs to be done to on (i) the role and place of women in promote decent work across the value the fisheries value chain, (ii) the chain for all small-scale fishworkers challenges that women face and (men and women) in the formal and (iii) the efforts in place to improve informal fishery sectors. the situation. The video clips • Working Group 2: Secure tenure raised a dialogue among workshop rights to land and fisheries participants who acknowledged (Governance of tenure in small- that they have been powerful tools scale fisheries and resource for training and capacity building management) towards implementation of the SSF What needs to be done to 70 Guidelines. Issues that were aired strengthen tenure rights of inland through the videos are real and and marine small-scale fishing reflect the actual situation the women communities to land and water bodies. face and therefore efforts are needed • Working Group 3: Value chain, to ensure that women in the small- post-harvest and trade scale fisheries sector get proper What needs to be done to enhance recognition and due attention in women’s role, status and contribution terms of favourable policies and in fisheries and in the fishing/ development that is economically, domestic spheres. socially and environmentally • Working Group 4: Disaster risks and sustainable, through a human-rights- climate change based approach. What needs to be done to A summarized Swahili version strengthen the resilience of SSF of the SSF Guidelines was also communities to climate events and very helpful. Most of the Swahili- natural disasters. speaking participants expressed their • Working Group 5: Gender equality appreciation for having the draft What needs to be done to Swahili version that would help them improve gender equality in the entire give feedback to their organizations. fisheries value chain, and to promote The the key proceedings of the equal participation of women and workshop were filmed, and video clips men in decision-making processes of interviews highlighting key issues and organizations, as well as in on inland fisheries in Tanzania have appropriate technologies, and been produced to be used to promote supportive policies and legislations. awareness as training material for How can the SSF Guidelines be future workshops. used to improve gender equity of In order to further unpack and small-scale fishers and fishworkers? contextualize the SSF Guidelines’ • Working Group 6: Ensuring thematic areas, the participants an enabling environment and were divided into six working supporting implementation groups to identify issues, decide How can the SSF Guidelines be what needs to be done, identify promoted in Tanzania? Can the responsibilities, and discuss how Union/state government provide a

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 SSF GUIDELINES

EMEDO

The Tanzanian workshop, attended by 52 participants, set the stage for the implementation of the SSF Guidelines. More than half of the participants, representing a wide spectrum of small-scale fi sheries stakeholders, were hearing about the Guidelines for the very fi rst time

national-level platform with cross- therefore, recommended the sectoral representation to oversee following measures to implement implementation of the Guidelines? the SSF Guidelines: How can these Guidelines be • Enhance capacity-building on mainstreamed into national and state fisheries governance to fisheries policies and legislation put in place sector stakeholders, including in relation to food security, poverty policy-makers, implementers and elimination and sustainable fisheries managers, and integrate them into management of small-scale fishing a sector plan. communities? • Improve knowledge and support 71 • Based on the SSF Guidelines, what services to implement sound are the national, specific water- policies and legislation through body-level priorities for stakeholders’ participation. implementation over the next • Enhance the capacity of fisheries 10 years that can help eliminate stakeholders to understand the poverty, ensure food security and implications of climate change and improve the lives and livelihoods help them undertake mitigation especially of the vulnerable and measures in order to reduce the marginalized groups and women envisaged impact. in small-scale fishing communities? • Establish village community banks • What sort of monitoring systems and link them with financial are needed to assess progress institutions. towards implementation of the • Invest in technology that improves objectives and recommendations in the quality of fish and reduces the SSF Guidelines? post-harvest losses. All the thematic groups were • Allocate adequate funds to support asked to suggest specific actions for the implementations. the government (at the national, • Support women to get more state and local levels), the CSOs, other organized through establishment institutions, and the communities of women fisherfolk associations. themselves. They were also asked to • An appeal needs to be made by the For more identify government departments/ Director, Fisheries Development agencies that could be involved in Division, to the FAO for support. sites.google.com/site/ssfguidelines/ using the SSF Guidelines to improve • There is need to hold similar tanzania the socioeconomic situation of small- workshops to focus on other water Tanzania Workshop: scale fishers and fishworkers. bodies, in the light of implementing Implementation of the The discussions revealed a clear the SSF Guidelines. SSF Guidelines appreciation of the significant role played by women in the small-scale fisheries sector, which has not, however, been sufficiently recognized and appreciated. The workshop,

