Artisanal fishers in Cabo Verde ©FAO

25 March, Rome - A holistic approach that addresses gender, marine conservation, governance and private investments can ensure prosperous coastal communities that live in balance with their environment, participants heard at the FAO Coastal Fisheries Initiative (CFI) fourth annual Global Partnership Consultation, which ran from 21-25 March and was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CFI is "an ambitious undertaking, which can only be achieved by working together in synergy," FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Division Deputy Director, Audun Lem, said in his opening remarks to the Consultation, which was co-hosted by FAO.

"To be successful, broad based collaboration is needed and this is a key focus of the CFI programme," he said, adding that 2022 is the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA).

"The CFI shares many of IYAFA's objectives, and this year's Consultation has clear synergies with it," said Mr Lem, speaking on behalf of FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Division Director Manuel Barange.

A priority issue of global significance

Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the CFI supports the environmentally, economically and socially sustainable use and management of coastal fisheries in Cabo Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Ecuador, Indonesia, Peru and Senegal.

Gustavo Fonseca, Programme Director at the Global Programming Unit of the GEF Secretariat, said coastal fisheries are "a priority issue of global significance": they are responsible for nearly 40 million jobs worldwide, most of them in developing nations, and provide food security for over one billion people.

No-one can tackle coastal fisheries issues on their own

Coastal fisheries are threatened by overexploitation, climate change, plastic waste and water pollution, Christian Peter, Acting Global Director of Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Global Practice at the World Bank said in his opening remarks.

The World Bank Challenge Fund, which co-hosted the Consultation with FAO, looks at private businesses and investors as an entry point to address these problems, Mr Peter said.

"It's clear that no single stakeholder can tackle these issues on their own. The Challenge Fund has launched a Global Knowledge Competition to test the idea that viable solutions can emerge when stakeholders combine ideas, experiences, knowledge and resources," he remarked, adding that these solutions can then be replicated in different contexts.

A successful multi-pronged approach in Latin America

In Ecuador and Peru, the CFI's multi-pronged approach successfully deployed sustainable fisheries management in partership with local communities in over 50 000 hectares of coastal protected areas in the two countries, which include precious mangrove ecosystems.

This management includes participatory monitoring with local communities who keep eyes on fish stocks and mangrove forests, explained José Álvarez Alonso, the General Director of Biological Diversity at Peru's Ministry of the Environment (MINAM), who marked the official opening of the Consultation on behalf of MINAM Vice-Minister of Strategic Natural Resources Development Alfredo Maman.

As well, Mr Alonso cited participatory research by scientists and shellfish harvesters into ways to repopulate overexploited species, and the strengthening of female entrepreneurship in what he described as a "generally male-dominated" sector.

Benefiting biodiversity and people at the same time: the CFI in Indonesia

In Indonesia, the CFI's efforts resulted in the government's decision to promote Sasi, a set of traditional management and conservation practices that is essentially an ancestral model of an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF).

To this end, Ridwan Mulyana, the Director of Fisheries Resources Management at Indonesia's Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF), said the priority this year is to promote the so-called Sasi label, which designates fish products made by local and indigenous communities that practice Sasi.

"Sasi is an incentive mechanism for sustainable, community-based resource management that has been proven to benefit not only biodiversity but also the welfare of the people who implement it," Mr Mulyana said.

"We will endeavor to add value to Sasi fish products so they can provide more economic benefits to those communities in exchange for maintaining healthy marine ecosystems," he explained. 

In West Africa, CFI battles to empower women, restore mangroves and more

Also speaking at the opening of the Consultation, CFI Chief Technical Advisor Fatou Sock gave an overview of the project in West Africa.

"We implemented a gender strategy at the national level in Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal, where all the indicators have been made gender-sensitive," she told participants.

This is important because gender-sensitive indicators are key to ensuring the legal rights of women in fisheries in the three countries, where they often work in informal settings under risky conditions.

"We also carried out activities to protect, restore and regenerate 350 hectares of  mangroves with two local NGOs in Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal," Ms Sock added. "In 2020-2021, we accumulated 700 hectares of restored mangroves at the CFI pilot sites in those two countries."

A plurality of voices for sustainable coastal fisheries

During the Consultation, participants delivered detailed reports from projects and pilot sites in the six CFI countries, followed by in-depth discussions between representatives from fisher unions and women's collectives, conservationists, experts, scientists, government officials, and representatives from all the CFI partner agencies.

Participants varied between 80-130 on a daily basis. "This to me is an impressive number, and a good indication of how much our communities and partners care about coastal fisheries," FAO CFI Budget Holder Nathanael Hishamunda said in his closing remarks.