The Organization for the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector of the Central American Isthmus (OSPESCA) reiterated its faith in the social and economic benefits of small-scale fisheries (SSF) and welcomed the approvasl by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Alleviation.
In a Statement made to the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) on 10 June 2014 by Gustavo Meneses Castro, Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture, it was pointed out that fisheries in Central America are basically small-scale, and needs special attention which the national-level fishermen’s organizations and the Central American Confederation of Artisanal Fishermen have been according it through various steps to promote the the SSF Guidelines.
Another positive step taken by Central America, the Statement noted, is to apply an inter-sectorial approach, encouraging both the civil society representatives of artisanal fisheries and the governments to support the approval of the SSF Guidelines, overcoming the few issues that need to be resolved.
The governance framework of the SSF Guidelines should provide a binding agreement, which, it is hoped, could become concretized in the current year. Thus the SSF Guidelines will become binding in OSPESCA countries.
The Statement stressed the importance of the SSF Guidelines in providing a framework for the sustainable management of small-scale fisheries. The Statement urged all the delegations to make every effort to overcome their differences to ensure the approval of the SSF Guidelines.
ICSF 2014