JANUARY 2017 Analysis INDIA Tempered Down

On temperaments, communities and confl icts in the river fi sheries of Bihar, amidst rigidly persistent caste and class discrimination

ocial and institutional to impoverished fisheries in terms of interactions impinge significantly both quantity and quality in India’s Son how resource declines are Gangetic basin. In the lower Gangetic experienced by fisherfolk, as local floodplains of Bihar, rigidly persistent scarcity of resources can aggravate caste and class discrimination has and transform historically entrenched formed the proverbial backdrop conflicts over fishing rights, access against which river fishery conflicts and ownership. Owing to conflicts have been emerging, changing, and emerged from historical relations, continuing. Importantly, fishing or institutional changes, or state- rights, access to fishing grounds, and driven policies, a dichotomous ownership conflicts cannot still be ‘fishing communities versus the rest separated from floodplain systems of of the world” framing of the problem land ownership (for example, freehold is commonplace. tenure, tenancy, etc.) and control of 72 The primary assumption in this riparian productivity by powerful and outlook is that the heterogeneity of influential landowning people, locally socio-cultural practices within these called the ‘bosses’. fishing communities could, or should, Fishing communities in Bihar, mostly landless and marginalized, eke out a difficult existence with no meaningful institutional structure Fishing communities in Bihar, mostly landless and to bind them together. The common marginalized, eke out a diffi cult existence... district boundary of Bhagalpur in eastern Bihar, and a somewhat fluid political identity of being from the Nishad or Mallah castes are the only things that may be held as constant for be glossed over to focus on broader these people. But otherwise nothing inequalities and injustices meted by seems adequate to group them: the the state and other institutions. But label of a homogeneous ‘fishing often this leads only to a coarse- community’ risks undermining the resolution awareness of fishing complexity and diversity of fisherfolk conflicts and their potential outcomes that reside in the Barari, Kahalgaon, for human livelihoods. and Naugachhia towns of Bihar Often there is a need to look deeper (See Map). at the micro-scale, at what goes on not just between, but also within, Diversity of fi shing conflict-ridden fishing communities. Differences in geographic locations This becomes particularly necessary and ecological specificities of for a nuanced understanding of ‘places’ they fish in also correlate fisheries systems situated within with a diversity of fishing practices This article is by Nachiket Kelkar highly stratified and unequal societies, and seasonal movement patterns. ([email protected]) of Ashoka Trust and threatened ecological settings. Owing to these divergences, their for Research in Ecology and the Environment The basin-level alteration of river- interactions with different state and (ATREE), India and Subhasis Dey flow regimes by dams, barrages, non-state institutions influence the ([email protected]), Department engineering developments and variability of ways through which of Botany, T.M. Bhagalpur University, Bhagalpur, India pollution has contributed significantly their local fishing grounds are

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 INDIA controlled. The settlements bear whole fishing community of Bhagalpur different ‘temperaments’, which also district. The Andolan did succeed as represent other fishing communities private control was overthrown in across the Gangetic floodplains, and 1991 by the state, but it failed on which we attempt to sketch out, based account of actually creating on our long-term interactions, both alternative systems of property rights formal and informal. or community management of river Table 1 compares the fishing fisheries, landing up fishers in a practices, access to fishing grounds, ‘free-for-all’ open-access situation. movements, group associations and It also did not do enough to resolve experiences of conflicts faced through issues of caste identity that underlay interactions with fishers from the the floodplain-dwelling groups that three settlements. We also describe participated in it. their responses to resource declines Kahalgaon fishers travel far and and intergroup interactions, to dwell wide, and always have to fish, despite on the heterogeneous meanings of the primary drive and weakness ‘fishing community’ for people, for hunting and eating the flesh of despite a common history. soft-shelled river turtles. This drive The river fisheries of Bihar shifted takes them to the floodplains of the from a private regime to an open- Gandak River in western Bihar and access regime in 1991, following the Ghaghra in Uttar Pradesh, the Ganga Mukti Andolan, a social where turtles are still in relatively movement that sprung up in the better numbers than in the Ganga. 1980s, demanding the overthrow Some fishers have even travelled to of private control of rivers in Bihar the Yamuna and Chambal, and some called Panidari (water-lording). The even to Goa to help capture and 73 fishers of Kagzi Tola in Kahalgaon kill sea turtles. These long travels were at the forefront of this movement are accompanied by double-faced and, in a sense, they represented the actions: often these fishers pay rent

Map: Map showing the Barari, Naugachhia and Kahalgaon towns with Mallah fi shing settlements in the Bhagalpur district of Bihar, India

