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Book (series)Negotiated territorial development in a multi-stakeholders participatory Resource Planning approach: an initial sustainable framework for the Near east Region 2016
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No results found.Throughout the Near East, land and water shortages, land degradation, out of date land tenure systems and food insecurity are compounded by asymmetries in gender roles and power, by severe imbalances in the political-military structures within and between countries, by flagrant deficiencies in land and water management and control systems, and by the incessant increases in demand driven by high rates of population growth and urbanization. This interplay of forces and dynamics form a complex hydr o socio-political web that governs the allocation land and water and who benefits from their availability and their ultimate sustainability. The current allocation arrangements of the region's three major river basins - the Nile, the Euphrates-Tigris and the Jordan - are nascent sources of tension, and potential sources of conflict and violence. Political instability that characterizes the Near East continues to intensify scarcity, suppresses growth and engenders poverty and is being increasingl y exacerbated by the impending consequences of climate change. The Middle East is one of the most water poor and water stressed regions of the globe. While the region is home to 5.1% of the people of the world, it has about only 1% of the world renewable fresh water. Today's annual per capita availability of fresh water in the region is only one seventh of its 1960 level, falling from 3,300 cubic metres per person in 1960 to less than 500 cubic metres in 2015. This is the lowest per capita wat er availability in the world. The current land tenure systems are failing to address long-standing problems that include smallholder farmers, landless households and most marginalized groups such as women continue to compete for shrinking natural recourses, while pastoralists are losing control of their traditional grazing areas. Use, management and access to land and water are becoming extremely sensitive matters as the number of users grows. Governments and local actors have often perceived these major issues differently. This requires effort to be made to ensure a participatory approach to decision-making that effectively involves all the local actors concerned in an equitable and balanced manner. About 90% of the land area in this Region is subject to land degradation in different forms and over 45% of land suitable to farming is exposed to various types of land degradation which include soil nutrient depletion, salinity and wind and water erosion. Per capita arable land availa bility in the region is among the lowest in the world where many countries in the region show levels that are exceptionally low (on average less than 0.123 hectares per person) and the range varies between 0.01 hectares per person (Oman, Qatar, Palestine, Kuwait and Bahrain) to 0.34 hectares in the Sudan in 2015. Arable land as a percentage of land area in the region is very low ranging between 0.1% in Oman to 18.4% in Tunisia in 2013. Most of the countries in the region show shares below 10%. O nly Morocco, Tunisia, and Iraq sow percentages above 10%. Irrigated land areas in the region also represent a small share of total arable land areas. In many of the countries in the region these shares are way below the world average. Only Iran (17.4%) and the UAE (12.5%) show high relative shares in the period 2011-2015. The Region’s critical shortage of water and cultivable land, including the increasing pressure on these resources and their degradation makes their efficient management a pa ramount task. It will be necessary in this regard to promote the engagement of all concerned stakeholders in planning and managing land, water and agrobiodiversity. Actual physical scarcity of land and water, even in the Middle East region, is not the only key issue. Conditions of economic scarcity seem to be equally pressing; there is perhaps enough land and water to meet society's need, but there are few incentives for wise, efficient and egalitarian use of these critical resources. Climate change will impinge on this region’s fragile water balances, suitable land for cultivation, grazing land and food production capacities and will exacerbate the problems and issues of food security. Measures, policies, strategies and institutional capacities to mitigate the impending catastrophic consequences of climate change and to improve the societies’ resilience and adaptation to its consequences are needed now. The sooner the regulatory and institutional setups are put in place the easier the task to deal with climate and other risks. It is necessary and vital to rise up to this challenge by enlisting the stakeholders in the initiatives to promote sustainability and efficiency of land and water use and the management of food security issues. An active engagement of concerned stakeholders in planning and managing water, land and agrobiodiversity necessitates first and foremost the engagement of and participation of particularly women and girls and marginalized groups in all wate r and food aspects as they constitute the main agricultural labour force and the most deprived segments of society. Gender and the water and land nexus in the Arab region is an area where there is still relative little information. There is little systematic knowledge about the many means by which women and men manage water and land in the region. Evidence shows that while women in Egypt have a significant role to play in water use in the process of food production by controlling and managi ng water flows in the fields and supervising workers during irrigation, they rarely own the land they cultivate. Rural women in Yemen spend huge amounts of time collecting and transporting water, often up and down steep slopes and coordinate water allocation and distribution for the various needs of the family and the household but they are rarely involved in decision making and management councils