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Report on Securing Sustainable SmallScale Fisheries Conference October [4SSF] -November 2008 –Bangkok

26/3 2009 Report from Andrew Johnston

Artisanal Fishers Association

Republic of South Africa

 We have taken some time to produce this analysis of the Bangkok conference, we felt because of the outcome it had to be discussed by numerous fishing leaders around our coast. As a result, if I was asked how would I judge the conference out of the ceiling of ten then I it would give it a score of six. Most conferences have its positives and negatives and this conference was no exception. The mere fact that F.A.O. along with Thailand Department of Fisheries, SEAFDEC and World Fish Center were able to organize this on such a wonderful basis and as an objective of attempting to secure sustainable small-scale fisheries was a definite plus factor and they have to be commended for it, - this was a long time overdue to be recognized as kept stakeholders in the industry. 

Under hushed breathes within the conference and lodging rooms the worrying sentiments of the bona-fide fisher folk uttering the problem that their voice was being overcome by the more powerful groupings especially by the academics, conservative scientists and feminist establishment. The main problem was the one of "our culture is not being recognized" and that the highly specialized language was more associated towards corporate office environments than small-scale fishers villages. The formation of policies are normally done by academics, researchers, and NGO's, collecting data and assessments for such use through the interaction and working with the fisher folk, - but attempting to formulate policy by putting  ordinary fisher folk especially the into the same pot has always proved to produce a recipe of disaster with the outcome favoring the ideology of various favorable alliances  By disregarding the traditional values, way of life and the valuable economic and social benefits of the artisanal sector, has led to many failures in fishing policies and the implementations of such, the result being  a dysfunctional society, over fishing, poaching, and poverty all maximizing the vulnerability and inequity within the fishing communities.

The major problem is that many "outsiders" put the fisher folk in a bracket as they wish to see them rather than for what they are and how they themselves wish to be.

What must be recognized is that especially in today’s world of materialism and designer consumerism the culture and beliefs of traditional peoples are being pressured by governments, corporate, financiers and western idealism to change their ways to "run with progress" [industrialization] with the spin-off being the destruction of the cherished customs and values peoples have no desire to abandon. What was very evident at this conference was the promotion of the ideology of a "ONE WORLD CULTURE" by those with different interests and the lack of attention to the child and the elderly, who for most fisher folk are most important towards family life and values.

"Traditionally hunters and fishers in the past two decades many Ju/hoansi [khoi San tribe of Southern Africa] have adopted a more sedentary lifestyle, tending small herds of goats and planting gardens for their livelihood. Among those who forage for a living, dominance and aggressiveness are not tolerated in either sex, men are mild-mannered as the women, and women are as energetic and self reliant as men. In the villages, by contrast, men and women exhibit personality characteristics approximating those that have traditionally been thought of as typically masculine and feminine in Western societies. Among the food forages, children of both sexes receive lengthy, intensive care from their mothers, whose attention is not diverted by the birth of new offspring until after passage of many years. "                                                                 

Anthropology and the Study of Culture     

We fully support the appeal by the fishers for the implementation of a "purified' actual fisher’s conference without the participation of 'outsiders' because there is a belief that their voices are being blunted.   

The big question then is would the outcome and decisions made have been altogether different if the fisher folk had their "own" conference?

I believe that it would not have been vastly dissimilar in content but concede that the language would be different and certain issues would received more attention than in the resolutions from Bangkok.  What gives merit to this argument is the vast difference in the presentations from the podium between the Fisher woman from South America and the rest - [one from actual community experiences and the other from outside 'speakers']. The emphasis should have addressed more intensely the protection of the cultural rights of the world's fisher folk, the prejudice problem, protection of the poorest fishing communities, macro-economic promotion, trade liberalism, community's conflict, "supporting" [alternative] livelihoods and the role of FAO.               

What is not really recognized is that fishing communities abide by their own set of values and rules and have a strong governance system, cultural and social structure, also on how to use the resource sustainably in contrast to government and NGO's ideology. That there are a strong connection between spiritual and religious beliefs by the African/ S.E. Asian communities and the influence this has on their moral behavior and values were not recognized and it ultimately led to suspicion when "western developed " participants promoted their own doctrines. Taking into account a three previous 'fishers' meets it is interesting to collate and note the differences and similarity coming out of these workshops. food for thought if the interpretations are analyzed.

 FISHERS RIGHTS

Bangkok

*Guarantee access rights of small-scale and indigenous fishing communities to territories, lands and waters on which they have traditionally depended for their life and livelihoods.

* Recognize and implement the rights of fishing communities to restore, protect and manage local aquatic and coastal ecosystems.