JANUARY 2017 ANALYSIS

to local bosses and criminal gangs The mood in the Barari fishing to fish (whose practices they hate settlement near Bhagalpur city is one so much) to gain access to fish and of general agreement, irrespective hunt in their territories. However, of discussions. There is no surplus the same Kagzi Tola fishers do anger or warmth, but rather there not take kindly to other fisherfolk is a patient, measured behaviour coming into, and fishing around, the maintained in interactions. Though rocky islands at Kahat, their these fishers too regularly fish in the fishing territory. river, they are relatively distracted The river is perhaps the deepest and indifferent. Threat is a routine at this point anywhere on the Ganga, part of life, without question. They has complex habitats, a stable regularly see the local bosses, partake channel, eddies, and counter-currents with their fish catch when threatened, where several fish species reside in and report these incidents as if these good numbers. The strong guard of were norms and hence acceptable, this productive fishery itself goes “yeh to chalta hai (this keeps against their demand for ‘exclusive happening)”. rights for fishing castes’. The Ganga at Bhagalpur is a busy The Naugachhia fishers are the river: there is the long Vikramshila other extreme of Kahalgaon but bridge over which vehicles keep because Naugachhia is not located moving noisily; there are waterway- on the riverbank, fishing in small dredger vessels digging up the river bands in the Ganga and Kosi rivers every now and then; there is a highly (in other fishers’ grounds) is what polluted side-channel that takes the they practise. They go out to sewage and garbage from Bhagalpur 74 Bhagalpur or somewhere along the city, and pilgrims, motorboats, Kosi coast for several days, only to crowded ghats and markets make up return home during festivities or for the other elements. illnesses. Used to being ‘floating Three settlements that once shared outsiders’, friendliness is an essential a common history of oppression survival strategy, and applies to and poverty show divergent everyone they meet:—other fishers, temperaments as they confront conservationists, and criminal gangs their gravely insecure livelihoods as well. in a rapidly degrading river and dangerous fishery setting. With a

Table 1. A comparison of the characteristics of three Mallah fi shing settlements in the Bhagalpur district indicates a gradient of differences in fi shing practices and preferences

Name of Sub-caste Range of Grouping Fishing effort Propensity Role in Tolerance Settlement Infl uence patterns & practices to exit from resistance for other fi shery fi shers

KagziTola Banpar Ganga River Mixed groups, Main river, Low, shift to Led Low (Kahalgaon) and some corporate localized around labour and tributaries groups, bands Kahalgaon but exit known in Bihar, widespread only during Bengal and fishing across extreme eastern UP the region years

Makkhatakiya Nishad Kosi, Ganga Bands Inlets and side- Moderate to Supported Usually, (Naugachhia) rivers channels with High, shift they are vegetation, to pond the ‘other’ ponds and fisheries and fishers, floodplain wage labour High wetlands

Barari Gorhi Barari area Family groups Main river, High, many Passive High (Bhagalpur) (Mahaldar) highly localized have shifted to local alternative occupations

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 INDIA

NACHIKET KELKAR

Fishing in River Ganges, India. Fishing communities in Bihar, mostly landless and marginalized, 75 eke out a diffi cult existence with no meaningful institutional structure to bind them together continuing exodus, the number of fishers actively fishing today might be less than 30 per cent of the number 10-15 years ago. For those who remain, importantly, the socio-ecological setting and lived experience have, at least partly, shaped their variable attitudes. What is striking is that these differences severely limit their ability to reflect critically on the open-access cage they are stuck in. For more In this context, the uniform application of fisheries policies, www.dukeupress.edu/where-the-river- schemes and community-wide ends/?viewby=title extension programmes might achieve Muehlmann, S. 2013. Where the heterogeneous outcomes. A closer River Ends: Contested Indigeneity look at how temperaments are in the Mexican Colorado delta. formed, maintained and expressed Duke University Press: USA, p. 220 in response to conflicts appears essential in planning sustained www.cambridge.org/core/books/life-on- dialogue with communities living the-ganga/B8459012B50 449DEB8807 on the edge of declining riverine BB87F593241 fisherie. Assa Doron, 2013. Life on the Ganga Boatmen and the Ritual Economy of Banaras. Cambridge University Press

