Propelling drones as an avenue for sustainable governance among vulnerable coastal Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF) communities: an evidence-based study

Het Gebruik Van Drones. Een Verkennend Onderzoek Naar Onbemande Luchtvaartuigen (The Use of Drones: An Exploratory Study on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs))

Small-scale fisheries are pivotal to the socio-economic fabric of West African coastal communities, contributing significantly to food security, employment, and cultural identity. These fisheries rely on traditional knowledge and practices, forming the backbone of local economies amidst challenges such as environmental degradation and limited market access. Sustainable management practices aim to balance economic development with environmental conservation, crucial for ensuring the resilience and prosperity of these communities. Efforts include community-based approaches, improved governance, and capacity building to promote responsible fishing practices. The methodology employed in writing this review article involved a comprehensive literature review and synthesis of recent research, focusing on small-scale fisheries in West Africa, incorporating a multidisciplinary approach to examine socio-economic, environmental sustainability, and market dynamics aspects, supported by recent scholarly references. Despite economic contributions and market complexities, sustainability hinges on addressing overfishing, habitat degradation, and climate impacts. Integrated strategies integrating local and scientific knowledge are essential for achieving sustainable development and preserving cultural heritage in West African coastal ecosystems. Keywords: Small-scale fisheries, Sustainable practices, Coastal communities, Environmental sustainability, Economic Resilience

Ecosystem approaches are increasingly mainstreamed in contemporary debate on small-scale fisheries management, however many small-scale fisheries lack solid institutional and scientific foundations on which to build such holistic and inherently more complex management systems. Most small-scale fisheries still operate with little or no effective management. Proponents of ecosystem approaches frequently malign single-species management models that placed less emphasis on wider ecosystem effects. However these ‘simpler’ approaches are responsible for significant management successes, even in contexts where fisheries were not strictly single species. We argue for incremental development of fisheries management more deeply rooted in successful past management systems. At this stage, there appears too little capacity to manage the complexity associated with a complete paradigm overhaul towards ecosystem-based approaches. The multi-dimensional importance of small-scale fisheries is highlighted in the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries, where ecosystem approaches are identified to guide holistic, integrated management, and facilitate cross institutional interactions. Its application is nuanced and connected with practical measures to ensure that principles of decency, equity, and responsibility, define management’s fabric. We draw from this in problematizing the adoption of ecosystem approaches and examine the implications for small-scale fisheries management. We present six small-scale fisheries case studies; two in Australia where comparatively simple management models were applied, two operating in trans-boundary contexts with Australia and two operating under very different social, political and economic conditions in the wider region of Indonesia. We suggest initial management approaches should primarily strive for better grounding and more realistic targets.

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) play a critical role in providing food security, livelihood, and employment. However, SSF have received less attention in the context of regional fisheries management and continue to be poorly understood and not well included in fishery management frameworks. The lack of understanding concerning SSF within regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) might be further exacerbated by the absence of a unified definition of SSF within RFMOs, which often undermines data collection and the general availability of information on SSF. This paper aims to trace SSF definitions within RFMO convention texts and conservation and management measures, and to develop a definition of SSF for the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, which would result in a more nuanced characterisation of fishery types. The results showed that all RFMOs lack an official definition, although SSF are mentioned in various conservation and management measures. To respond to this gap, we propose a definition of SSF, based on the overall size of the fishing vessel (<12m or 10 gross tonnage), the location of the fishing ground (e.g., within the territorial sea and exclusive economic zone), crew size (not more than 12), and the duration of the fishing trip (no more than 2 weeks). Furthermore, besides the current two fishery types, SSF and industrial, we suggest a third type - semi-industrial fisheries. This would help RFMOs close loopholes arising from the absence of a unified SSF definition, which currently enables some large-scale vessels to qualify for exemptions and protections intended for genuine SSF. Proposing a more realistic operational classification of fishery types within RFMOs would strengthen data reporting and monitoring and would lead to a more sustainable and equitable fisheries management regime.

