The Locally Managed Marine Area Network International joined artisanal fisheries organisations from Africa, Asia, Central America, South America and Europe in a Call to Action for governments to better engage and support small-scale fishers.
All the signatories are organisations representing small-scale fisheries around the globe including from Africa (CAOPA, CANCO), South (CONAPACH) and central America (RAMPR), Europe (LIFE, Aktea), and the Pacific (LMMA).
The Call to Action states:
Small-scale fishers (SSF) are the most numerous ocean users, and their major contributions to livelihoods, employment, food security and revenue, stand in contrast to their marginalisation in decision-making.
To ensure healthy and resilient fishing communities, SSF require secure and preferential access to healthy oceans and ecosystems to effectively play their key roles as guardians of the ocean and contributors to food security and nutrition.
SSF demand that governments address the lack of science based, transparent, participative fisheries management and threats posed by pollution, competition for space and resources by other blue economy industries, and to invest in long-term resource management, ecosystems restoration and innovations introduced by women and men from fishing communities.
For the full document:
Representatives of artisanal fishing organisations are attending the Oceans Conference in Lisbon from 27 June to 1 July 2022, where they discuss the concrete proposals detailed in this Call to Action with the decision makers and civil society present.
