Small-scale fisheries (SSFs) play a critical and direct role in the livelihoods of around half a billion people – providing food security and livelihoods in countless coastal regions – but they are also an increasingly vital component of the wider global food system. But to safeguard the sector’s future, experts report that it needs to be made much more resilient.
Alongside empowering the communities and cultures dependent on small-scale fisheries in ways that ensure they’re more sustainably viable and equitable, such courses of action are seen as a way of progressing many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations and championed by its members.
The latest estimates from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) put total revenues from the first sale of SSF catches at U.S. $77 billion, comprising $58 billion from marine activities and $19 billion from inland operations. In volume terms, this equates to around 36.9 million metric tons (MT) of raw materials, with significant variances in their technological and operational scale and complexity, although in many instances, data collection and monitoring are sparse.
It’s also approximated that 90 percent of total capture fisheries employment – some 60 million people – is in the SSF sector, with women accounting for 40 percent of the workforce.
The value of and challenges facing small-scale fisheries are further examined in FAO’s recent global study, “Illuminating Hidden Harvests: The contributions of small-scale fisheries to sustainable development.” IHH provides information that quantifies and improves understanding of the role of small-scale fisheries have in the areas of food security and nutrition, sustainable livelihoods, poverty eradication and healthy ecosystems. It also examines gender equality as well as the nature and scope of governance in these fisheries.
The study was carried out in support of the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines), which were developed to distinguish the plight of small-scale fishers, fish-workers and associated communities. These guidelines were released as a contribution to the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022.
Besides confirming that several countries are implementing the SSF Guidelines, and that collecting robust fisheries data is key to their success, IHH determines that foods from these fisheries represent “a crucial and sometimes irreplaceable” source of micronutrients and fatty acids important for human growth and health.
At the recent Seafood Futures Forum, hosted by the Marine Stewardship Council at Seafood Expo Global (SEG) 2023 in Barcelona, the FAO’s Director for Fisheries and Aquaculture Professor Manuel Barange stressed the importance of aquatic foods in delivering the SDGs in line with the UN body’s Blue Transformation agenda – not least their ability to overcome hunger and poverty.
The forum heard that FAO’s Blue Transformation agenda has three objectives: First, to intensify and expand sustainable aquaculture to satisfy the global demand for aquatic foods and to distribute the benefits equitably. Second, to ensure all fisheries are effectively managed to deliver healthy stocks and equitable livelihoods. Lastly, to upgrade value chains to ensure the social, economic and environmental viability of aquatic foods.
Respectively, the UN body’s hoped outcomes are that aquaculture production grows by at least 35 percent by 2030, especially in food-deficient regions; 100 percent of marine and inland fisheries are under effective management and IUU fishing is eradicated; and loss and waste are halved, with more transparency and traceability, better market access and more equitable returns.