*Recognize, promote and protect the diversified livelihood base of fishing communities.

* Protect the cultural identities, dignity and traditional rights of fishing communities and indigenous peoples.

* Guarantee the rights of fishing communities to basic services such as safe drinking water, education, sanitation, health and HIV/Aids prevention and treatment services.  

* guarantee the rights of all categories of workers in the fisheries, including self-employed workers oin the informal sector, to social security and safe and decent working conditions,

WSSD

The communities that depend on fish resources for their livelihood both in the marine and inland sector should have common property rights over the resources. These common property rights guarantee their sustainable development for meeting their basic needs. Ensure priority rights of the artisanal and subsistence fishers to the coastal and inland areas where they live and the aquatic and inland resources to which they have customarily access for they livelihoods.

* Provide support to artisanal and small-scale fish workers, taking into account the social, economic and environmental importance of this sector.

* Seek rational and equitable balance between social and economic objectives in the exploitation of the living aquatic resources accessible to traditional, artisanal and subsistence fishers by taking particular account of the needs of politically, socially and economically disadvantaged fishers.

Havana

*The communities of artisanal fishers and their organizations will not give up their right to free access to fishery resources and demand the establishment and protection of a reserve zone for exclusive use of artisanal fishing.

*Artisanal fishery organizations demand the recognition of their territorial rights in the coastal area and within inshore waters and reject any use of these areas affecting their territorial stability.

Bangkok;

*Reverse and prevent the privatization of fisheries resources, as through individual transferable quotas [ITQ] and similar systems that promote property rights.

*Reverse and prevent the displacement of fishing communities through the privatization of water and lands of fishing communities for activities that include tourism, aquaculture , defense/military establishments, conservation, and industry. 

WSSD.

Transforming existing systems of unequal ownership, access to  and use of marine and coastal resources into systems based on sustainable and equitable use and access rights.

Havana;

The organizations of artisanal fishers reject any form of privatization of fishery resources, so that the latter would be considered not only as heritage of the nations but also as world heritage. The communities propose environmentally and socially sustainable fishery management regulate by the State, with direct participation of fishers organizations, and reject the establishment of private commercial patents on fishery resources.

 ENVIRONMENT RESOLUTIONS;

Bangkok:

*Prohibit illegal fishing and all destructive fishing gears and practices.

*Protect all marine and inland water bodies from all forms of pollution and reclamation.

*Ensure that the declaration, establishment and management of marine protected areas [MPA's] binding involves the active participation of local and indigenous communities and small-scale fishers

* Establish and enforce measures to prohibit industrial fishing in inshore waters.

WSSD.

*Reject all forms of commercial and scientific whaling.

*Develop an international binding agreement to effectively control coastal and off-shore mining and oil extraction, with particular attention to the concerns of Developing States.

*Eliminate coastal exploitation and promote the rehabilitation of remaining coastal resources.

*Prevent the illegal import and export of protected marine and coastal resources.

*Strongly support measures that limit and eliminate the degradation of river mouths and estuaries.

*Require mandatory Strategic Environmental Assessment [SEA's] and Environmental Impact Assessment { EIA's] on any activities likely to have a significant negative impact on coastal ocean eco systems.

* Protect biodiversity in the marine environment.

* Call for the protection of all mangroves and inertial wetland ecosystems and halting conversion to other uses in order to maintain the ecosystem services they uniquely provide.

* Strongly support measures that limit and eliminate the degradation of river mouths and estuaries.

* Protect fish breeding grounds, including inland and lakeshore wetlands.

* Prohibit destructive methods of fishing such as trawling, drift nets, bombs, and poisons.

* Rehabilitate lakeshore and river buffer zones.

* Monitor and regulate fish harvests for sustainable catch levels.

* Improve scientific research and Environmental education for all aquatic ecosystems.

* Ensure that any activity and technology implemented in marine, inland and coastal areas follows equal and best standards, especially that used by Multi-National Corporations in countries lacking regulations. 

* Call for the special protection for coral reef ecosystems from extinction from global warming and other human-induced stresses.

* Call for funding for large-scale restoration of damaged coastal ecosystems to increase the stocks of fish and other economically valuable marine resources, especially in coral reef habitats and island nations.

* Adopt the precautionary approach to ecosystem management as pivotal to marine fisheries management.

*Effectively implement the Food and Agriculture Organization Plan of Action on Responsible Fishing

Havana.

Nil

PARTICIPATION

Bangkok;

*Guarantee the equal participation of small-scale and indigenous fishers in fisheries and coastal management decision-making, ensuring their free, prior and informed consent to all management decisions.

