The survival of marine and inland fishing communities depends on access to fishing areas, on their collective rights, and adjacent areas for housing fish processing and other community and occupational needs.
Sustainability depends upon effective management of marine and inland fisheries resources. Upon ensuring that overfishing and overcapacity do not degrade the ecological conditions, that they do not harm the breeding stocks of fish. It depends on the collective responsibilities of fishers and fishworkers, regulatory institutions and governments.
ICSF aims to protect and strengthen both collective rights and responsibilities. How? By promoting responsible small-scale fisheries (SSF) through a rights-and-responsibilities framework both in the marine and inland context. By advocating policies that recognize the customary rights and traditional knowledge systems of fishing communities.
With their future dependant on the health of fisheries resources and their distribution, fishers have a great stake in their sustainable management. ICSF programmes help them acquire additional knowledge and skills to adapt their practices to changing conditions. Through training, sound communications and diverse stakeholder involvement—including women, youth, indigenous people marginalized groups—to participate in decision making.
Several ICSF programmes in 2008-2019 analysed, prepared and promoted the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). Along with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the government of Thailand, ICSF organized a civil society preparatory workshop in Bangkok. Before 2008 it held major workshops in Asia (Siem Reap, Cambodia), Eastern and Southern Africa (Zanzibar, Tanzania) and Latin America (Punta de Tralca, Chile).
These events are part of an extensive campaign for secure and equitable tenure rights to fishery resources, not just in the waters but across adjacent land and forests. When fishing rights take into account social and cultural conditions, it helps improve programmes for socioeconomic uplift and environmental protection.
In light of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF), the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (the Tenure Guidelines), the SSF Guidelines and the SDGs, ICSF has initiated the Making the Small-scale Artisanal Fishing Zones Work! campaign to enforce/create small-scale artisanal non-towed fishing gear zones (SFZs) to benefit fishing communities using these gears and practices in a sustainable manner. The campaign seeks coherence between equitable development of fishing communities and conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in at least three countries before 2024.
Although SFZs or similar area designations exist at the informal level in many coastal nations, the formal creation of SFZs at the national and subnational levels in South and Southeast Asia has a history dating back to the 1970s. In India, for example, SFZs have been created at the subnational level since the 1980s. However, there are no recognized tenure rights to the SFZs. The SSF Guidelines are aware that creating exclusive zones alone are meaningless unless secure tenure rights to the fishing grounds, to land and other resources that form the basis for their social and cultural wellbeing are also granted. The enforcement of the formal SFZs also need to uphold conservation and sustainable use of fisheries resources. Governments, fishworker organizations and informal institutions such as traditional panchayats (village councils) in India need to recognize the importance of these elements.
In India, ICSF has initiated the campaign in the state of Andhra Pradesh, starting first with the most disadvantaged (fisher and fishworkers engaged in harvest of fish using no craft or non-motorized traditional craft), paying special attention to the SFZs that are adjacent to the low tide line and earmarked for small-scale artisanal fishing communities. In 2020, ICSF completed the survey of literature and data on fishing practices in marine capture fisheries in India and the social development of coastal fishing communities. Through virtual consultations with its local partner in Andhra Pradesh, ICSF completed the design of the study questionnaire and its translation into Telugu, the local language. The survey documents the various characteristics of the fishery (viz., craft and gear combinations, fishing grounds, species, seasons, conflicts between competing user groups and traditional tenure arrangements and systems of resource management); the social development of non-towed fishers and their families; and their perception in relation to securing rights of relevance to these arrangements, especially to defend their access to marine living resources.
This survey is to be undertaken in two more provinces but is delayed due to the COVID-19 situation and will resume as soon as the public health conditions allow to do so. It will then be extended to Sri Lanka and Indonesia in partnership with relevant fishworker organizations or NGOs
This study focuses on the growth and changing composition of social security provisions in the fisheries sector of Kerala, a small coastal State in southwest India. It enumerates the achievements...
This report explores efforts on coastal area management, more specifically in the South Asian region, and the extent to which the perspectives of actors in the fishery sector have been...
In the conference in Cebu in 1994, the impact of coastal area degradation on the livelihood of the artisanal and small-scale fishery sector was discussed at length. It was recognized...
This publication is the official record of what transpired at Cebu conference held between 2 and 7 June 1994. It is a compendium of papers, reports and special contributions on...
Originally, the Lome convention aimed to be the framework for genuine development cooperation between the Old Continent and its former colonies. The development of small-scale fisheries in Third World countries...
In its search for cooperation and solidarity, the Collective joint hands with fishworkers’ organizations and unions. Its characteristic feature lays in its close cooperation between scientists and social workers on...
This study concentrates on the constraints in the fisheries management schemes. It examines the history and politics of fisheries management in five Asian countries. It attempts to show how the...
The international symposium on marine environment and the future of fishworkers was held in Lisbon, Portugal from June 19th to 24th, 1989. One of the primary objectives of the Lisbon...
This is the proceedings of the Workshop on Issues in Fisheries Development organized by the SIFFS and the Centre for Development Studies in Trivandrum, India. On the 25th November 1986...
This report documents the international conference of fishworkers and their supporters that took place in Rome, Italy from July 4-8, 1984. The conferences was an historical event, fishworkers the main...
Africa is not on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 targets to end hunger and ensure access by all people to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all...
This book centres on an understanding of fishing livelihoods within processes of historical change, and the social and political relationships within which they are embedded. Drawing on our research experience...
Time line analysis on change in fishing practices of traditional sector before and after 80’s revealed that prior to motorization (before 80’s), the entire coast of Kerala was classified into...
This publication is based on an assessment of fish and fishing gear loss from selected gillnet and trammel net fisheries of India. It presents information on the types, causes and...
This study explores the key areas around which regional platforms can rally interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral solutions for the ocean. It highlights the lack of data and statistics on the ocean,...
This symposium was held to support the development of a new vision for more sustainable and socially just fisheries, and more resilient to the challenges of the twenty-first century. A...
Using a case‐study approach based on expert knowledge, we identified 20 historical fisheries or aquaculture examples from 13 countries, spanning the last 40–800 years, which we contend embody blue growth...
The report fills the gap by showing how information and recommendations from human rights monitoring mechanisms can complement existing monitoring. Small-scale fisheries are central to achieving SDG 14 on sustainable...
The EU Blue Economy Report 2020”, providing an overview of the performance of the EU economic sectors related to oceans and the coastal environment. With a turnover of €750 billion...
The findings of European country level studies of fishing fleets of Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are presented....