For ICSF a key concern for the reform process is that due recognition be given to the rights of fishers and their communities to their customary livelihoods, based on sustainable fishing practices and under just and fair conditions. For this reason ICSF welcomes the attention given to small-scale fishing and fishing communities in the Green Paper.
ICSF’s Briefing Note on “Common Fisheries Policy Reform in the European Union and Small-Scale Fisheries: Paving the way to sustainable livelihoods and thriving fishing communities” gives an overview of the issues at stake for small-scale fisheries and fishing communities.
The
Brussels workshop on CFP reform organized by ICSF and its partners on 28 September 2009 produced a
declaration that sketches out a “roadmap” of issues to be addressed by the reform process of the CFP if small-scale fisheries are to achieve their full potential.
ICSF’s Contribution to the Green Paper process responds directly to the issues raised by the Green Paper, with a focus on small-scale fisheries.
Fishers, whether small- or large-scale, have a legitimate claim, a basic right to decent and sustainable livelihoods. The historic 1984 Rome Conference of Fishworkers and their Supporters (the Rome Conference) was perhaps the first platform that enabled small-scale fishers and their communities to claim their rights and to voice their views, concerns and visions. These were reflected in what was perhaps the first global manifesto on small-scale fisheries, the
Rome Conference Report.
Subsequently, and since its founding in 1986, the
International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has advocated that small-scale community based fisheries are the most effective way to achieve socially and economically equitable fisheries that are environmentally sustainable; goals that will not be achieved unless fishworkers are properly engaged in a process of informed consultation and participation in policy and management decision-making processes.
It is also important that the reform process take note of other international policy processes, where the “Bangkok process”, initiated by the FAO is of particular significance. In October 2008 the FAO took the important step of organizing a
World Conference on Small Scale Fisheries (4SSF) in Bangkok, where over 100 people representing small-scale fishing and indigenous communities and their supporters from 36 different countries signed up to the
Bangkok Statement on small-scale fisheries.
Subsequently in March 2009 the
FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI 28) agreed to take up the issue of small-scale fisheries, and to explore various options, including a Programme of Work dedicated to small scale fisheries, a special Chapter in the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, and an International Action Plan for Small-Scale Fisheries.