JANUARY 2017 Roundup NEWS, EVENTS, BRIEFINGS AND MORE... SUBSIDIES (MC11) in Buenos Aires. In jurisdictions. The proposal addition, the proponents call would impose a ban on all IUU WTO members engage on new for the negotiations to proceed subsidies and all subsidies on a standalone basis, that is, granted to fishing vessels or fi sheries subsidies proposals there should be no linkage with fishing activity negatively other issues being discussed as affecting fish stocks that are embers engaged in detailed contribute to illegal, unreported part of the rules negotiations. in an overfished condition; Mdiscussions on three new and unregulated (IUU) fishing, The EU proposal, which flexibilities would be included proposals aimed at achieving an and refraining from introducing was first introduced at the allowing developing members outcome on fisheries subsidies new such subsidies, by 2020. previous NGR meeting on 11 with small-scale fishing at the upcoming Ministerial Goal 14.6 also recognizes that November, seeks to prohibit sectors to increase their Conference of the World Trade appropriate and effective special subsidies linked to overcapacity capacity to fish. Organization (WTO) in Buenos and differential (S&D) treatment (including those used to The joint proposal from Aires, Argentina, in December for developing and least- increase the capacity of, or Argentina, Colombia, Costa 2017. The proposals from the developed members should support the construction of, Rica, Panama, Peru and European Union (EU), the be an integral part of the WTO fishing vessels) and to IUU Uruguay advocates using African, Caribbean and Pacific fisheries subsidies negotiations. fishing, provides special and a flexible approach to the (ACP) group of members, and The three proposals differential treatment for application of disciplines by six Latin American members— presented at the 9 December developing members and LDCs, developing members and LDCs, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, meeting of the Negotiating and highlights the importance inspired by that adopted in the Panama, Peru and Uruguay—all Group on Rules (NGR) all share of members notifying all kind Trade Facilitation Agreement. seek to achieve the 2020 targets the same objectives: achieving of subsidies that support, In particular, under the set out in the United Nations’ the goals set out in SDG 14.6; directly or indirectly, marine proposal these countries could Sustainable Development Goals ensuring effective disciplines fishing activity. apply transition periods (to be (SDGs). while also providing special The ACP proposal primarily defined through negotiations) SDG 14.6 calls for prohibiting and differential treatment for targets subsidies provided for implementing the specific certain forms of fisheries developing and least-developed to large-scale commercial disciplines to be established, in subsidies which contribute to country (LDC) members; or industrial fishing and some cases subject to the receipt overcapacity and overfishing, securing an outcome at the subsidies to fishing activities of technical assistance and eliminating subsidies that Eleventh Ministerial Conference outside of members’ maritime support for capacity building. 76 Summing up the discussions, Ambassador Wayne McCook of Jamaica, vessels, where the prices are ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE the chair of the NGR, noted agreed in advance. This is being commonalities in the carried out to reward good proposals, in particular their Sole of Discretion practices and preserve reliance on SDG 14.6. It is the ecology of the sea. There clear that members will need ole of Discretion are a is not coral or rock identified are no discards of any fish, to look at the impact of certain collective of small-scale on the netters through VMS unless there is legal obligation. S subsidies that contribute to fishers fishing out of Plymouth tracking and, over time, habitat One of the major aspects of overfishing and to overcapacity harbour. They are committed mapping. this group, is that the static- of fishing fleets, as well as to procuring fish and shellfish The group of fishers net fishers use relatively less how to address IUU fishing, that have been caught with havedocumented substantial fuel per kilo of fish than trawl he said. Members have been as little damage to the marine data and video footage caught fish. working on these issues for environment as possible, have which will become publicly Passive fishing methods more than a decade, so any contributed to the livelihood available and is worked on typically use 0.1-0.4 litres of solution will require new of small-scale fishers and their fuel per kilo as compared to creativity, which, he said, was communities, and to get these 0.5-1.5 litres of beam trawled perhaps being seen in some of high quality and delicious fish caught fish. This initiative has FWO the proposals now being put to consumers. been undertaken to reward forward. One of the key advantages the already diminishing Canada told members is traceability, as they know in collaboration with local number of small-scale fishers, that a group of members all their fishers and can trace universities. The fishers are whose population has come participating in a plurilateral the fish back to the boat. Their working in collaboration with down to 2,500 fishers from initiative on fisheries subsidies boats are under 10 meters long, Exeter University, to help 10,000 fishers ten years ago. were planning to hold their and use rod and line, static identifying ways of sustainable One of the key campaigns first substantive meeting early gill and trammel nets and fisheries. There is a trading has been that the small-scale next year and that any member mid-water trawls for shoaling company registered under the fishers should be allocated wishing to take part in the species such as sardine or Community interest company, quota according to the initiative could join in. So far, herring. so that the fishers get the environmental and social 16 members have signaled their Some of the flat fish species maximum profits as well, and considerations as well as interest, Canada said. are occasionally caught using the prices are often higher than economic considerations, The next dedicated light-weight bottom trawl, so the market price. as newly required under session on fisheries subsidies that the gear does not impact These low-impact fishers Article 17 of the Common is tentatively scheduled to take or plough the seabed, the have been receiving prices that Fisheries Policy. place on 24 January 2017. vessels carry low horse-power are governed by the landings of www.soleofdiscretion.co.uk/ Source: https://www.wto. engines, and cover ground that the highly commercial factory marine-biology/ org/english/news_e/news16_e/ fish_09dec16_e.htm

