Counting on small-scale fisheries.

Abstract

On 10 June 2014, the member States of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) adopted the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication ([ 1 ][1]) (“Guidelines”). To make these Guidelines effective, it is crucial that the FAO, governments, and civil society have access to data to help understand small-scale fisheries. Currently, catches from these fisheries are not collected separately, but are lumped in with industrial catches, even though they represent about one-quarter of global catches, and the majority of catches in many developing countries. To promote the transparency needed for good governance ([ 2 ][2], [ 3 ][3]), the FAO ought to request from member countries a report of catch data that distinguishes between industrial and small-scale fisheries. Many decades of debate have failed to produce one, agreed-upon definition of a “small-scale fishery,” but the modest variations in definitions between countries do not preclude efforts to gather global statistics. Just as the Guidelines do not impose a single definition of small-scale fisheries, each of the FAO's member States could define their own small-scale fisheries, reflecting local realities. These changes would help to highlight the importance of small-scale fisheries and may also help governments that still treat these fisheries as a solution to demographic pressure and rural landlessness ([ 4 ][4]) to focus instead on their inherent value. 1. [↵][5] FAO, Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 2014). 2. [↵][6] 1. A. Charles , Maritime Stud. 10, 85 (2011). [OpenUrl][7] 3. [↵][8] 1. A. Charles , Land Tenure J. 1, 9 (2013). [OpenUrl][9] 4. [↵][10] 1. D. Pauly , Maritime Stud. 4, 7 (2006). [OpenUrl][11][Web of Science][12] [1]: #ref-1 [2]: #ref-2 [3]: #ref-3 [4]: #ref-4 [5]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [6]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2 in text [7]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DMaritime%2BStud.%26rft.volume%253D10%26rft.spage%253D85%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [8]: #xref-ref-3-1 View reference 3 in text [9]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DLand%2BTenure%2BJ.%26rft.volume%253D1%26rft.spage%253D9%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [10]: #xref-ref-4-1 View reference 4 in text [11]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DMaritime%2BStud.%26rft.volume%253D4%26rft.spage%253D7%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [12]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000270362300002&link_type=ISI