PANGAS:An Interdisciplinary Ecosystem-Based Research Framework for Small-Scale Fisheries in the Northern Gulf of California Adrian Munguía-Vega (bio), Jorge Torre (bio), Peggy Turk-Boyer (bio), Silvio Guido Marinone (bio), Miguel Fernando Lavín (bio), Tad Pfister (bio), William Shaw (bio), Gustavo Danemann (bio), Peter Raimondi (bio), Alejandro Castillo-López (bio), Ana Cinti (bio), Jennifer N. Duberstein (bio), Marcia Moreno-Báez (bio), Mario Rojo (bio), Gaspar Soria (bio), Laura Sánchez-Velasco (bio), Hem Nalini Morzaria-Luna (bio), Luis Bourillón (bio), Kirsten Rowell (bio), and Richard Cudney-Bueno (bio) This paper is dedicated to the memory of Miguel Fernando Lavín (1951–2014), a pioneer of the PANGAS initiative who dedicated his life to advance the field of oceanography in Mexico. He was a visionary who connected oceanographers, marine conservationists, and fisheries managers. Introduction Small-scale fisheries contribute about half of global fish catches, or two-thirds when considering catches destined for direct human consumption (FAO 2014). Small-scale fisheries play an important role in food security and nutrition, poverty alleviation, equitable development, and sustainable use of natural resources, providing nutritious food for local, national, and international markets. More than 90% of the world’s fishers and fish workers (those who work in pre-harvest, harvest, and post-harvest activities, including trade) are employed by small-scale endeavors that underpin local economies in coastal, lakeshore, and riparian ecosystems. This, in turn, generates multiplier economic effects in other sectors (FAO 2014). These activities may be a recurrent sideline undertaking or become especially important in times of financial difficulty. Small-scale fisheries represent a diverse and dynamic sector, often [End Page 337] characterized by seasonal migration. They are strongly anchored in local communities and reflect historic links to fishery resources and traditions. Many small-scale fishers and fish workers are self-employed and are direct food providers for their household and communities. Most small-scale fisheries lack formal assessment, and the development of the sector over the past four decades has led to overexploitation of resources in several places across the globe. Recent studies estimate unsupervised small-scale fisheries are in substantially worse condition than fisheries where stocks have been assessed (Costello et al. 2012). Furthermore, the health of marine ecosystems and associated biodiversity are a foundation for the livelihoods and well-being of small-scale fishers. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Pangas in the Gulf of California. Photo by Adrian Munguía-Vega. In 2005, the PANGAS project was created with funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation as part of the Foundation’s initiative to support ecosystem-based management (EBM) for sustainable coastal and marine systems in various parts of the world (mainly the Western Pacific, U.S. West Coast, and the Gulf of California, Mexico). PANGAS is an acronym in Spanish that stands for Pesca Artesanal del Norte del Golfo de California: Ambiente y Sociedad (Small-Scale Fisheries of the Northern Gulf of California: Environment and Society). “Pangas” [End Page 338] also refers to the small skiffs (6–8 m in length), made of fiberglass, with 55- to 150-horsepower outboard motors. These are versatile boats that can use multiple types of fishing gear, hold two to three fishers, and are the primary vessel used by small-scale fishers in the northern Gulf of California (NGC), México (Cudney-Bueno and Turk-Boyer 1998) (figure 1). From its inception in 2004 as a “fuzzy”—yet ambitious—idea of ultimately coupling biophysical and human processes for management of small-scale fisheries at a regional scale (the NGC), the idea quickly transitioned to the assembly of individuals who could bring a broad, multidisciplinary perspective for research and management of small-scale fisheries. PANGAS was structured as a multidisciplinary and bi-national initiative with the goal of developing and testing an interdisciplinary framework for ecosystem-based research and management of small-scale fisheries in the NGC ecosystem and increasing capacity for ecosystem-based research in the Gulf of California. PANGAS grew as a consortium of six leading academic institutions and nonprofit organizations with experience in the NGC, with the direct involvement of 50+ researchers, students, fishers, and management practitioners. Partners...

Unlocking sustainability in China's small-scale fisheries: A case study of livelihood analysis in the Bohai Region

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40152-023-00296-3.

