Yemaya Recommends
Documentaries
Net gains
YouTube is a sea of resources for documentaries on women in fisheries
By Ramya Rajagopalan (icsf@icsf.net), Consultant, ICSF
YouTube is an online resource that allows people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube allows for the easy creation of theme-based channels, a facility that is increasingly being used by organizations to upload video content on specific issues. There are several interesting international channels on fisheries on YouTube. This column covers a few of the major ones.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Channel (www.youtube.com/user/FAOoftheUN/videos?live_view=500&flow=list&sort=dd&view=0) carries an informative introductory video to the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. Besides this, there is a video featuring interviews with governments, regional organizations, civil society organizations and academia on the upcoming international small-scale fisheries (SSF) guidelines (www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ryLppJ3iM).
The documentary Lifting the Veil, covering Tunisia’s clam fisheries, shows how FAO and its partners are actively strengthening the role of women in the beach clam fisheries subsector.
The channel of the FAO’s regional office in Asia-Pacific has a five-minute presentation on the invisible role of women in the small-scale fisheries as part of an Asia news flash (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa8llGee-Dk). FAO regional offices have also uploaded other interesting documentaries, such as one on women in fisheries in Cambodia (www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLxkAMnEDyQ) and a seven-minute interview with a local chief of Community Fisheries in Cambodia, Nuor Chhai, which highlights the important issues that her community faces and how the Regional Fisheries Livelihood Project has helped improve community livelihoods.
Another interesting channel is that of the United Nations University (UNU). This has a few informative documentaries about satoumicoastal areas in Japan where the sea and human beings coexist intimately. One documentary features satoumi in Hokkaido (www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRlB6fwW98U&list=PL8QnLThpVNcXJKx9285vQmyiTmo90s_2y), which shows the various ways in which the coastal community preserves a uniquely balanced interaction between the terrestrial and marine ecosystems. A more detailed documentary on satoumi in this channel (www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkgHbrXoXes) shows how the practice is linked to livelihood maintenance.
The UNU channel also has a documentary on the Ama women divers of Japan who have been practising sustainable fishing for hundreds of years (Where the Sea Whistle Echoes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTIf2vA-_JQ). Another splendid view is a documentary that follows the experience of a number of large and small fishing communities in Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures. Key individuals from these communities explain the impact on their lives of the 2011 tsunami (Standing Strong Again: Rebuilding the Fishing Community of Kesennumawww.youtube.com/watch?v=miGwjQa0txo).
