Response to the request by the FAO for monitoring priorities and tools.
Most important chapters in the VGSSSF:
1. Objectives 1
2. Nature and scope 1
3. Guiding principles 2
4. Relationship with other international instruments 3
5. Governance of tenure in small-scale
fisheries and resource management 5
5a. Responsible governance of tenure 5
5b. Sustainable resource management 6
6. Social development, employment and decent work 8
7. Value chains, post-harvest and trade 10
8. Gender equality 12
9. Disaster risks and climate change 12
10. Policy coherence, institutional
coordination and collaboration 15
11. Information, research and communication 16
12. Capacity development 17
13. Implementation support and monitoring 18
All chapters are important. But the vastness of the objectives can have a paralyzing effect on the readers and the governments that want to implement this.
The focus should be on 5. Responsible governance of tenure and sustainable resource management. Where social development, employment and decent work will be an outcome of the process. With 5 at the centre, 7 can increase the incentive to for further improvement of 5. Doing 7 without 5 is counterproductive. Gender equality (in the projects) is also a prerequisite in developing 5 and working on 5 can further increase gender equality in broader society. There has to be a mechanism where SSFs get compensation for coral bleaching, increased frequency of typhoons and sea-level rise. Climate justice (9).
Policy coherence. States that are willing to embark on a trip towards development of the Small Scale Fisheries (and small holder farmers) within a globalized economy that rewards large scale capitalists way of producing will have to get their incentives and rewards through a global redistribution system of wealth. It is important for the UN, the EU, ASEAN, China and a post-Trump America work on this.
Progress should be measured in the number and quality of managed stocks and fishing areas. Are stocks managed in such a way that SSFs are improving? Seabass in Europe is a good example. Here an increasingly bigger part of the TAC is allotted to metiers that are small scale. Managed fishing areas like the Frysian Decentralized Eel Management in the Netherlands is an example of a better managed area that improved the economics of the SSFs in that area.
In the Philippines some Municipalities improved the management of the coastal areas under their jurisdiction (Cortes and Hinatuan for instance). Areas exclusively used by small scale fishers. Ultimately the basic indicators here are the total biomass of edible creatures in the intertidal zone, on the reef and in the coastal areas and the sustainable harvest connected to that. Besides the share of the TAC of the pelagic species that go to the coastal fishers and their communities.
Monitoring participatory.
Stock decline and stock recovery are often slow processes that need long-term measurements of CPUE to show changes. It is hard to do the monitoring participatory. Data should be gathers by the governments (or management bodies). Analysis should be shared with the resource users.
Comparing different areas under different management regimes, is a better way to monitor in a participatory way. Preferably by walking on the reef, snorkelling and interviews with resource users.
So monitoring of the implementation of the SSF guidelines could involve the following questions:
1. Is the state or the province setting up specially managed areas and is there a preferential role for the SSFs? (ACs in the EU waters, VBCs in inland waters in the Netherlands, Fisheries Management Areas in the Philippines, Municipal waters in the Philippines, true LMMAs within municipalities).
2. Is the state facilitating exchange between these managed areas and are SSFs involved in this exchange.
Key Actors:
At the state level NGOs and national fishers organizations have an important role in the monitoring of progress in the implementation of the VG-SSF.
Those involved in LMMAs should also be involved in monitoring their own progress and in learning from the progress of other
Mr. Arjan Heinen