SD : People : Population Dimensions of World Fishery Issues

Posted July 1996

Population Dimensions of World Fishery Issues

based on research by Marcel Fabri, FAO Consultant
in cooperation with the FAO Fisheries Department

Fisheries in crisis

Fishing contributes more than any other animal production activity to the protein intake in the developing regions. Fish and fishery products are important for the food security of many coastal populations - indeed crucial for some countries such as the small island developing states. But many marine and freshwater resources are on the decline and this is a source of growing economic and social problems. Currently, global fishery production (catch and aquaculture) oscillates around 100 million tons per year, and per caput supplies are declining. During the last decade seafood prices have risen almost 4 percent a year on average, rendering a traditionally cheap source of protein less and less accessible to the poor.

Responsibility for depletion of aquatic resources has been put mostly on the excessive development of fishing capacity and on the deteriorating condition of fish stocks owing to the pollution of sensitive waters. Small-scale fisheries in developing countries played a comparatively minor role, although at times the growing pressure of local demand contributed to the overexploitation of coastal waters.

Most small-scale fishers find it increasingly difficult to survive in an overexploited environment. In this perspective, the crisis of fisheries also is a crisis of livelihoods. The very fate of fishing populations is a source of concern. Policies seeking to improve their condition, and possibly to modify their demographic dynamics, necessitate a preliminary understanding of the functional role of their fertility or migration behaviour. Particular attention is warranted by the fact that small-scale fishers usually are among the poorer population groups.

Fishing population

While a lot is known about catches, quantities and types of fish marketed, about techniques used and about growth of fishing fleets, less is known about the numbers and demographic characteristics of the people who make a living catching and landing fish. The estimates of Table 1 (referring to developing maritime countries only) are derived from returns to a questionnaire addressed annually by FAO to member countries.

Table 1. **Estimated number of fishers by developing region, selected years** (in '000s)
Year	Africa	Asia	Latin America	Oceania	Total
1975	957	10 605	458	157	12 177
1985	1 072	18 004	501	294	19 871
1993	1 713	24 033	908	367	27 021

Fishers' populations have more than doubled over the last two decades. This growth is broadly related to the increase in fishing fleets and to other factors, including the varying numbers of aquaculture workers, fishers who do not operate from boats, and occasional fishers. Assessing these various factors is one area in which further studies are needed.

Fishers are concentrated in certain countries, where their demographic, economic and social importance can be considerable. In the following countries, the fishing labour force reaches at least 100,000 persons, implying a total population concerned by fisheries of at least half a million:

Asia: China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Republic of Korea, Japan, Thailand, Sri Lanka
Africa: Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Tanzania, Morocco.
Latin America: Mexico, Colombia.

A figure of about 200 million has been quoted for the total number of people depending on fishing and fish-related industries for their livelihoods world-wide. While overall statistical coverage leaves room for improvement, there exists a significant number of socio-economic studies of fishing communities. A literature review carried out by UNFPA/FAO interregional project "Strengthening of Research and Training in Population and Development Dynamics of Rural Fishing Communities" outlines the major characteristics of those communities:

Technical - Capture technology: in most cases beach-landing craft with non-mechanized propulsion systems; manual operation of fishing gear and the absence of electronic fish-finding and navigational devices.
Social - Participation of kin-group members and owners of craft and gear in work-groups; special patterns for remuneration of labour and capital inputs, e.g. prevalence of sharing systems; professional training within kin-group; integration of workplace and settlements; inadequacy of infrastructure and credit, marketing, processing, storage and preservation services; often poor nutritional, health and hygienic standards.
Economic - Low and irregular incomes, labour-intensive methods of production, exploitation of non-renewable and open-access resources in competition with industrial fisheries.
Socio-economic and demographic - The literature is not conclusive as variability is considerable.

Population dynamics and policies in fishing communities

Fishing communities often are poor, physically isolated and with little access to public infrastructures and services or coverage by social policies, including population policies. Their socio-economic setting usually is conducive to high fertility - families with an abundant labour force are at advantage in the exploitation of open access fishery resources and a large offspring facilitates the diversification of sources of income (important because of the hazardous nature and low productivity of fishing). But rapid population growth contributes to the over-exploitation of natural resources and degradation of the local environment.

Population policies and programmes need to be adapted to the socio-economic context of target populations, take into account the role of demographic patterns in long-term family strategies, and involve the active participation of social bodies including grassroots associations. This in turn requires to understand the local social context. Likewise, policies that aim to balance population trends with the aquatic resources and environment need to properly take into account the special natural, economic, social and sometimes ethnic context of fishing communities.

The overall aim is to integrate population, health and welfare programmes with fisheries development and management actions, in order to enhance the effectiveness of policies, improve standards of living and ensure a sustainable exploitation of the fisheries sector. At the policy making level, one should endeavour to adapt the contents of population policies and programmes when dealing with fishing communities in order to suit their special characteristics and needs.

The first step should be to gather basic information on the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of fishing communities: good enumerations by age and gender, with information on labour force participation patterns and income sources. Adequate attention must be given to the female members of the household, lest the picture of income-earning activities be quite incomplete and misleading. Securing such information is feasible, starting from unexploited household data in population censuses or household budget surveys and completing them with investigations of the structure of the fisheries sector. It is also important to gain understanding of attitudes towards family size, health and education, labour use and migration.

Fishery policy planning: population dimensions

At the global level, large, medium and small scale fisheries all contribute significantly to the total production of the sector. The main policy issue in the "responsible fisheries" framework is to decide which components should downsize their operations. The implications of such a choice differ markedly in economic and human terms between the industrial sub-sector (where the main issue would be the reconversion of vessels and equipment) and the small-scale sub-sector (where it would be the reconversion of labour to other activities, hence the identification of other sources of livelihood and possibly the migration flows involved).

Assessing the implications of such policy options requires adequate knowledge not only of the technical aspects of the sector but also of its actors, for instance to anticipate what impact policies addressing the industrial sub-sector are likely to have on small-scale fishing households. Also, since administrative regulation of entry into the fishery activity is not always feasible, devising means to influence the sector requires a good knowledge of its workings.

It is not uncommon for sectorial experts to focus their analyses and information gathering efforts on production and technical factors, leaving aside the human factors, which they feel less comfortable with. In this case they ought to realize the need for population information, particularly in the framework of integrated coastal management where a sound knowledge of the socio-demographic characteristics and survival strategies of local communities is necessary.

The following approaches would contribute to improving the planning and management of the fisheries sector:

assess quantitatively and qualitatively the labour force and total population concerned by the fisheries sector and sub-sectors, through reanalysis of censuses and surveys, and if necessary through specific surveys;
review the performance and constraints of the respective sub-sectors in light of biophysical and economic conditions;
assess the population-supporting capacity of the sector, and its prospects, in light of population projections and productivity assumptions;
examine policies and strategies which would improve the productivity of labour and quality of life in fishing communities, in alternative to policies that take the profitability of investment as their key criterion.

Identifying vulnerable population groups, on the basis of their dependency on endangered resource stocks - or of their mode of exploitation of those stocks - would also be highly relevant. Information on demographic and population characteristics of fishing communities and their changes over time in relation to the status of aquatic resources and environment could be collected and analyzed as part of programmes dealing with population and environment issues.