|
The importance of small-scale fisheries as a
major source of animal protein, income and
employment cannot be overemphasized. It accounts
for a substantial part of the world fish production
- at least 40 percent - and is particularly
important in Africa and Asia. Small-scale fisheries
provide employment for millions of fishers directly
engaged in fishing activities, including rural
aquaculture, and for millions more working in
fisheries-related activities such as fish
processing and marketing, boat building and net
making. Including family members, hundreds of
millions of rural people in developing countries
depend on fisheries for their livelihood. In
addition, in many least developed countries of
Africa and Asia, fish accounts for more than 50
percent of the total animal protein intake. In
almost all these countries small-scale fisheries
provide over three-quarters of the domestic fish
supply. In southeast Asia, possibly a billion
people rely predominantly on fish for animal
protein. A fundamental problem of most
small-fishing families around the developing world
is their comparatively low standard of living and,
frequent poverty despite decades of remarkable
overall fisheries development and national economic
growth.
Sector characteristics
Small-scale fisheries are scattered along
riverbanks, estuaries, seashores and around lakes,
often away from mainstream economic, social and
political developments. In some areas, their
development continues to be severely hampered by
the lack of infrastructure such as roads and
communication facilities. They are extremely
exposed to natural calamities like floods,
inundation, sea erosion and storms and, in many
instances, fishers are particularly affected by
water-related parasitic diseases like bilharziasis,
river blindness, filariasis or malaria. As a
consequence of the diversification and seasonality
of their activities, many small-scale fishers show
high geographic mobility and may migrate over
hundreds of miles. Most small-scale fisheries are
exploited under some sort of open access regime,
sometimes enforced by modern governments, even
though traditionally social mechanisms may have
existed to restrict such access. In combination
with increasing fish demand and commercialization
this has led to excess fishing capacity, resource
depletion, waste of economic and human resources,
and poor returns on development efforts.
The per capita investment in the means of
production is generally low but has increased
significantly in many small-scale fisheries during
the past 2-3 decades because of motorization and
investments into more efficient fishing gear. In
many instances, productivity has not increased
commensurate with the higher investment costs
because nearshore and inland fishery resources have
become fully, or even, overexploited. The greater
harvesting cost could only be covered because of
real price increases of fish and fishery products,
often fuelled by export markets.
Many artisanal fishing families continue to rank
among the most disadvantaged groups of the
population, together with landless agricultural
labourers and marginal farmers. The incidence of
absolute poverty is probably high but there are few
studies on the extent of poverty in fishing
communities. Availability and access to social
services in fishing communities is often below
average resulting in low educational attainment and
poor health conditions
Major development constraints
Natural resources such as arable land, water,
forests, and fisheries are becoming increasingly
scarce. Competition for these finite resources is
increasing, as is the vulnerability to the negative
effects of other human activities such as
pollution, land-reclamation, etc.. Inshore stocks
are heavily exploited or depleted. In the present
management context, the addition of technology
provides only temporary relief and increases
problems in the medium and long term. Population
keeps growing fast in many developing regions.
Conflicts between artisanal and industrial
fisheries for resources and on the market are
increasingly frequent and may jeopardise
development efforts. The major development
constraints relate, on one hand, to inadequate
access or utilization of social infrastructure
including schools and health services and, on the
other hand, inadequate institutional arrangements
for the management of coastal and inland fishery
resources and the protection and conservation of
critical fish habitats such as coral reefs,
mangroves and seagrass beds. Their de facto
open-access nature makes aquatic resources an
attractive livelihood option for rural people.
However this advantage constitutes also a threat to
sustainability in he absence of access regulation
with particularly negative impacts on those with
exclusive dependence on aquatic resources. Groups
of fishers often have limited alternative
livelihood options and this makes them particularly
vulnerable to changes in the condition of and
access to the aquatic resources on which they
depend. From their point of view, greater control
of resource use is advantageous as long as
themselves are included among those with access
rights.
Major development opportunities
In social, economic and ecological terms,
small-scale fishers are low-cost producers.
Compared to large-scale fisheries, they consume
much less energy and require less capital per ton
of product and are often less ecologically
destructive. They are more flexible and efficient
in the exploitation of near-shore resources,
provide more employment opportunities, require less
infrastructure and are often less subsidized than
industrial fisheries. Decentralized and highly
integrated in the local economy, they contribute to
rural development and slow down the population
drift to urban centres. They are a unique source of
livelihood for poor sections of the population and
contribute effectively, and sometime very
significantly, to food security and nutritional
balance in rural areas. Even when resources are
fished close to the maximum possible it is feasible
to reduce fishing costs, improve market value
through better processing, value-adding, and
marketing. It is also possible to develop
complementary or alternative employment through
other productive activities, such as aquaculture,
agriculture, animal husbandry, handicrafts.
Development requirements
The sustainable development of small-scale
fisheries is desirable for a balanced social,
economic and regional development in coastal and
rural areas. It would require, inter alia,
increased political and economic support; more
directly applied socio-economic and policy
research; more favourable fishery development
policies and strategies; integration of fisheries
into rural development and coastal areas
management; better identification and allocation of
resource rights; stronger protection of reserved
fishing areas from intrusion of large scale
fisheries (which will require elimination of
overcapacity in these fisheries); enhancement of
competitiveness in using resources; adoption of
decentralised, participative management processes;
facilitating the development of strong local
institutions as a vehicle for empowerment and
decentralisation; control of fishing capacity and
creation of alternative employment; promotion of
technological progress, to reduce negative impacts
on the environment and improve product quality;
better access to credits and inputs, markets and
services.
|
