A number of TBTI Global members, including TBTI Director Dr. Ratana Chuenpagdee and the coordinators of several TBTI hubs, attended the 2025 MARE Conference in Amsterdam from 24 to 27th of June. The conference, titled “Tensions, Trade-offs, and Transformations for the Ocean Decade and Beyond,” brought together scientists and stakeholders from all over the world to present and discuss cross-disciplinary topics in maritime research.
Dr. Chuenpagdee was among the five keynote speakers of the 2025 MARE conference where she gave a talk on ‘Governing for just harmony: A fisheries co-existence model’ Her presentation highlighted small-scale fisheries as key actors in addressing the challenges for achieving sustainable development of coastal areas and the oceans. Like multinational corporations and governments, small-scale fishers play a crucial role as producers, sellers and processors along the fisheries value chain. Moreover, they are the sole custodians of a fishing culture and the holders of unique local knowledge that has been handed down through generations.
Dr. Chuenpagdee provided a synopsis of the extensive partnership that TBTI Global has grown into over the years and showcased the research carried out by TBTI Global since the network’s official establishment in 2012. The transdisciplinary approach that has guided this work based on mutual respect between the members of the network was also highlighted. As key actors in the fisheries value chain, small-scale fishers should be approached by scientists with a desire to collectively learn from each other, co-produce new knowledge and devise solutions for shared problems.
In her presentation, Dr. Chuenpagdee argued for the co-existence between small-scale fisheries and other key ocean actors such as industrial fisheries. Rather than overselling Cost–Benefit Analysis (CBA) as the best tool to guide decision-making for coexistence in an ever more crowded ocean space, Dr. Chuenpagdee talked about updating to a second version of the model that includes another CBA, i.e. Claim-Blame Analysis. This updated model acknowledges the crucial contribution of small-scale fisheries to sustainable development and is grounded on respect to the fundamental human rights of small-scale fishers.
Abstract of Dr. Ratana Chuenpagdee’s keynote talk
Fisheries are full of limitations. Resources are limited even if they are renewable. Space is limited even though ocean is vast. People who fish have become limited in places where replacement and recruitment to fisheries is not happening. There is also a limit in our ability to govern, despite the great progress that has been made in the past decades in advancing both the theories and the applications in fisheries governance. Nevertheless, our imagination for the future of fisheries and the ocean has been limitless. Blue Growth, Blue Economy and Blue Transformation all speak to the hopeful ways forward.
Concerns have been raised about what these visions imply, especially for small-scale fisheries – the sector that has been most marginalized and disadvantaged in the discussion about development initiatives that tend to favour industrial fisheries and other ocean-based sectors. Arguments have been made, well supported by numerous studies, about the important contributions of small-scale fisheries, especially to food security and poverty eradication. The Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines) have been adopted by FAO member states since 2014, providing key governing principles and recommended actions for state and non-state actors to support the sector. Still, small-scale fisheries continue to be ignored and dismissed in the policy and decision-making process. Given that the “pro-small-scale fisheries” agenda may not be as effective in influencing the global agenda, it might be necessary to envision policies that enable small-scale and large-scale fisheries to exist, in a just and equitable manner. Such policies would, first and foremost, respect the fundamental rights of small-scale fisheries but also recognize their interconnectivity with the large-scale counterpart. The two sectors have long co-existed, and will continue to do so, but it should be under a governing structure that pays attention the cross-scale dynamics and that fosters justice and equity in harmonization.
TBTI Global sessions at 2025 MARE Conference
Below are the highlights from two TBTI Global sessions: one that marked two decades of ‘Interactive Governance’ theory and another one that focused on small-scale fisheries in Latin America, organized by coordinators of TBTI hubs in that region.
Session 834: Interactive Governance + 20: The Journey and Prospects
The session was organized and chaired by Dr. Chuenpagdee and included presentations by Svein Jentoft, Maarten Bavinck, José J. Pascual-Fernández, María José Barragán Paladines, Derek Johnson, Yinji Li, Ruyel Miah and Milena Arias Schreiber. The aim was to commemorate the 20 years since the publication of the book Fish for Life: Interactive Governance for Fisheries (read here) co-edited by Jan Kooiman, Maarten Bavinck, Svein Jentoft and Roger Pullin, which laid down the groundwork for the development of Interactive Governance (IG) Theory. The session was an opportunity for IG scholars, experienced and novices, to discuss the IG theory, share lessons, and exchange ideas about how to strengthen IG from theoretical and methodological perspectives.
Not all research networks result in a book establishing a foundation on governance theory. This was, however, the case of the FISHGOVFOOD network, a collaboration of thirty fisheries scientists from diverse disciplinary backgrounds who met at regular intervals over three years to develop a fisheries governance theory. Svein Jentoft and Marteen Bavinck presented a historical account that gave rise to the book and summarized the fundamentals of the theory. The IG +20 session recognized the wide range of uses of IG theory from both its analytical and normative applications, extending beyond the domains of fisheries and ocean research. Key examples of the applications were presented, ranging from the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (J.J. Pascual-Fernández), analysis of small-scale fisheries in the Galapagos islands (M.J. Barragán Paladines), research on wellbeing and the value of small-scale fisheries (D. Johnson), new interactions in the Umigo case study in Japan (Y. Li), and the understanding of social (Blue) justice and power relations for small-scale fisheries through the IG theory analytical lens (M. Arias Schreiber).
From left to right: Milena Arias Schreiber, Yinji Li, María José Barragán Paladines, Derek Johnson, Maarten Bavinck, José J. Pascual-Fernández, Svein Jentoft, Ratana Chuenpagdee and Md. Ruyel Miah
Representing the early careers, Ruyel Miah also presented on how IG theory informed his doctoral research, especially in the development of a methodological framework to examine vulnerability-to-viability (V2V) transitions in the small-scale fisheries. Below is what he said about the session.
“Celebrating this 20+ years milestone of the theory reminded me that robust theories evolve through continuous dialogue between scholars and practitioners. IG theory’s legacy lies not just in its analytical power but in its ability to inspire actionable, equitable solutions; something I strive to uphold in my own work.”
Session 97: High and low tide for small-scale fishing communities in the 21st Century – cases from the Latin America and the Caribbean Region (LAC)
The session was chaired by TBTI Ecuador Coordinator María José Barragán Paladines with presentations by Silvia Salas (TBTI Mexico), Lina M. Saavedra-Díaz (TBTI Colombia), Milena Arias Schreiber (TBTI Peru) and M.J. Barragán Paladines.
TBTI Mexico presentation focused on climate change and the adaptive responses to the new challenges of human and natural stressors in the Mexican Caribbean and Belize. Using a transdisciplinary methodology, the stakeholders’ mitigation actions to climate change were investigated and lessons learned were identified. In Colombia, the governance of small-scale fisheries falls into two opposite directions. On one side, participatory approaches for decision making are fostered and implemented by the Colombian authorities. At the other extreme, a top-down governance model is applied to combat IUU fishing in small-scale fisheries, in which they were considered on equal footing with large-scale fisheries. In the case of TBTI Ecuador, barriers to participation and conflict resolution in the context of small-scale fisheries were described. While progress is slow for some initiatives to improve the situation for small-scale fisheries, often due to lack of financial resources, there are cases where these initiatives show clear signs of improvement and success. Finally, TBTI Peru is working on making visible the vulnerability and marginalization of small-scale fisheries though the documentation and communication of the occurrence of oil spills and their disastrous consequences to small-scale fishing communities.
