Water covers 70 percent of the Earth. Marine and freshwater environments sustain an abundance of life in its spectacular diversity. Through our history, small-scale fishing communities have interacted and depended on these living resources. A threat to aquatic environments is a danger to artisanal fishers.
Their protection and stewardship are essential to the communities and cultures they sustain. This relationship is a framework to manage conflicts and improve the quality of life and livelihood of small-scale fishers. It was recognized in the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
Governments increasingly designate marine protected areas (MPAs) for conservation and management. This legal instrument does help but its implementation has raised serious concerns. Target-driven expansion of MPAs is fixated on quantitative goals. This has hit the rights, livelihoods and sustainable use practices of small-scale fishing communities. MPAs—created often in a non-consultative and non-participatory manner—have focused on regulating/restricting their fisheries, failing to recognize their sustainable livelihoods, culture and survival.
It is imperative that protection efforts are grounded in principles of sustainable use. That their processes are inclusive and recognizebuilding upon them. Artisanal fishers must be the frontline of marine biodiversity conservation. There is an urgent need for systematic improvements on all such matters.
A range of ICSF’s initiatives highlight the social and political dimensions of conservation. The importance of livelihoods of poor and vulnerable communities, of their participation and consultation. The co-management of resources by fishing communities, based on a human rights approach to conservation.
Participation at CBD meetings, and collaboration with fish workers organizations, local community and indigenous groups is useful in contesting target driven and top-down approaches to conservation, and the associated violations of human rights linked to these approaches. It is also useful in influencing the text of the decisions adopted to take on board indigenous and local community concerns.
Around 20,000 delegates from about 190 countries convened at Montreal, Quebec, the seat of the UN CBD Secretariat, to guide global action to protect nature through 2030 amid protests from...
This Handbook, developed by ICSF and Crocevia, describes the components of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and provides an overview of its programmes, targets and commitments on aquatic, marine...
Small-scale fisheries (SSF) operate in both marine and inland waters, accounting for over half of the total fish catch in developing countries. The bulk of this catch is destined for...
This research reflects on the progress achieved by conservation partners in South Africa on the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Programme Element. It explores the strategies and...
The workshop reviewed existing legal and institutional mechanisms for creating, implementing and reporting MCPAs in India, and discussed their impact from the perspective of environmental justice and human rights and...
This document summarizes a series of case studies done in nine countries—Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Tanzania and Thailand—on the role of communities in the planning and...
This study examines how Thailand’s biodiversity conservation measures affect fishing communities, especially in the marine protected areas (MPAs) on the Andaman Sea coastline. It documents the various efforts of the...
This is the report on the workshop on “Small Indigenous Freshwater Fish Species: Their Role in Poverty Alleviation, Food Security and Conservation of Biodiversity”, organized by the ICSF in collaboration...
In preparation for COP10 of CBD, ICSF compiled all articles from Samudra Report on MPAs and highlight the problems with top-down planning and implementation of MPAs, while drawing attention to...
The workshop was meant to discuss five case studies on marine and coastal protected areas in India undertaken from a fishing community perspective. The deliberations at the workshop centered around...
The 2024 Living Planet Index (LPI) update for Migratory Freshwater Fishes unveils a startling 81% decline in monitored populations of freshwater migratory fishes from 1970 to 2020. This distressing trend...
Mangroves are critical ecosystems, bridging land, freshwater, and sea. They host tremendous diversity and protect and provide for countless coastal communities around the world. This 2024 edition of The State...
Across the Western Indian Ocean, many vulnerable social groups largely depend on marine resources for their food security and livelihoods. The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM) and...
Acknowledging that Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) hold vast knowledge about coastal-marine ecological systems which is often overlooked in marine/maritime spatial planning (MSP) initiatives, this publication aims to assist...
Access to resources, opportunity and choice, power and voice, peace and conflict influence the evolution of poverty and gender roles in a community. These are further impacted by political and...
Recognizing that the rich knowledge held by Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) regarding coastal-marine ecosystems is often overlooked in Marine Spatial Planning (MSP), the MSPglobal initiative of the Intergovernmental...
The relatively rapid expansion of protected areas (PAs) has outpaced their effective governance, monitoring, and evaluation processes, resulting in a knowledge gap, particularly in relation to the impact and efficacy...
Protection from direct human impacts can safeguard marine life, yet ocean warming crosses marine protected area boundaries. Here, we test whether protection offers resilience to marine heatwaves from local to...
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely used for ocean conservation, yet the relative impacts of various types of MPAs are poorly understood. We estimated impacts on fish biomass from no-take...
Highlights of the Bill The Bill amends the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 to simplify compliance requirements for domestic companies. Users of codified traditional knowledge and AYUSH practitioners will be exempted...