*Provide support to capacity-building of fishing and indigenous communities to participate in governance of coastal and fisheries resources.

*Guarantee rights of fishing communities to information to information in appropriate and accessible forms and?

*Ensure that States seek the free, prior and informed consent of small-scale fishing communities and indigenous peoples before undertaking any project or programmers that may affect their life and livelihoods.

*Improve institutional co-ordination at all levels to enhance the well-being of fishing communities.

 *Ensure the integration of traditional and indigenous knowledge and customary law in fisheries management decision-making.

WSSD;

*Facilitate the engagement of local communities in the implementation of integrated coastal zone management procedures across sectors, and with particular support for Developing states.

*Recognize the value of indigenous and local knowledge and experience in resource management and facilitate the empowered and participation of local communities in use, management and protection of marine resources.

Havana;

*Scientific research on fishery is frequently informed by political and economic power exercised by industrial corporation and governments. It is necessary to generate new relationships between science, scientists and fisher's communities, with special emphasis on social sciences, so that the knowledge of fishery communities is valued and that their cultural expression is considered.  In this way, it will be possible to elaborate new public policies reflecting communities approach on development.  

*In order to permit their recognition, the professionalization of artisanal fishers requires joint implementation of education and training policies so as to acknowledge and value the know-how and cultural, economic and social identity of artisanal fishers. 

 TRADE & INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS/ /FOOD SECURITY

Bangkok;

*Recognize the traditional fishing rights of small-scale and indigenous fishers from immediately neighboring adjacent States and set up appropriate bilateral arrangements for protecting their rights.

*Put in place  specific mechanisms to ensure that trade promotes human development, and that it leads to equitable distribution of benefits to fishing communities.

*Effectively involve fishing communities in negotiations dealing with international trade in fish and fish products.

*Guarantee institutional arrangements that give priority to fish for local consumption over fish for export or for reduction to fishmeal.

*Implement the ILO work in Fishing Convention 2007 and extend its provision to include inland and shore-based fishers.

*Ensure that international trade does not lead to environmental degradation or undermine the human rights and food security of the local communities.

* We call on the FAO's Committee on Fisheries {COFI] to include a specific chapter in the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries {CCRF] on small-scale fisheries, recognizing the obligations of States towards them.

*National governments have a legal obligation to implement international human rights instruments. We demand that all governments take these obligations seriously and create the environment for fishing communities to fully enjoy these rights. We demand the urgent establishment of independent mechanism to monitor, and report on implementation of human rights obligations.

* Protect men and women engaged in regional cross-border fisheries trade against harassment.

* Take urgent and immediate steps for the release and repatriation of arrested fisher, in keeping with the provision of UNCLOS and human rights instruments.

*Regulate processing capacity, particularly in export-oriented fisheries, to be in line with sustainability of the fishery.

* Reject eco labeling schemes while recognizing area specific labeling that identifies socially and ecologically sustainable fishery.

WSSD;

*Initiate negotiations of a legally binding High Seas Convention under the auspices of the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention [UNCLOS] to govern fishing vessels conduct on the High Seas.

*Negotiate a legal binding global convention to illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.

*Eradicate poverty and ensure food security for coastal communities through equitable and sustainable community based natural resource use and management.

*Ensure that partnership agreements are based on contracts that secure social and economic rights and adhere to strict minimum international environmental and social law standards, policies, goals and targets.

*Compel bilateral and multilateral lenders to re-evaluate current fisheries policies and implement principles of corporate responsibility and sustainable development in their lending agreements.

* Prevent the illegal import and export of protected marine and coastal resources.

* Agree to combat global climate change through ratification of the Kiloton Protocol and the implementation of aggressive programs to develop renewable sources of energy and phase out the use of fossil fuels.

* Call on all governments to strengthen  networks to actively campaign against the policies and program of globalization implemented by multi-lateral agencies like the IMF, World Bank, ADB, and the WTO, that are against the interest of fisher folk and other marginalized groups  and their cultural content.

* Artisanal fishing communities and their organizations, in their respective State, work for the ratification and immediate implementation of the 1995 United Agreements on High Seas Fishing, as well as for the implementation of chapter 17 of the Agenda 21 of the United Nations signed in 1992, related to the conservation of seas and the rights of coastal communities and artisanal fishing . They reject any Agreement and or Treaty on industrial fishery concerning the cession of fishing rights to third States and flying of Flags of Convenience in the Exclusive Economic Zone.

