المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

How can progress in implementing the SSF Guidelines be measured and reported in a useful way?

This post is aiming to make a contribution towards the Information and communication aspect of the article, more directly, “how can progress in implementation the SSF Guidelines be measured  and reported in a useful way?”  

Assuming that fishermen have been sensitized and understand the importance of staying in accordance with the proposed guidelines the following are thoughts in which the implementation of these guidelines can be measured. Setting up agencies in different parts of the world, which would be tasked with measuring the implementation of the guidelines by fishermen is one way of collecting data worldwide. Different parts of the world would need to pay more attention to different aspects of the guidelines. The general principle of the guidelines however remains intact. 

One way in which the measurement of the implementation can be done is having the captains of the vessels or boats make a report as to how they have abided by the guidelines provided and hand in that report to officials as they return from sea, or at least before they leave the dock. 

This process may be biased, because the captains would not want to let out any information that would tarnish their reputation and hamper their fish market. 

Another approach is to have agents at the docks and market site who would make records as to what species of fish was caught and what quantity, this would put the agents in a better position to understand where the fishers were fishing, if the stayed within their permits and the quantity would tell more about what considerations were taken when allowing for the ecosystem of the species to survive and strive. This is however, making the assumption that the agencies set up have full knowledge of the ecosystems, their whereabouts, and all other necessary information that would put them in a position to evaluate the data collected by the agents. 

Holding quarterly meetings with fishermen, ecologists and market representatives to obtain their inputs on how the implementations of the guidelines have affected them or their surroundings and to what degree they believe the guidelines are being implemented, and what are their recommendations on bettering the processes. 

These are some of the measures that can be put in place to assist in the collection of data to measure the degree of which the guidelines are being implemented and to some extent their effectiveness.