‘Artisanal fishers must be recognised as rights holders, placing their lived experience and intergenerational wisdom at the centre of food security and fisheries policies and decisions’ – CSIPM Fisheries Working Group
For thousands of coastal and river adjacent communities around the world, artisanal fishing is not just an economic activity, it is culture, identity and a vital source of nutritious food. Small-scale artisanal fishers supply local and regional markets, sustain economies and contribute directly to food security.
According to the FAO report The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, around 600 million people depend on small-scale fisheries for their livelihoods. They produce a significant portion of the aquatic food consumed by local populations and has a key role in nutrition.
Despite their contribution, artisanal fishers continue to face structural invisibility, inequality, political exclusion and increasing pressures on their livelihoods, territories and resources, as shown by the report of the CSIPM** Fisheries Working Group presented to the consultation on ‘Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture for Food Security and Nutrition’ by the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). Contributions to the consultation will inform the update of the report published by the Group of Experts in 2014.
The CSIPM analyses how across the world artisanal fishers face multiple challenges, from criminalisation for defending their territories to resource grabbing, the expansion of industrial aquaculture and policies promoted under the concept of the “blue economy”. These dynamics prioritise export-oriented or private investment-driven production models, while marginalising fishing communities.
Women, youth and Indigenous Peoples face the greatest and most multiple forms of exclusion within aquatic food systems. In Tunisia, for example, women represent between 30% and 40% of the artisanal fishing workforce, yet less than 5% are officially recognised as workers in the sector. Most are involved in activities such as harvesting, drying or selling fish in local markets, often without legal recognition or access to social protection.
The document also highlights how conservation initiatives, which sometimes are implemented without participatory and consultative processes, can end up restricting access to ancestral fishing areas. For example, in Panama the Ngäbe and Buglé Indigenous Peoples have seen their access to their ancestral fishing areas progressively restricted under the pretext of a marine conservation project. Of five ancestral fishing areas, only one remains accessible today.
The CSIPM also warns about the impacts of aquaculture on local food systems, particularly through the occupation of productive agricultural land. In the coastal region of Tamil Nadu, India, agricultural land has been converted into shrimp ponds for export. The expansion of this activity has led to soil salinisation, reducing the potential for growing food and grazing.
Against this backdrop, the CSIPM proposes a series of key elements to guide the HLPE report, including:
- recognising artisanal fishers as rights holders;
- critically assessing blue economy and blue growth policies;
- analysing the effects of financialisation and privatisation of aquatic resources;
- examining the impacts of industrial aquaculture on local ecosystems and food systems;
- ensuring the effective participation of artisanal fishers in governance;
- addressing violence and criminalisation against communities defending their territories.
In addition, the document calls for the report to examine the effects of climate change on small-scale fisheries, barriers to community participation in governance, and the increasing violence and criminalisation faced by those defending their territories.
The CSIPM calls for food sovereignty and human rights to be placed at the centre of policies, and for these policies to clearly recognise small-scale fisheries as a pillar of global food security. It also recommends that HLPE clearly define States’ obligations to regulate private actors, protect tenure rights and ensure that policies prioritise local food security.
‘Small-scale fisheries are fundamental to sustainability, food security and social justice, and the future of the oceans and food systems depends on their viability.’ concludes the CSIPM Fisheries Working Group.
The HLPE consultation received a total of 95 contributions from 41 countries, available at this link. The updated report will serve as the basis for developing new global policy recommendations to be negotiated at the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in 2028.
Read the CSIPM Fisheries Working Group’s contributions to the HLPE consultation
This input was prepared within the framework of the newly established CSIPM Fisheries Working Group, through a consultation involving a number of movements and unions of fishers, alliances and umbrella organisations and non-governmental organisations active in fisheries, the right to food and food sovereignty spaces. Contributors and endorsing organisations include, among others: World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP), World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish workers (WFF), International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), Alliance for Food Sovereignty – MENA, Bread for the World (Germany), the African Confederation of Professional Organizations of Artisanal Fisheries (CAOPA), International Collective in Support of Fish workers (ICSF), FIAN International, the IPC Working Group on Fisheries. The IPC WG on fisheries is a space of alliance, solidarity and coordination, representing a major global network of small-scale fisher peoples and Indigenous Peoples from over 100 countries. It is composed of leaders from the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP), the World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish workers (WFF), La Vía Campesina (LVC) and the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC). The Working Group participates as an observer in the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) and its subsidiary bodies. It played a key role in the adoption of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines) in 2014 and in the endorsement of the Small-Scale Fisheries Global Strategic Framework (SSF-GSF) in 2016, supporting implementation of the SSF Guidelines.
Keep reading
- Reports: The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (FAO)
- Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for food security and nutrition (HLPE, 2014)
- Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture for food security and nutrition (CSA, 2014)
- Fisheries and the right to food in the context of climate change. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri
- Voluntary guidelines for achieving the sustainability of small-scale fisheries (FAO, 2015)