Lilongwe — Africa’s small-scale fishers are being overlooked in policymaking, despite providing the most stock and nutritional value of any region, according to new analysis.
The study published in the journal Nature says small, inland fisheries in Africa contribute more to the population’s diet than any other region, reaching up to 146 million people and supplying almost a third of their micronutrient needs.
But many fisherfolk are being marginalised, lacking any formal rights to manage their resources, according to the authors.
“International failure to better recognise small-scale fisheries’ contributions and include them in sustainable development policies has consequences.”Xavier Basurto, marine biologist, Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University
Researchers examined small-scale fisheries – broadly defined as those that are low-tech and low-capital and labour intensive – in 25 countries across North, West, East, and Southern Africa.
They found that small marine and inland fisheries in the region provide the second highest contribution to livelihoods around the world after Asia, supporting around 60 million people. In Africa, the sector directly employs 2.6 million women.
Overlooking the small-scale fishery sector in policies is putting the attainment of global development goals at risk, the authors warn.
“Achieving the [Sustainable Development Goals] will not be feasible in many countries without ensuring a sustainable future for small-scale fishers as key components of food systems,” the study states.
Xavier Basurto, co-author of the study and a marine biologist at the Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University in California, told SciDev.Net: “International failure to better recognise small-scale fisheries’ contributions and include them in sustainable development policies has consequences.”
He believes the impact will be felt not only by the fishers themselves, their communities, and fish consumers, but also more broadly across international borders.
Evidence of impact
The research was carried out as part of the Illuminating Hidden Harvests Initiative, led by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, Duke University, US, and the international non-profit WorldFish.
Basurto says it aimed to generate new evidence about the impact of small-scale fisheries around the world to inform policy and practice.
He says there is a lack of comprehensive data that precisely measures the socio-economic contribution of these fish farmers and their value to food security.
The researchers drew on the expertise of more than 800 individuals and a technical advisory group of experts in fisheries biology, economy, nutrition, gender equality, and governance.
Together, they developed estimates for small-scale fish catch, micronutrient supply, employment, and livelihood dependency, as well women’s employment, economic value, governance, property, and access rights.
They found that small-scale fishers around the world provide around 37 million tonnes (40 per cent) of global fishery catches and generate nearly US$80 billion (44 per cent) of the total landed value in the 58 countries surveyed.
Up to 21 million women worldwide are employed in pre-harvest, harvest, and post-harvest activities, while 24 million women are in unpaid and informal activities such as subsistence fishing and processing.
“Importantly, more women engage informally in small-scale fishing activities than are commercially employed,” the study notes.
Lack of rights
Despite these contributions to the global economy and food systems, the sector gets limited attention in development policies, say researchers.
As such, around two thirds of small-scale fishers from 51 countries are not associated with formally recognised rights to participate in management and decision-making processes.
“The absence of rights to access, harvest, and manage resources threatens the survival of fishers’ culture, way of life, and ecological sustainability, particularly among indigenous peoples,” according to the study.
The researchers called for policies that focus on the multiple contributions of small-scale fishers.
Otherwise, the marginalisation of those who work in the sector will worsen, according to Basurto who says the analysis “leaves no doubt that inaction is no longer justified”.
“Many countries will need to pay more attention to the small-scale fishing sub-sector, in terms of better management and governance,” he added.
‘Wake-up call’
Bryson Nkhoma, an environmental, fisheries and food systems researcher and professor of environmental and agricultural history at Mzuzu University in Malawi, said: “For sure, we need this small-scale fishers sector whose significance cuts across most of the SDGs.”
He says the findings are “a serious wakeup call” for development policymakers to rethink the inclusion of small-scale fisheries in their planning.
Small-scale fishing contributes to critical goals of poverty alleviation, zero hunger, good health and well-being, gender equality, and environmental sustainability, Nkhoma added.
This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Sub-Saharan Africa English desk.