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 Subscribe free to SAMUDRA News Alerts at http://www.icsf.net

FISHERIES STATISTICS about 1.5 mn fishers, while 2014, but when the secondary engagement in aquaculture sector (processing, trading) Fishers and Fish Farmers remained more stable. In is included, women make up 2014, 84 per cent of the global about half of the workforce. n estimated 56.6 mn engaged in aquaculture population engaged in the The total number of fishing Apeople were engaged in increased from 17 per cent in fisheries and aquaculture sector vessels in the world in 2014 is the primary sector of capture 1990 to 33 per cent in 2014. was in Asia, followed by Africa estimated at about 4.6 mn, fisheries and aquaculture in For the first time since the (10 per cent), and Latin America very close to the figure for 2014, of whom 36 per cent were period 2005–2010, the total and the Caribbean (4 per cent). 2012. The fleet in Asia was the engaged full-time, 23 per cent engagement in fisheries and Of the 18 mn people engaged in largest, consisting of 3.5 mn part-time, and the remainder aquaculture did not increase. fish farming, 94 per cent were vessels and accounting for were either occasional fishers Overall, employment in the in Asia. Women accounted for 75 per cent of the global fleet, or of unspecified status. The sector decreased, almost 19 per cent of all people directly followed by Africa (15 per proportion of these workers entirely due to a decrease of engaged in the primary sector in cent), Latin America and the Caribbean (6 per cent), North America (2 per cent) and Europe (2 per cent). Globally, 64 per cent of reported fishing vessels were engine-powered in 2014, of which 80 per cent were in Asia. In 2014, about 85 per cent of the world’s motorized fishing vessels were less than 12 m in length overall (LOA). The estimated number of fishing vessels of 24 m and longer operating in marine waters in 2014 was about 64 000, the same as in 2012. Source: FAO. 2016. The State of World Fisheries and 77 Aquaculture (A Flyer), http:// www.fao.org/3/ai5692e.pdf

WEBLINKS his infographic gives you a brief idea about the Infographics on small-scale fi sheries guidelines TVoluntary Guidelines for Securing Small-scale Fisheries in the context of Food Security and Poverty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmR0jtGCq7c&feature=share Eradication, that was adopted by Member countries of the FAO in 2014. This videographic is a joint effort of WFFP-WFF-ICSF-IPC, funded under the IFAD project for dissemination of information on SSF Guidelines.

JANUARY 2017 Roundup NEWS, EVENTS, BRIEFINGS AND MORE... INFOLOG: NEW RESOURCES AT ICSF FLASHBACK

ICSF’s Documentation Centre (dc.icsf.net) has a range of information resources that are regularly updated. A selection: A Useful Toolkit

