Fishworkers’ organizations the world over are concerned about the degradation of coastal habitats vital to fishery resources. This concern was articulated in the first-ever Conference of Fishworkers and their Supporters in Rome in 1984, and, subsequently, in all the three conferences organized by ICSF since 1986. In the conference in Cebu in 1994, for instance, the impact of coastal area degradation on the livelihood of the artisanal and small-scale fishery sector was discussed at length. It was recognized that fishworkers’ organizations need to look systematically into major coastal resource management issues and draw up action programmes that would, at the outset, address fisheries issues in the littoral area. This could eventually be expanded to animate fisheries sector institutions to defend the interests of fishing communities in the coastal zone against marginalization by other user-groups and interested parties.
