Franz, Nicole

We have estimated that SSF provide at least 40% (37.3 million tonnes) of global fisheries catches and 2.3 billion people with, on average, 20% of their dietary intake across 6 key micronutrients essential for human health. Globally, the livelihood of one in every twelve people, nearly half of them women, depends at least partially on small-scale fishing, altogether generating 44% (USD 77.2 billion) of total fisheries landed economic value. Maintaining and increasing these multi-dimensional SSF contributions to sustainable development requires targeted and effective actions, especially increasing engagement of fisherfolk in shared management and governance. Without management and governance focused on SSF’s multi-dimensional contributions, the marginalization of millions of fishers and fishworkers will worsen. In this presentation we report on the above findings and analyze emerging patterns of self-governance strategies small-scale fishers from around the world have developed in an attempt to capture the multi-dimensional benefits produced by their fishing activities. We review cases form around the world to inform what might be the blind spots and promising pathways for small-scale producers to best confront looming governance and sustainability challenges in the context of food security, poverty alleviation, inequality, and climate change.

This open-access e-book https://doi.org/10.4060/cd4289en provides a human-centred perspective, building on the expanding horizon from biological management to inter- and transdisciplinary governance. Of particular interest to commons scholars and practitioners, the volume engages with the enclosure of the aquatic commons through the privatization of resource rights. The rapid growth of the “Blue Economy” marginalizes small-scale fisheries and threatens the ability of oceans to meet SDG1 (No Poverty) and SDG2 (Zero Hunger) goals. Ostrom’s design principles for collective action indicate that fishers need to be able to exclude other uses/users; without this ability, collective action and community-based conservation cannot work.

We provide the first global assessment of the status of preferential access areas (PAAs), a relatively understudied policy tool to govern small-scale fisheries. We find 44 countries, most of them of low or low-middle income, have established a total of 63 PAAs encompassing 3% of continental shelf area worldwide. The analysis of an ad-hoc subsample of twelve countries in three continents for which data were available (2016-2017) revealed that PAAs supported greater amounts of small-scale fisheries marine catch volume, landed value, fishing for self-consumption, and more nutritious species than marine areas outside PAAs. This preliminary assessment suggests that if appropriately enforced through shared governance with fishers and responsible fishing practices, relatively small areas of the ocean could provide important nutrition security, economic, and employment benefits to millions of people living in coastal areas. We offer an agenda for future research and policy action based on our findings.