Friday, May 22nd, 2026, marked the second workshop of the TBTI Ecuador hub. The workshop, held at the Manta campus of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador Sede Manabí (PUCE Manta) was organized around two main sessions:
1) A Small-Scale Fisheries Symposium dedicated to presenting and discussing the chapters of the upcoming TBTI Ecuador e-book ‘Artisanal Fishing in mainland Ecuador and the Galapagos’.
2) An interactive session in which attendees identified emerging issues and neglected areas relevant to small-scale fisheries that TBTI Ecuador could address in the coming years.
A total of 35 attendees from academic and public institutions attended the workshop, representing the five coastal provinces of Ecuador as well as the Galápagos Islands. Among the attendees were two delegates from the National Federation of Artisanal Fishers Cooperatives of Ecuador, FENACOPEC (Spanish Acronym), an umbrella community organization that brings together artisanal and small-scale fisheries cooperatives across the country. There was also about a dozen students from the School of Biology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (Manabí Campus) who attended the symposium and contributed actively to the discussions. In addition, the Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture of Ecuador and the National Director of small-scale fisheries attended the welcoming dinner during which he expressed strong interest in the topics addressed at the symposium.
Overall, the workshop was an excellent opportunity for intense learning, reconnecting, and collective building. The goal was to share and discuss the chapters of TBTI Ecuador’s upcoming book as well as to define the network’s future horizon in Ecuador to increase the visibility and elevate small-scale fisheries’ issues to public officials. By the end of the event, participants collectively identified a set of priority topics and preliminary activities that will guide the network’s work in the coming years. This collaborative work reflects the research, voices, and the deep commitment of the members and collaborators of the TBTI Ecuador to small-scale fisheries in the country.
TBTI Ecuador extends their heartfelt gratitude to all the authors, speakers, facilitators, and members of the TBTI Ecuador hub who made this space for dialogue possible. They are also grateful to the Marine Biology department at PUCE Manta for their wonderful hospitality.