In the global north, climate-smart fisheries (CSF) policies prioritise steps to combat CO2 emissions from SSF, in a response to the fact that globally, CO2 emissions from small-scale fisheries (SSFs) increased by over 5.8 times between 1950 and 2016. However, in the global south, CSF policies on SSF prioritise food and income security over CO2 emission reduction. In this paper, we examine this apparently contrasting interpretation of CSF as a conceptual framework to interpret the case study of Sierra Leone, one of Africa’s poorest countries where we found that small-scale coastal fishers are preoccupied with mitigating the impact of climate change on their food and income security rather than with lowering their CO2 emissions. The self-image of SSF in Sierra Leone is that of being victims of climate change rather than perpetrators of it, and they justify this stance by claiming their livelihoods are being threatened by climate change. However, it could be argued that the best way to keep Sierra Leonean SSF CO2 emissions low is to prioritise their food and income security: in other words, that food security and CO2 reductions are complementary not contradictory. This, at any rate, is the argument of the current paper. The fieldwork for this study entailed co-created research in Sierra Leone and it involved 103 stakeholders who met face-to-face and online between January and March 2022 and through village meetings. The results of this fieldwork showed that food and income security and not CO2 emissions are the priorities in the stakeholders’ interpretation of CSF. However, if food and income security are not prioritised, communities are likely to adopt maladaptive strategies which undermine marine protected areas (MPAs) and exacerbate overfishing, thereby increasing CO2 emissions. Moreover, investment in aquaculture as a supplementary or alternative livelihood can directly increase food security and incomes and at the same time indirectly serve as a CO2 mitigation measure. In addition, weather information communication is an important CSF measure which both protects fishers from the impact of climate change and reduces their CO2 emissions. Accordingly, we argue that the contrast between reducing CO2 emissions and protecting food security from climate change may be more apparent than real in Sierra Leone coastal fisheries, since both policies may work in tandem together. This study therefore contributes a new interpretation of CSF in the global south: instead of seeing it as posing a conflict between CO2 emissions reductions and food security, we have shown the two objectives can be complementary. The wider implication of this paper is that CSF strategies for SSFs do not have to be polarised between the global north’s focus on the reduction of CO2 emissions from fishing vessels and the global south’s focus on the mitigation of the impact of global warming on SSFs. There are circumstances when the two objectives may be in harmony.

Spatial management in small-scale fisheries: A potential approach for climate change adaptation in Pacific Islands

Purposeconstruction industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries is at the peak as the region is in the stage of developing its infrastructures. Apart from some positive sign of this boost, several other issues have also been developed in the region. One of such issues is the safety of workers at the construction sites. This article, based on a variety of applications of drones in other industrial sectors, considers the use of drones for construction safety improvement in the GCC countries. This article aimed to investigate the safety-related applications of drones considering technical features and barriers and enablers for safety-related tasks.Design/methodology/approachA mixed research approach using both qualitative and quantitative methods was adopted to achieve the aims and objectives of this research. Data were collected through a systematic literature review, semistructured interviews and using a structured questionnaire. A total of 37 relevant research items and 10 interviews were held with construction safety professionals, and 92 responses collected from the safety managers through a structured questionnaire was used to derive the conclusion of this research. The collected data were processed and analyzed using the Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) program. Descriptive analyses were carried out in which means and importance factors were calculated.Findings25.92% of participants confirmed that they or their company had used the drone in different activates. The most common application of drones reported by the respondents was photography for marketing purposes followed by surveying application and quality inspections. The camera movability was the top-rated technical feature required for safety-related inspections. Similarly, “Working near the corner or edge of unprotected opening” was the top-rated application of drone for safety-related tasks. The safety concerns of using drones at job sites were rated as the most important barrier by the participants. Technical challenges associated with the use of drones for safety improvement was rated as the second most important barrier by the participants.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough, the research presented in this article is based on the GCC construction industry, however, since the data collected through systematic review and semistructured interviews are not a regional base, therefore the finding of this research could also be useful in other regions. Further research however, needs to be conducted to reduce the implications of the barriers identified in this paper so that the drone can be effectively used for safety improvement in construction not only in the GCC region but also in other countries.Practical implicationsOnce the GCC construction industry will be able to overcome the challenges associated with the application of drones in safety improvement, the safety managers will be able to monitor the site more effectively which could be helpful to improve the safety performance of the construction organization.Social implicationsImproved safety performance in not only in the greater interest of the construction organizations as they can reduce the costs associated with poor safety but can also avoid the delay caused by construction accidents. Similarly, improved safety performance reduces the accidents at construction sites, and thus reduces injuries and disabilities caused by such accidents, making the construction workers a useful part of the society. The application of drones in safety-related tasks is one of the key solutions that can lead us to improved safety performance.Originality/valueAlthough, the use of drone technology has revolutionized a number of industrial sectors due to its variety of applications, the application in construction particularly in the GCC region is still very limited. As noted in the results of this research, only 21 participants (25.92%) expressed that they or their company had used the drone in different activates. This means that the industry is not getting the full advantage of the available drone technology. The results of this research will enable construction industry stakeholders to know the challenges associated with the application of drones for safety improvement and to develop strategies to overcome these challenges.

