IYAFA 2022: Interview with Fikret Berkes, Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, on the importance of Governance to small-scale fisheries and aquaculture

In this interview professor Berkes talks about the opportunities and challenges small-scale fishers, fish farmers and fish workers have when included in decision-making processes. He also highlights how participatory approaches connect to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and explains why the SSF Guidelines should be seen as guiding tool for Governance and effective participation.

Pillar 4 of the IYAFA Global Action Plan is about governance, specifically the effective participation of small-scale producers in fisheries and aquaculture in building and strengthening enabling policy environments. From your experience, how could small-scale producers in fisheries and aquaculture participate in governance to enable a more equitable policy environment?

Local self-organization is important as the starting point, and strong local institutions, such as co-operatives, are the key here. I used to work on what I called “community-based management”. However, over the years, I found that community-based management is a necessary but insufficient condition in a multi-level world. These local institutions can benefit from some help with capacity development, and they need to have linkages with regional and national-level institutions. This is important for communication: passing local views, problems and observations up to the higher levels, and in turn receiving communication from those levels, with an opportunity to demand downward accountability. In a well functioning multi-level governance system, the added benefits are social learning and the use of institutional and social memory for problem-solving. I am getting at adaptive governance (learning-by-doing) which is typically carried out by networks of actors sharing governance responsibility, using collaborative processes and feedback-based problem solving. This is really important in world which is suffering from increasingly more serious climate and other kinds of disruptive change.

Are we anywhere near to achieving such well-functioning multi-level governance systems?

Obviously, we have a long way to go, but promising signs abound. There are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of co-management arrangements worldwide in fisheries, creating opportunities for two-way multi-level exchanges. Perhaps 90 percent of these arrangements have come about only in the last 20 years. Of course, we do have continuing power asymmetries, and these will probably be always with us. But communication with two-way exchanges is only part of the solution. Also important for more equitable power relationships is the recognition of fisher knowledge, a source of adaptive capacity and resilience, in governance as well.

Here again, new developments are promising. Indigenous knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge and fisher knowledge are receiving increasing attention both at national and international levels. IPBES is a case in point. Even the IPCC has had to consider local observations and knowledge in their more recent reports because of the richness of the information available. Local knowledge is proving complementary to scientific knowledge. Worldwide, there is a great deal of work going on in knowledge co-production – the use of different kinds of knowledge to increase the range of information available to understand a problem and make informed decisions.

What is the role of international arrangements and guidelines? Do you see a potential of these for the effective participation of small-scale producers?

Absolutely. For example, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a firm background through, not only SDG 14 (Life below Water), but also many others such as SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 2 (Zero Hunger). I am remembering that it was FAO’s own SSF Guidelines (I call it “the bible”) that established how important small-scale producers are for the regional economy (e.g., SDG 1) and for meeting nutritional needs (e.g., SDG 2). Small-scale fisheries contribute about 40 percent of global fish catches. The SSF Guidelines (chapters 12 and 13) also back up IYAFA’s call for the effective participation of small-scale producers in governance. However, the three pages of Pillar 4 of the IYAFA Global Action Plan are only a brief statement and should be considered taking into account fisher knowledge, co-production of knowledge, and capacity development, as detailed more in the SSF Guidelines in chapter 12 on capacity development.

How about the role of these international arrangement and agreements regarding the day-to-day practical aspects of effective participation of small-scale producers in governance?

To level the playing field with large-scale producers and with other sectors, small-scale producers need secure access to resources and to markets, at the minimum. Both the SSF Guidelines and SDG 14.b (“Provide access of artisanal fisheries to marine resources and markets”) address this point. SDG 14.b is in the context of marine resources, but it is equally relevant for inland SSF and small-scale aquaculture. SDG 14.b indicator looks at “Progress by countries in the degree of application of a legal/regulatory/policy/institutional framework which recognizes and protects access rights for small-scale fisheries”. SDGs are practical in the sense of having measurable indicators and variables. The variables of the SDG 14.b indicator are (1) Existence of instruments that specifically target or address the small-scale fisheries sector; (2) Ongoing specific initiatives to implement the SSF Guidelines; and (3) Existence of mechanisms enabling small-scale fishers and fish workers to contribute to decision-making processes.

Access to resources is key in the case of marine capture fisheries, especially in the current context of often shrinking access due to Blue Economy policies. In the case of small-scale producers in aquaculture, access to capital markets is also very important, as they cannot compete with large producers otherwise. Purely profit-oriented “big aquaculture” often ruined coastal habitats in many parts of the world, giving aquaculture a bad name. But there are small-scale approaches that also need to be considered. I have seen small-scale shrimp farms in Thailand and fingerling stocking (by women’s groups – SDG 5) in Bangladesh. Aquaculture is certainly a growing industry, so measures to foster good governance and participatory approaches are important for small-scale aquaculture producers as well as for small-scale fisheries.

Measures to foster participatory approaches can benefit from applied research and practice that can help build livelihoods and community resilience. But they also require some new thinking at national and international levels, in effect, a new social contract and governance that prioritizes local economies, livelihoods and well-being. These measures include well known methods in planning (community development, community-based planning), and more recent ones such as participatory mapping, participatory workshops, and participatory scenario planning.

Many of these methods were developed in the context of agriculture; they include participatory rural appraisal, participatory action research, and participatory education (critical pedagogy). Participatory methods can be used to help small-scale producers increase their own understanding of governance and progress in participation through research, reflection, social learning, and application. These approaches can be used in capacity development toward the IYAFA vision for “A world in which small-scale artisanal fishers, fishfarmers and fish workers are fully recognized and empowered to continue their contributions for human well-being, food systems and poverty alleviation through the responsible and sustainable use of fisheries and aquaculture resources.”

Biography

Dr. Berkes is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, and former Tier I Canada Research Chair in Community-based Resource Management. He holds a PhD in Marine Sciences, and his work combines social and ecological perspectives for the study of relations between societies and their environments. Berkes is interested in fisheries commons, traditional ecological knowledge, and social-ecological resilience. His honors include the IUCN CEESP Inaugural Award for Meritorious Research; IASC Elinor Ostrom Award for Senior Scholar; and the ESA Sustainability Science Award for the book Sacred Ecology.