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Caring for the livelihoods of small fishermen

He Changchui
IRONICALLY, one of the great injustices prevalent in many of our societies today is that those who produce our food are often impoverished. In recent years, the struggles of indebted farmers and migrant field workers have increasingly gained attention as food prices have risen and rural poverty has increased. On the other hand, the plight of our fishers, and in particular our small-scale fishers, has rarely been considered. In ignoring their problems, we have created a crisis that nowconfronts us all.
Our seas are being over-fished. Breeding and spawning areas are being violated. The damage to our coastlines from industrial pollution and ill-considered development is growing. If these trends are not reversed, the livelihoods of untold numbers of coastal communities will be destroyed, industries that provide tens of millions of jobs will wither away or collapse, and a crucial source of food for most people in Asia could eventually vanish. Estimates
are that, for ecosystems to recover and fish remain a food source for us all, the region will have to reduce fishing by 50 percent. The increasing impacts of climate change will only further stress the coastal ecosystem and deteriorate the situation.
Small-scale fishermen are contributors to this problem. They are not the dominant factor in overfishing and environmental destruction, as their percentage of the total catch from the sea is small compared to industrial fishing fleets: one large trawler can net more fish in one day than an entire community of small fishermen can in a month.
The number of small-scale fishermen, however, is vast and the coastal areas and river deltas of Asia are among the most densely populated areas in the world. Nearly 2 million registered vessels are fishing Asian waters, and there are a substantial number of unregistered vessels. Eighty percent of all fishing boats are small.
That puts small-scale fishermen and their communities on the front line of
this environmental crisis. It is they who will feel the impact most immediately and most severely if restrictions on fishing are imposed or if fish stocks start disappearing altogether. We must find ways to engage them as important allies and partners in effecting positive environmental change.
Small-scale fishermen are among the poorest of the poor. They live in forgotten communities barely touched by development, infrastructure or services. Often indebted to middlemen, they overfish in futile attempts to repay their loans and provide for their families. They bolster their catches by "fishing down the food chain" where indiscriminate
hauls contain high percentages of fish that have low value to fishermen, but are essential for maintaining biodiversity and breeding new stocks.
The tools to reverse this cycle of debt-driven destruction have been used successfully with other communities: empowerment, alternative livelihoods and economic opportunities, microfinance, and community management of resources, plus proper technological options in building capacity for climate friendly and resilience fisheries. These tools are contained in a four-year large-scale regional initiative funded by the government of Spain and facilitated by the Food and Agricultural
Organisation called the Regional Fisheries Livelihood Program. Representatives from six countries around the region gather in Bangkok, Thailand on December 9 to sign on to this initiative. While signatures and commitments are an excellent beginning, real action is needed now.
Action must begin with assisting fishermen and their communities to organise and empower themselves. Fishermen need a voice. If they can establish associations that effectively represent their interests, they can break the cycle of debt, poverty and overfishing. If they are organised, they can serve as guardians of the environment, employing community management to conserve and protect marine resources for us all. Most do not have the skills, however, to accomplish this. Governments and nongovernmental organisations must assist fishermen and their communities to build these associations.
Fishermen will not be willing to become our guardians of conservation if they are locked into dependence solely upon marine resources to survive. Alternative livelihoods, and sources of financing, are essential. Governments and NGOs can help communities develop alternative livelihoods so they have diversified sources of income and are less dependent upon the sea. As important as knowledge and training are alternative livelihoods and microfinancing. These must be put in place
before any restrictions on fishing are imposed, or those restrictions simply will not work.
Restrictions also won't work if they, and small-scale fishermen, are the sole focus of action. To protect and revitalise our marine resources and coastal communities, governments must adopt an ecosystem management approach. The environment is borderless. Regional cooperation is, therefore, the only path to take. Industries that damage or pollute coastlines and resources must adjust their practices, or government must ensure that they do. Within the fishing industry, the large industrial fishing fleets, and the middlemen and food processing companies, also must play by the rules and join the conservation effort. Otherwise, before long, they may have no industry at all.
We must all be partners in this great endeavour - and that includes partnering with our small-scale fishers and their communities. By supporting them to improve their lives, we protect our planet and our way of life. Most of us know the proverb "Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." In this critical moment for our planet's health, if we can teach fishermen to fish more wisely, along with teaching them new skills and new livelihoods, we will all have fish for our lifetime -- and for the generations that follow.
Dr. He Changchui is Assistant Director-General and Asia-Pacific Regional Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.