Editors: Vesna Kerezi & Ratana Chuenpagdee
Small-scale fisheries provide livelihoods and food security to millions of women and men around the word. They make important contribution to the local and national economy, as well as represent diverse value, cultural identity and heritage of many coastal communities. As commitments are being made to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), small-scale fisheries have even more prominent role to play, given their connection to land and sea and their intersection with all goals. Unfortunately, in the framing of the oceans as the new economic and development frontier, many development initiatives, promoted through Blue Growth and Blue Economy agenda, tend to ignore small-scale fisheries, excluding them from the discussion and putting them in disadvantaged situations.
It does not have to be this way. Some of these development agendas promote social and economic development objectives that align well with small-scale fisheries characteristics and values. More needs to be done to encourage good alignments as well as to adjust and re-balance sustainable development initiatives to fully benefit from the current and potential contributions of small-scale fisheries in achieving all SDGs. Pushing towards a more equitable and just space for small-scale fisheries requires, first and foremost, an understanding of the current situations, looking at the kind of injustices and inequity that may be happening and affecting women and men involved in small-scale fisheries, their families and their communities.
With this in mind, TBTI has gathered stories and examples of policies, programs, projects, initiatives, regulatory frameworks, as well as other situations that create different types of injustice and inequity in small-scale fisheries. The first release of the ‘Blue Justice for Small-Scale Fisheries – A Global Scan’ e-book that contains 18 stories from 14 countries has been publish in the summer of 2020. These stories are also captured in the ISSF ‘Blue Justice Alert’ dataset that allows anyone (including you!) to alert the world about injustice and other threats for small-scale fisheries in communities, regions, countries, etc.
Blue Justice for Small-Scale Fisheries: What, why and how
Introductory chapter to the e-book
This e-book is part of the first steps in unpacking what happens at sea, on land, and in inland areas that disadvantage and marginalize small-scale fisheries and make them vulnerable. The stories about social injustice and
inequity in small-scale fisheries from around the world offer insights and lessons that can be shared, as well as invite us to think and act individually and collectively about what we can do to bring Blue Justice for small-scale fisheries.
Blue Justice for Small-Scale Fisheries - A Global Scan
Volumes I, II & III
Volume IV
Changes, conflicts and vulnerabilities of artisanal fishing on the Brazilian Amazon Coast
Access, Equity, and Sustainability: Dimensions of Blue Justice in the Small-Scale Fisheries of Dzilam de Bravo, Mexico
Fishing carried out by the industrial fishing fleet, aimed at export, negatively affects fish stocks. In this context, a social movement emerged, organized by residents of communities that were being harmed by this type of fishing. They demanded the creation of an environmental protection area, aiming to guarantee their rights to the territories..."
The importance of fishing in Dzilam de Bravo extends beyond economic activity, permeating cultural identity, social cohesion, political decision-making, and sustainable governance of marine resources. The connection between these issues is essential for the community's integral and sustainable development over time.
Blue Justice and Gender Equity in Tanzania’s Small-Scale Octopus Fishery
Blue Injustices in SSF in Ago- Egun Fishing Community of Lagos State, Nigeria
Historically, women have relied on nearshore waters for subsistence and small-scale fishing, but many of these areas have been closed off for conservation purposes, and traditional fishing methods have been banned. This has severely limited women's access to their usual fishing grounds, leaving them with few alternatives.
The fishers in the Ago Egun community face distributive justice, which has restricted their area of fishing due to the activities of miners, loggers, and transportation within their operating space. The combined activities of miners, dredgers, loggers, and barge transporters have led to undue competition between these sectors and small-scale fisheries.
Blue Justice challenges for small-scale fisheries in Sipacate, Guatemala
Impact of COVID-19 on Special Management Areas in Tonga
Few fishers own boats and most fishers are hired by boat owners. Since they must sell the product they catch at sea to the boat owners, they become dependent on the boat owners. As there is no dock and fishers must enter the sea through the bar, it is an extremely dangerous occupation, and fishers are not covered by social insurance.
