These Technical Guidelines deal with the complex and substantial challenge of enhancing the contribution that small-scale fisheries could make to alleviating poverty and improving food security. Drawing upon the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, they provide guidance on policies and measures which, if widely implemented, could be expected to result in many millions of fishers, fishworkers and their communities being able to improve their standard of living, escape from poverty and lead more secure and fulfilled lives. In addition, many other poor people in rural areas would indirectly benefit from the wealth created and food produced by small-scale fisheries. To achieve this, it is imperative that fisheries and other natural resources are not squandered, and that the benefits that flow from their use are equitably distributed. The biggest single contribution to achieving this goal probably lies in the empowerment of small-scale fishers and fishworkers within a context of transparent and open engagement through legally enforceable rights to aquatic resources, and with improved access to capital, markets and know-how.
APPENDIX: Tables
| Poverty alleviation | Fishery as a source of vulnerability | ||||
| Poverty reduction: Fishery contributes to lift people out of poverty | Poverty and vulnerability prevention: Fishery contributes to maintain a minimum standard of living | ||||
| Level | Contribution | Mechanisms | Contribution | Mechanisms | Causes |
| Individual/ Intra-household | Livelihood support to other household members, particularly dependents | Fishing income spent on children's'education, and building other household assets (e.g. farm inputs, investment in small enterprises for other household members to run) | Household subsistence | Fishing income contributes to household budget - expenditure on food, clothing and healthcare | Strongly gendered roles and frequent absence of (migrant) male fishers may limit intra-household income distribution |
| Absence from home and fishing lifestyle may increase vulnerability of partners to HIV infection | |||||
| Household level/ sector | Generation of wealth | Effective capture of fishery rent (capital accumulation) High level of commercialization Access to effective market mechanisms Fish as cash crop for investment and diversification | Safety-net function (transient poverty) Activity of last resort for the poorest (chronic poverty) | Reduce vulnerability and mitigates poverty effects Food security through direct contribution (subsistence) but also fish as immediate cash-crop for safety-net | High occupational risk Risks of losing physical assets |
| Local level | Engine for rural development | Increased demand for goods and services Rise in wages and employment opportunities (income and employment multipliers) | Social-redistributive system (welfare) | Alternative sources of income, food and/or employment. | Unpredictability of the natural resource availability Natural disaster risk Conflicts |
| National level | Economic growth | Trickle up to government through taxes and foreign exchange earnings (regional or international trade) | Re-distributive | Government expenditure from fisheries-related tax and foreign exchange earnings on poverty alleviation measures | High susceptibility to macro-economic fluctuations |
Table 2: Dimension of food (in)security
| Food security | Contribution to food security | |
| Level | Direct contribution | Indirect contribution |
| Individual/ household level (micro) | Through subsistence. Assume the ability of the household to utilize the commodity through adequate non-food input, i.e. clean water, sanitation and health care | Through self-employment or wage |
| Domestic level (meso, macro) | Direct contribution to national food security through effective commercialization or redistribution of national surplus | Indirect contribution to national food security through foreign exchange earnings (food import) |
| Global (World) | Limited nature of capture fisheries. Highlights the role that aquaculture and improved fisheries management and utilization will have to play in the future to ensure world fish food security | |
| Food insecurity | Temporal dimension | |
| Level | Transitory insecurity | Chronic insecurity |
| Individual/household level (micro) | Temporary break-down in the household's income (e.g. loss of employment, illness) | Insufficient assets (e.g. education, labour, access to credit), lack of access to market opportunities |
| Domestic level (meso, macro) | Temporary crisis (e.g. food price fluctuations); local or national crop failure, natural disaster, armed temporary or long term conflicts | Structural meso or macro-economic failures (e.g. markets or balance of payment), inappropriate policies, armed conflict |
| Key policy objectives | Policy “sub-objectives” | Main emphasis on poverty reduction (PR), poverty prevention (PP) and/or food security (FS) | ||
| 1. Environmental/ sustainability objectives | • | Rational exploitation of resources | Indirect emphasis/impact on PR and FS (and on PP to a lesser extent) through maintenance of resources for long-term exploitation | |
| • | Provision/restriction of access rights | |||
| • | Appropriate/good data collection | |||
| • | Management of ecosystems | |||
| • | Compliance with international conventions | |||
| • | Effective MCS | |||
| 2. Economic objectives | • | Increasing value-added | • | PR |
| • | Promoting export earnings | • | PR | |
| • | Improved marketing arrangements | • | PR, FS | |
| • | Technological provision and modernization of fishing methods (maximizing sectoral efficiency) | • | PR | |
| • | Adequate access to capital | • | PR, PP | |
| • | Maximizing resource rent being collected by government | • | PP | |
| • | Economic diversification | • | PR, PP (through national redistribution) | |
| • | Increasing incomes for rural fishing populations | • | PP, PR | |
| • | Exploitation of under-utilized resources | • | PR | |
| • | Minimizing cost of management | • | PR, PP | |
| 3. Social objectives | • | Maximizing employment | • | PP |
| • | Ensuring food security | • | FS | |
| • | Participation in the fishery by local people | • | PP, FS | |
| • | Support for fishing organizations | • | PP, PR | |
| • | Capacity development and education | • | PP, PR | |
| 4. Equity objectives | • | Provision of access in certain areas or at certain times for certain groups (e.g. small-scale fishers, locals vs. foreigners) | • | PP, FS |
| • | Assessment and consideration of customary rights | • | PP, FS | |
| • | Utilization/landing of bycatch | • | PR, PP, FS | |
| • | Issues relating to gender | • | PP, PR | |
Table 4: Coping mechanisms used in fishing-related communities/households to deal with vulnerability
| Type of coping mechanism | Within the fisheries sector | Outside of the fisheries sector | ||
| Ex-ante risk management | • | storage of fish | • | investment in livestock |
| • | diversification of fisheries assets | • | storage of non-fish food items | |
| • | early warning systems and advice on how to prepare vessels and gear for minimum losses, e.g. for hurricanes | • | additional cultivation | |
| • | development of patron-client relationships to minimize transaction costs in the absence of insurance | • | use of different cropping patterns | |
| • | credit and improved market information | • | diversification of assets | |
| • | remittances by family members working away from the household expenditure of surpluses on assets that appear to be non-productive, e.g. housing, education, health as such assets may be beneficial from a preventative point of view in reducing vulnerability | |||
| Ex-post coping mechanism | • | debt/credit/loans | • | debt/credit/loans |
| • | expansion of fishing effort in terms of hours and/or areas fished | • | additional cultivation | |
| • | mortgaging and selling of fisheries related assets | • | employment off-water | |
| • | exploiting other common property resources, e.g. wild foods | |||
| • | mortgaging and selling of non-fisheries assets | |||
| • | illegal fishing activity and non-compliance with gear, area and effort regulations | • | migration and resettlement to non-fishing areas | |
| • | migration and resettlement to other fishing areas | • | reduced consumption of non-fish items | |
| • | reduced consumption of fish | • | deferring medical treatment | |
| • | sale of products into different markets 72 | • | mutual support through community and kinship ties | |
| • | participation of other household members (typically women and children) in the labour force | • | participation of other household members in the labour force | |
| • | extended family support | |||