Publications hursday, 14 June 2007, will go down in history as a FAO. 2016. Lessons learned in water accounting: the fi sheries and Tparticularly significant day for fishers and fishworkers aquaculture perspective in the System of Environmental-Economic all over the world. That was the day the 96th Session of the Accounting (SEEA) framework, by Daniela Ottaviani, Sachiko Tsuji & International Labour Conference (ILC) of the International Cassandra De Young. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper Labour Organization (ILO) adopted the Work in Fishing No. 599. Rome, Italy. Convention, 2007, which seeks to guarantee innovative new http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5880e.pdf labour standards to improve the conditions for millions of men Water accounting seeks to provide comprehensive, consistent and women working in the fishing sector worldwide. and comparable information related to water for policy- and Adopted in the year of the silver jubilee of the 1982 decisionmaking to promote a sustainable use of water resources as United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Fishing Convention is the first ILO instrument in fishing since the well as equitable and transparent water governance among water adoption of the users. One of the frameworks for environmental and economic 200 nautical accounting is constituted by the System of Environmental-Economic mile exclusive Accounting (SEEA), which the United Nations Statistical Commission economic endorsed as an international standard in 2012. zone regime Scoping study on decent work and employment in fi sheries and by coastal aquaculture: Issues and actions for discussion and programming States in the http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5980e.pdf 1970s. This This scoping study is the result of an exploratory mapping and time around, scoping exercise, based on a desk review of recent literature on labour unlike at the conditions in fisheries and aquaculture. The review was undertaken to 93rd Session of identify and discuss issues and challenges—as well as possible actions the ILC in 2005, and measures by interested fisheries and aquaculture stakeholders— more countries, including China, which accounts for the largest related to the promotion of decent employment in the sector. share of fishing capacity and the largest number of fishers in the world, voted for the adoption of the Convention. 78 Indigenous peoples human rights defenders fi eld handbook on human rights documentation and advocacy The Convention has a three-tier structure. First, all provisions of the Convention, upon its ratification, would apply ©Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact to fishing vessels above 24 m in length, and fishers working on http://iphrdefenders.net/indigenous-peoples-human-rights- board such vessels. Second, many of the provisions would apply defenders-fi eld-handbook-on-human-rights-documentation-and- to the majority of commercial fishing vessels and fishers advocacy/ working on them, regardless of size of the vessel. Third, some Community-based Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Defenders of the prescriptive provisions would apply to fishing vessels (IPHRDs) are the target users of this handbook. It is primarily intended below 24 m over an unspecified period of time. The latter tier, to guide members of the IPHRD Network and their organizations, presumably, applies to industrial fishing operations employing institutions and communities in gathering information on specific vessels below 24 m. cases of human-rights violations. It is important that users of this Except for minimum age, the other provisions of the handbook are already knowledgeable on human rights, in general, Convention that would apply to the small scale and artisanal and are familiar with international human rights instruments. sub sector are non-prescriptive; it has been left to the ILO member countries to adopt laws, regulations or other measures Videos to implement them. In particular, countries with large fisher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UIdDeugSyM#t=76 populations and fishing fleets, such as China, India and Vietnam, The fishing industry employs more than 50 mn people around the which voted for its adoption, should ratify and implement its world and those who earn their lives from the sea are often exposed provisions at the earliest. to challenging and risky conditions. The ILO’s Work in Fishing The Work in Fishing Convention, 2007, is just a toolkit. The Convention, 2007 (No. 188) was adopted to ensure that fishers have ball is now in the court of national governments. They should decent working conditions on board fishing vessels. The Convention consult all relevant stakeholders, especially organizations also puts in place a mechanism to ensure compliance with, and representing fishworkers, and use the Convention to develop enforcement of, its provisions by States. Now, fishing vessels and effective measures to protect the working and living conditions those on extended international voyages may be subject to labour of fishers, both in large- and small-scale fishing. inspections in foreign ports. —– from Comment in SAMUDRA Report No. 47, July 2007

ANNOUNCEMENTS

MEETINGS 17 to 18 April 2017 (two days) https://sustainabledevelopment. of Fiji and Sweden. The Conference aims Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole on un.org/oceanconference/about to be the game changer that will reverse 27 March to 7 April 2017 the Regular Process for Global Reporting The high-level United Nations Conference the decline in the health of our ocean for (two weeks) and Assessment of the State of the Marine to Support the Implementation of people, planet and prosperity. There are Preparatory Committee established Environment, including Socioeconomic Sustainable Development Goal 14: preparatory meetings for this conference by the UN General Assembly resolution Aspects—eighth meeting Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, organized from 15 to 16 February 2017 in 69/292: Development of an international seas and marine resources for sustainable New York. legally binding instrument under the 15 to 19 May 2017 (one week) development will be convened at the United Nations Convention on the Law United Nations Open-ended Informal United Nations Headquarters in New 6 to 8 September 2017 (three days) of the Sea on the conservation and Consultative Process on Oceans and the York from 5 to 9 June 2017, coinciding Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole on sustainable use of marine biological Law of the Sea—eighteenth meeting with World Oceans Day, to support the Regular Process for Global Reporting diversity of areas beyond national 5 - 9 June 2017, New York the implementation of Sustainable and Assessment of the State of the Marine jurisdiction—third session Our Oceans, Our Future: Partnering Development Goal 14. The Conference Environment, including Socioeconomic for the Implementation of SDG 14 will be co-hosted by the Governments Aspects - ninth meeting

SAMUDRA REPORT NO. 75 A.K. KIMOTO / FAO

Endquote

reat the earth well: it was not given to you by T your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

—a Native American saying