Special management areas (SMAs) are a community-based fishery program in Tonga, where the designated community is granted legal rights to manage the coastal fishery resources supported by the Ministry of Fisheries.
Sainte Luce spiny lobster fishery: Barriers to equitable and sustainable fishery management, southeast Madagascar
Small-scale fisheries in Teesside UK, port dredging contamination and the contested participatory fisher science of the mass shellfish die off
Bottom-up governance approaches have proliferated in Madagascar in the past decade, most clearly demonstrated by the development of MIHARI, Madagascar’s LMMA network… However, it is increasingly evident that there are limits to what can be achieved through bottom-up approaches alone.
The development of the Teesside Freeport in Middlesborough has repeatedly led to dumping of contaminated material which has spread out impacting several small-scale fisheries communities and broader biodiversity, beginning in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Small-scale fishing in the face of big oil and massive storms: One Peruvian coastal community's call for Blue Justice
Injustice after redistribution: Māori fisheries in Aotearoa/New Zealand
Without immediate scientific testing and transparent reporting, the spill's economic and ecological consequences will continue to unfold, further straining small-scale fishers.
Today, thanks to Māori leaders’ investment decisions, Māori collectively own major portions of the nation’s fishing quota. Yet few Māori whānau (families) are fishing, despite widespread interest in doing so.
Volume III - Recent chapters
India: Struggles for justice and sustainability in small-scale wetland fisheries
Nigeria: Blue Justice in small-scale fisheries in Badagry Creek fisheries
Small-scale fishers face profound injustice, caught between environmental decline and governance exclusion. Once primary stakeholders of the wetlands, they now endure the collapse of their livelihoods, forcing them to change occupations and migrate for work...
Conflicts over fishing rights, fish theft, incursion to fishing area, setting and utilizing unauthorized nets are dealt with by using social institution of family, council of elders (patricentricity), government institutions (judiciary and enforcement agent police) and spirituality-Zangbeto.
Japan: What being an ama means: The issues, challenges and efforts
Stakeholder collaboration for dealing with justice in traditional swordfish fishery in Gökçeada, Türkiye
The environment in which Ama divers operate faces severe challenges, such as a decline in fishing resources, an aging population, and a lack of successors, all of which contribute to a decrease in the number of Ama divers.
The challenge confronting fishing activities in Gökceada... include excessive utilization of fishing areas by non-local fishers, external overfishing, illegal fishing, inadequate monitoring, deficient control and surveillance mechanisms, and the absence of effective fisheries management.
Translated chapters
Share your story
The ‘Blue Economy’ and ‘Blue Growth’ initiatives, which frame the oceans as the new economic and development frontier, have entered the international agenda over the past decade. Although some of these development agendas imply an alignment with social objectives and speak to small-scale fisheries concerns, many are oriented towards further technological innovation, industrialization of the oceans, and commodification of the marine resources. These initiatives pose a potential risk to the livelihoods and wellbeing of small-scale fisheries, as they could affect access to coastal and ocean spaces, fisheries resources, and markets. Therefore, it is essential to push towards a more equitable and just oceans for small-scale fishing, and one way to do this is to enhance knowledge about the current situations, looking at social injustice and inequity issues affecting women and men involved in small-scale fisheries.
With this background, TBTI is calling for contributions from everyone to submit stories and examples of policies, programs, projects, initiatives, regulatory frameworks, as well as other situations that create different types of injustice and inequity in small-scale fisheries, putting them in a disadvantaged and marginalized position.
If you would like to make contribution, please complete the ‘Blue justice for small-scale fisheries’ template below as much as you can, and send along two pictures of the small-scale fisheries that you’re writing about. Make sure to include your name, affiliation, and email address to gather your contact information. For additional guidance on the required information, check some of the already published chapters in the e-book. Please return the complete form to us by email at [email protected]. If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to get in contact.