Progressive digitalisation makes a consistent integration of new technologies in the medical field inevitable in the long term. Especially the application of virtual reality and drones offers great potential for further developments in this sector but is still largely unexplored. Due to this fact, in the present trial it was investigated whether or to what extent the use of VR-drone-couplings can influence the quality of life of immobile patients. In order to analyse this impact, a field trial was carried out with ten persons who were not handicapped. Their quality of life was assessed by using the questionnaire WHOQOL-BREF before and after the experiment and the values were compared subsequently. By incorporating a systematic literature search, the trial results could be applied to the use of drones by immobile patients. The results show that the VR-drone-deployment can positively influence the quality of life of both healthy and movement-restricted individuals, but only to the extent that the resulting mobility increase is weighted in the life of those affected. The use of a video drone enables locally fixed persons to expand their mobility radius, as well as to overcome barriers and maintain social contacts. Accordingly, it is important to pursue this approach and to carry out additional studies regarding this concern in the future. A detailed breakdown of the results, as well as their consequences for the use of drones by paraplegic patients in the future is represented in this paper. Moreover, the need of further adaptions, changes and research which was revealed by this investigation can be taken from the following study.

The importance of small-scale fisheries in Latin America and the Caribbean has been widely recognized in terms of income, livelihoods, and food security for more than two million people. The highly diverse ecosystems and multiple species found within this region determine the variety of fishing techniques, gears, and target species, as discussed in this chapter. These diverse and complex characteristics pose challenges to the region's governing systems, which may lack the technical and financial resources to cope with the numerous resulting management and governance challenges. These pressures are further exacerbated when fisheries assessment and monitoring are poorly conducted, adding uncertainty in relation to the status of the ecosystem and fish stocks. Small-scale fisheries activities thus have become vulnerable in the face of various challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean. Current efforts to enhance small-scale fisheries viability and sustainability in Latin America and the Caribbean include the adoption of innovative management approaches that focus on the entire ecosystems rather than on single species and that acknowledge the concerns of local stakeholders in decision-making through strategies such as collaboration with the government in co-management arrangements. Although many of these co-management arrangements in the region are still nascent, this chapter highlights that fishers and their organizations play a significant role in responsible resource governance through exercising ecosystem stewardship.

Humans have harvested fish and other marine resources for millennia. So why be concerned today about stewardship and sustainable practices? The answers are not simple; they are changing over time, as climate changes, and perspectives vary. In this chapter, we examine the diverse facets and factors associated with stewardship and sustainable practices in small-scale fisheries, from a transdisciplinary perspective. We look at sustainability and stewardship through different lenses and examine some of the most prominent and promising initiatives applied on different scales, at multiple levels of governance, with diverse stakeholders. It is a tour that includes ecology, socioeconomics, and governance in combination rather than from one viewpoint. Critically important instruments include the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the Small-scale Fisheries Guidelines. Topics touch on fishing gear and methods; marine protected areas; livelihoods; illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing; postharvest and trade; organizations ranging from fisher cooperatives to the Marine Stewardship Council; and the sustainable practices associated with each. Our approach is one of agency in keeping with the central theme of enhancing stewardship to make a difference.

Managing small-scale fisheries under data poor scenarios: lessons from around the world

While women represent 40% of the small-scale fisheries (SSF) workforce, their participation in this sector has long been invisible, ignored, and unrecognized. This lack of attention to women’s roles in SSF results in a major gender data gap, with implications for fisheries management and climate adaptation. This oral presentation aims to contribute to illuminate the role of women in the SSF sector through a case study in coastal Kenya in the context of climate change. Based on a 9-month ethnographic work in the South Coast of Kenya, my findings indicate that coastal Kenyan women are involved both in the post-production sector, either as fish processors, or vendor/traders, and in the production node. In addition, beyond the value chain itself, women are also largely in charge of family support and caring duties at home, which are necessary for sustaining the whole SSF sector. Through their multiple roles in the SSF economy and their local environmental knowledge, women contribute significantly to SSF social-ecological systems in coastal Kenya. However, they face significant barriers to participate in fisheries management, including socio cultural, economic, and institutional barriers, and specific restrictions to women’s access to leadership. Overall, this presentation shows that women’s participation in SSF management is limited, thus challenging effective and inclusive management and adaptative strategies in the SSF sector. I conclude by providing key recommendations to achieve gender inclusivity in SSF through the systematisazion of genderdisaggregated data collection, recognition of women’s contribution to subsistence fishing and support to women’s participation in SSF management and decision-making.