PERU fishing with guts to report…
Fisheries and Aquaculture play a key role in food security: about 90 percent of the fishermen are small-scale.
What are the proposed actions contained in the Voluntary Guidelines and how they will benefit the small-scale fisheries?
COFI agreed that the PPE Guidelines (on small-scale fisheries) should be voluntary, focused on the needs of developing countries, covering both fishing and related activities, and be relevant to marine and inland fisheries.
The areas of intervention include strengthening the capacity building of community organizations, unions and advocacy groups and networks;
More significantly, in 2011 the Committee agreed to the establishment and implementation of the Global Programme of Assistance for sustainable small-scale fisheries. This program has 4 main components:
Raise awareness and support policies: products and dissemination of knowledge.
Success depends entirely voluntary guidelines that these are understood and reach stakeholders. The priorities include developing implementation guides, translation of the PPE guidelines into local languages and the use of social networks, blogs, etc to promote debate. FAO should work strategically with stakeholders and partners to influence policies and funding priorities to support the implementation of the PPE Guidelines.
Strengthen the scientific and regulatory interface: the exchange of knowledge and support for policy reform.
To give priority to the sector of small-scale fisheries in the political agenda, the arguments must be supported by data and information, eg. analysis of the value chain, gender equality, and considerations about the risk of disasters and climate change. These studies reinforce best practice and lessons learned, case studies on fisheries management and local development, and support and technical assistance.
Empowering stakeholders: capacity building and institutional strengthening.
The development of capacity building is closely linked to empower and ensure that stakeholders and small-scale fishing communities are able to take an active role in shaping the future of the sector and their own livelihoods. This includes organizational development at the community level as well as at national and regional levels, establishing intersectoral linkages needed to address the needs of developing and managing resources, and training.
Support implementation: program management, collaboration and monitoring.
Developing a management framework based on the results of international and regional meetings and applications for exchange of information on the Internet that allow collaboration and effective knowledge exchange programs and a comprehensive system of monitoring implementation, are key to ensuring the successful implementation of the guidelines and get positive results.
SOURCE: Fao.org
