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GEF Coastal Fisheries Initiative

GEF/FAO Coastal Fisheries

By IW:LEARN

December 14^th, 2018

Despite starkly different geographies, languages and cultures, coastal communities around the world face many of the same opportunities and challenges when it comes to sustainably managing fisheries.

Fish and fish products provide 3.2 billion people with about 20 percent of their animal protein and essential nutrients. Marine fisheries are estimated to employ over 260 million people, including both fishers and post-harvest jobs. Some 85 percent are small-scale fishers and fish workers, primarily operating in coastal waters in developing countries. Women are particularly prevalent in the post-harvest sector, representing approximately half of the people employed in capture fisheries and aquaculture. Coastal fisheries contribute about 85 percent of the roughly 80 million tonnes produced by marine capture fisheries annually.

Children eating fish at Abobodoume Fish Market. Credit: FAO/Sia Kambou

Child eating fish at Abobodoume Fish Market. Credit: FAO/Sia Kambou

Unloading the morning’s catch at the bustling Santa Rosa port. Credit: FAO/Pareja

But coastal marine ecosystems are subject to intense pressures, including overexploitation, habitat destruction and overall ecosystem degradation. Globally, close to 30 percent of the world’s assessed marine fish stocks are overexploited. The majority of overexploited fisheries are in developing coastal states and island nations, posing a threat to the livelihoods, food security and nutrition of many poorer population groups.

Since coastal communities in Latin America, Africa and Asia are often grappling with similar challenges, why not help them engage in the cross-continental dialogues and sharing of experiences that will bring new ideas to communities half a world away? That’s the thinking behind the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded Coastal Fisheries Initiative (CFI).

CFI was developed to demonstrate and promote more integrated approaches to support environmentally, economically and socially sustainable use and management of coastal fisheries. The programme takes a value-chain approach and aims to support the implementation of the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries, focusing on ensuring participation and capitalising on existing knowledge while developing capacity and supporting innovative governance partnerships. It will apply relevant international instruments, including the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication.

The CFI is a partnership of six GEF Agencies (FAO, Conservation International, United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], UN Environment, the World Bank, and World Wildlife Fund [WWF]) funded through the GEF framework of safeguarding the world’s oceans and the marine environment. The CFI is anchored by a global programme with different agencies covering three geographically focused projects – Ecuador and Peru (Latin America), Cabo Verde, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal (West Africa) and Indonesia, and two global cross-cutting projects (the Challenge Fund and the Global Partnership).

Regional projects learned from each others’ experiences, and identified areas for future collaboration and south-south knowledge sharing and training. Credit: FAO/Pareja

Forty participants from three continents took part in the GEF-CFI Global Inception Meeting. Credit: FAO/Pareja

The initiative focuses on fisheries carried out within the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of coastal states to demonstrate and promote more integrated and holistic processes leading to sustainable use and management of coastal fisheries and complementing the GEF multi-country Large-Marine Ecosystem (LME) approach. In addressing these issues, the CFI is underpinned by a holistic approach that takes into account effective governance arrangements and the three pillars of sustainability, namely biodiversity conservation, the economic potential of the sector, and respect for human rights and secure livelihoods.

In October in Guayaquil, Ecuador, over forty participants from countries spanning three continents, international agencies and NGOs met to launch the CFI’s Global Inception Meeting. A full three days of workshops allowed the participants to present planned country and regional activities, to exchange knowledge and experiences across projects, and to address challenges.

The wide-ranging discussions over the course of the meeting led to requests for further exchanges of information and expertise across regions. FAO’s Gunilla Greig, Coastal Fisheries Initiative Global Partnership Project Coordinator said:

“One of the exciting aspects to emerge from these talks is an interest in undertaking international knowledge-sharing activities along cross-cutting themes, including gender, value chains, and governance.”

“The participating countries have told us how much they have to learn from one another’s experiences. The participants have already identified interesting activities that could be useful in their own countries or regions, and they have begun to explore ways to transfer this knowledge and lessons learned through webinars, tutorials and field visits. We look forward to supporting them in these efforts.”

Over the next four years, the CFI programme will help ensure that resource users recognize and are able to realize the benefits from appropriate incentives for better management. It aims to put in place a policy and institutional environment that enables the establishment of those incentives and will adopt tools to enhance governance to evaluate and track fisheries performance. The programme will help safeguard globally important coastal ecosystems such as coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves, as well as the species and genetic diversity of coastal resources, for the benefit of coastal communities and beyond.

The CFI Latin America project film below tells the stories of Jose, Karen, Santiago and Erika and their efforts to conserve the oceans and achieve sustainable fishing:

For more information on this project, please contact Jacqueline Alder, or visit the project website.

Footnotes

Header: Sustainable fisheries management practices are underway for the small-scale fisheries communities in Santa Rosa, Ecuador. Credit: FAO/Pareja

FootNotes

Header: Sustainable fisheries management practices are underway for the small-scale fisheries communities in Santa Rosa, Ecuador. Credit: FAO/Pareja

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