* Oppose the Flag of Convenience {FOC] systems in shipping [inclosing fishing] which poses a specific threat to the sustainability of the world's oceans. There is a direct link between FOC's and pollution, illegal fishing as well as the ill-treatment and exploitation of crews. 

* Prevent marine pollution from ships and land activities, through the total implementation of international marine regulations and conventions. Ensure that all coastal countries ratify and enforce the IMO Oil Contingency Plan.

* Develop mandatory legislative mechanisms to promote the safety of fishermen and women.

* Evolve, on a priority basis, necessary mechanisms for the release and repatriation of small-scale fisher people arrested for Tran’s border movement into waters of neighboring states, taking into account the fact that such movement is often the result of poor fisheries management and depletion of local coastal resources.

 Havana;

Artisanal fishing communities denounce and reject the subsidy mechanisms entailing fishing overcapacity affecting the interests of artisanal fish workers and disturbing local, regional and international markets. The y demand immediate change in subsidies policies so as to dedicate public funds to improving fishers life conditions. They reject the actions of the WTO, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other organizations, non-regulated international corporations and structural adjustments of national economies that only serve the interests of big international corporations and free movement of capital, while impending peoples sovereignty and people’s right to food.      

 AQUACULTURE

Bangkok;

Reject industrial aquaculture and genetically modified and exotic species in aquaculture.

WSSD;

Refrain from using aquaculture as a cure-all for the problem of dwindling fish stocks, and to adopt the precautionary approach and polluter pays principle in the planning and implementation of all industrial aquaculture practices so as to avoid the negative impacts of such harmful industrial practices in coastal areas. Harmful industrial practices include, among others, the use of antibiotics, hormones and genetic modification.

Havana

Sustainable aquaculture and fish harvesting are possible as part of the contribution to food security and sovereignty. Fishing communities develop an alternative model to intensive industrial aquaculture that is integrated in the traditional productive systems. They reject the introduction and production of genetically modified organisms [GMO's} 

       ALLIANCES

Bangkok;

Nil

WSSD;

Nil

Havana

*Artisanal fish harvesters, small farmers, indigenous communities and native peoples are food producers and have their own culture. Faced with the loss of their rights, the development of neoliberal globalization, food security, and deterioration of the environment, fishery organizations will strive to establish strategies and actions at local, national, and international levels for the full respect and entrenchment of their rights. 

*Fishery organizations will develop alliances with other sectors of civil society, such as the rural sector, indigenous communities and native peoples, consumers, environmentalists, scientists and unions, to guarantee food sovereignty, thanks to the sustainable use of the wealth from the sea and earth collective heritage.                                                                                                                                                                                                        

 GENDER

Bangkok;

*Adopt specific measures to address, strengthen and protect women’s rights to participate fully in all aspects of small-scale fisheries, eliminating all forms of discrimination against women and securing their safety against sexual abuse.

* Implement legal obligations arising from the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights [UNDHR] and subsequently adopt human rights legislation, including the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women [CEDAW], the Convention on the Rights of the Child and UN Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples {UNDRIPS].

* Protect access of fishing communities to fish resources for processing, trading and food, particularly through protecting the diversified and decentralized nature of small-scale and indigenous fisheries.

* Improve access of women to fish markets, particularly through provision of credit, appropriate technology and infrastructure at landing sites and markets. 

WSSD

Adopt appropriate legal and policy measures to protect access and use rights of women fish workers to coastal and marine resources.

Havana

The organizations of artisanal fish harvesters recognize and favor gender parity in all activities of artisanal fishery, as well as the vital part they play in processing and commercializing products, and in preserving the fishing communities.                                                                   

 OTHER

Bangkok

*Establish small-scale fisheries as the preferred model for Exclusive Economic Zone.

* Enact and enforce legislation to create autonomous disaster prevention and management authorities based  on the need to rebuild and revitalize small-scale and indigenous fisheries.

* Establish mechanisms to support fishing communities affected by civil war and other forms of human rights violations to rebuild their lives and livelihood.

WSSD

* Guarantee the Marine and Coastal Public Domain

Is this conference going to improve our lives?

"When the commissions, conferences, colloquies seminars and workshops have done their work, why is it that the flow of dispossessed humanity continues to make its melancholy way to city slums all over the world? In places where dengue and malaria breed, where death is the midwife for thousands of women, where work consumes bodies like a disease, where education means hard lessons of survival on unforgiving streets, and healthcare is a trade-off between nourishment and patented anti-biotic - in all these places the poor are increasingly required to participate. This ensures that, like some vast heritage monument the poor are going to be preserved.

                                                                                                                      Jeremy Seabrook October2005.