The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has welcomed the agenda paper on climate-resilient fisheries presented on Agenda Item 5: Climate Resilient Fisheries at the First Session of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Sub-Committee on Fisheries Management.
In a Statement made on 18 January 2024, ICSF called on FAO to extend its engagement with early warning systems and shock-responsive social protection programmes to all coastal fishing communities in need of urgent support and mainstream fishing communities into adaptive social protection measures.
Supporting the intervention made by Indonesia, ICSF pointed out that such social protection measures ought to include alternative livelihoods, and to benefit men and women along the value chain.
ICSF noted the attention given to reducing vulnerability of small-scale fisheries to the impacts of climate change through adaptive, mitigation and financial interventions such as improving sea safety of small-scale fishing vessels, exploring renewable energy opportunities and ensuring access to climate finance for small-scale aquatic food producers.
ICSF also welcomed FAO efforts to providing guidance on building resilience to climate change and disaster risks for small-scale fisheries, with special attention to a human-rights-based approach.
The ICSF Statement encourages FAO to integrate efforts into ocean-based adaptation and resilience measures and to recognize that adaptation can contribute to mitigating impacts and losses as highlighted in the First Global Stocktake of the UNFCCC.
The Statement also supported the call to generate financial resources for climate resilient management measures, keeping in mind the US warning that what works for industrial fisheries may not work well for small-scale fisheries, and to shift from a short-term to long-term perspective on fisheries management, while mainstreaming climate change.
Under knowledge management, in the wake of climate change impacts redrawing marine and inland fishing grounds, shorelines, and redistributing resources away from traditional fishing grounds, after documenting such serious instances, FAO may look into how Indigenous and traditional knowledge can still be made relevant for fisheries management by helping it to adapt to new realities, the Statement added.
“Last but not the least, any financial assistance to adapt to evidence-based climate change impacts is to be treated as non-actionable fisheries subsidies, contributing to improved resilience and well-being of fishing communities”, the Statement concluded.
The full text of the Statement is available at https://www.icsf.net/resources/statement-at-first-session-of-fao-sub-committee-on-fisheries-management-on-agenda-item-5/