that govern land and water uses. Women everywhere in the Middle East evaluate water quantity and q uality and prioritize water for drinking and health and sanitation purposes but they rarely share equally in the benefits of their labor or in the ownership of the land and water resources. This is why an integrated water and land management system anchored on a genuine participation of stakeholders will be crucial in determining whether the Arab world achieves the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aspirations for reducing poverty and enhancing shared prosperity. Water and land are the c ommon currency which links nearly every SDG, and it will be a critical determinant of success. Abundant water supplies and cultivable land are vital for the production of food and will be essential to attaining SDG 2 on food security; clean and safe drinking water and sanitation systems are necessary for health as called for in SDGs 3 and 6; and water is needed for powering industries and creating the new jobs identified in SDGs 7 and 8. None of this is achievable without adequate and safe water and sufficient suitable land to nourish the planet’s life-sustaining ecosystem services identified in SDGs 13, 14 and 15. -
Book (stand-alone)Legislating for an ecosystem approach to fisheries – Revisited
An update of the 2011 legal study on the ecosystem approach to fisheries
2021Also available in:
No results found.The ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) is a risk-based management process for the planning, management, development, regulation and monitoring of fishing and fishing-related activities. EAF addresses ecological consequences of fishing as well as social, economic and institutional aspects of fisheries sustainability. Adequate legislation and regulatory frameworks are key to successful implementation of the EAF. The continuous review and update of information on legislation and regulatory instruments require the analysis of existing legal frameworks at all levels of governance, to assess whether they remain in force, valid and aligned with international fisheries law standards, including the EAF. The present work was prepared with a view to provide current information on how the EAF is being implemented through national legal frameworks of selected countries in Africa. It revisits a previous legal study prepared by Anniken Skonhoft and published by FAO in 2011. A decade later, based on the scope of that study, the present work provides updated data and contributes to the knowledge on the current global and regional legal frameworks for an EAF, which are vital for EAF implementation purposes. This update also re-analysed certain countries’ national legislation and their evolution with respect to capturing the EAF requirements. Ultimately, the present work supports the legal implementation of an EAF for a holistic, integrated and innovative way of managing fisheries that promotes the participation of all relevant stakeholders and the use of best available knowledge for decision making, whilst balancing the human dimensions with the care for the environment, habitats, ecosystems and biodiversity related with fishery resources on which they depend. -
DocumentMyanmar fisheries legislation with particular reference to freshwater fisheries legislation 2011
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No results found.The fisheries sector in Myanmar, comprising the freshwater fisheries, marine capture fisheries and aquaculture, plays a very important role in the economy of the country and provides an important source of food security for the people of Myanmar. Presently, the freshwater capture sector is by far the most important economically and socially. The Ayeyarwady Delta once supported half of the mangrove forests in Myanmar. but there are competing demands on the mangrove ad fisheries ecosystem in the Ayeyarwady Delta. Several years of pressure on the mangrove forests, including demand for firewood and charcoal, hunting mangrove animals, conversion of mangrove areas for rice and shrimp farming and destructive fishing practices such as excessive fishing efforts, have significantly reduced the productivity of the mangrove forest areas. Specifically in relation to fisheries, there are now clear signs of serious depletion in the Delta. The observed volume fish landings are declining and there is a reduction in the size of species caught. The Sustaible Small Scale Fisheries and Aquaculture Livelihoods in Coastal Mangrove Ecosystems was part of the Environmentally Sustaible Food Security Programme (ESFSP). The aim of the Sustaible Small Scale Fisheries and Aquaculture Livelihoods in Coastal Mangrove Ecosystems project is to promote and undertake pilot level implementation of practices for the co-magement of fisheries in a demarcated magement area in the Ayeyarwady Delta. One of the acti vities of the ESFSP to address the problem of conservation of fisheries resources in the mangrove areas is the “formulation and promotion of better co-magement practices and sustaible utilisation guidance for mangrove ecosystems.” Implementation of co-magement in the pilot areas for the project, and in Myanmar as a whole, is not supported by the existing fisheries and related legal framework. An additiol complicating issue that has arisen is the substantial overlap and contradictions between th e fresh water fisheries legislation and legislation dealing with forestry and wildlife conservation in the mangrove areas. Additiolly, enforcement of existing legislation is weak. The factors listed above have given rise to the need to undertake an evaluation of the legal framework underpinning forestry and fisheries legislation, including co-magement arrangements and enforcement challenges to inform proposals for change. This review contains an overivew of these legal issues as they pertain to aquatic resources magement especially in freshwaters and their relationship to other legislation on tural resources in Myanmar. There is particular reference to co-magement and the legal aspects relating to its emergence in Myanmar.
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