Resilient small-scale fisheries: The role of rights

Blake RatnerEddie AllisonWorldFish CentreMay 2007

Ning Savat's story: Cambodia

• A fisherman turned human rights activist

• His work shows links between environmental management and human rights

• But there’s more…

Our understanding of the challenge

• Small scale fishers marginalized economically and politically, and vulnerable

• Marginalization and vulnerability contribute to failures in fisheries management

• Way forward must be centred on people's livelihoods, linking fisheries to broader development and governance agenda

• A human rights perspective CAN help shift the debate about fisheries management goals and actions

• Securing rights is a cornerstone to improving fisheries governance

Lake Volta, Ghana

• Child traficking & forced child labour

• An extreme example of poor people’s vulnerability and exclusion from decision-making

• Management can’t be improved without tackling this

An expanding dialogue

• WorldFish is seeking to transform itself as a much more effective catalyst for change

• Means re-assessing the roots of the problems we work on

• Means re-assessing the way we work... rooted in frank exchange

Resilient SSF: The Goal

• Goal is resilient livelihoods– Not just livelihoods FOR conservation, or FOR

national economic development• Resilience incorporates concept of reducing

vulnerability to stresses & shocks, and building adaptive capacity– Requires a healthy ecosystem– Requires action to secure and maintain basic

rights• Rights are integral to the goal (not a means)

An alternative approach

• Awareness --> Influence --> Commitment

• The three phases in practice: an "impact framework"– Diagnose threats &

opportunities– Define management

constituency– Develop actions &

policies in support of adaptive management

The approach in practice: Coastal Vietnam

• Vulnerability of SSF – declining fish stocks, competition, excess

capacity• Risk of conflict

– not just "resource management"; also an issue of social development, social cohesion

• A proactive policy framework– dramatic reduction in number of small

fishing vessels– support for mainstreaming co-

management• Rights are key levers of change

– rights to resource access– rights to participation in decision making– rights to food, livelihood, & environment– rights to legal recourse & justice

What's different?

… compared to conventional fisheries management?

• Conventional fisheries management has failed because it disregards the complexity of SSF

• Appreciating complexity needed in analysis, stakeholder roles, and in management actions

• A human rights perspective helps to clarify that complexity, helps to orient actions

… compared to conventional human rights advocacy?

• Human rights not advocated in isolation

• Rights are integral to improving fisheries governance and management outcomes

• Not only a moral issue, also a development imperative:

Strengthened rights

Less vulnerability, more capacity to adapt

Social-ecological resilience

An opportunity

• We believe that making progress in improving fisheries livelihoods, fisheries management, and fisheries’ contribution to development outcomes is hard but achievable

• WorldFish is looking to engage with stakeholders in change processes at local, national, and regional scales

• And we're seeking partners to do this... in refining the impact

framework through practice... in cross-country comparison &

synthesis of lessons... in advocacy & communications