In this article, we look at the key demands from small-scale fisheries in view of the upcoming 20th session of the FAO subcommittee on fish trade. FAO and its members should ensure that trade rules are fair, that investments go into infrastructure and services that communities themselves have identified, that women’s and youth’s contributions are fully valued, and that binding social and environmental protections underpin every initiative.
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“African fisheries, particularly the artisanal sector, play a central role in fish processing and marketing. Yet, the contribution of these communities, especially women, to fish trade remains too often invisible and undervalued.”
As the FAO subcommittee on fish trade (COFI:FT) gathers for its 20th session early September, African small-scale fishers set out their demands in a series of joint contributions.
The COFI:FT is a platform for discussion for FAO members on “post-harvest matters of fisheries and aquaculture – specifically the trade, economic, and market dimensions of fisheries and aquaculture products,” which gathers at least once every two years. This session will discuss issues such as global trends in fisheries and aquaculture, including cooperation with other FAO bodies and international organisations, the implementation of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF), sustainable value chains and social responsibility.
Small-scale fisheries make up a significant share of global catch and contribute substantially to employment, food and nutrition security, and poverty reduction. The FAO Illuminating Hidden Harvests report (2023) has further shed light on this, with country case studies. In this article, CFFA recalls key issues at stake that FAO and their members must take into account to ensure that small-scale fishers are granted secure access to resources and markets (cf. SDG 14b).
1. Recognizing small-scale fishers’ rights and ensuring participation in global fisheries governance
COFI:FT’s first agenda point is global trends, including cooperation with other FAO bodies and international organisations. One of the core topics to be discussed by members of the FAO fisheries committee (COFI) is the progress towards the entry into force of WTO fisheries subsidies agreement (pending the ratification of at least 4 WTO members), the technical cooperation between FAO and WTO, and the preparations towards the second wave of fisheries subsidies negotiations.
In their joint statement, African small-scale fishing organisations recall that their “voices were absent when these rules were negotiated.” [Ed. The African confederation of artisanal fisheries organisations (CAOPA), the Pan-African platform of non-state actors in fisheries (Afrifish-net) and the Association for the Promotion and Responsibilisation of Maritime Fisheries Stakeholders (APRAPAM - Senegal)]. For them, “when subsidy disciplines are applied indiscriminately, they risk penalizing the small-scale fishers whose livelihoods and food security depend on relatively modest public support.” Indeed, states often support their small-scale fishers through fuel subsidies. For small-scale fishers, what’s needed instead is increased public investment in services and infrastructure which will improve the working and living conditions of coastal communities, infrastructure such as landing sites, or services such as access to clean water, electricity and drainage facilities at processing sites.
For African artisanal fisheries, subsidies must be invested in services and infrastructure to improve the working and living conditions of coastal communities, such as access to clean water, electricity and drainage facilities at processing sites. Photo of the Bissau fish market by Carmen Abd Ali.
In this same statement, small-scale fishers also mention other global developments, namely the signature of the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction in September 2023 (known as “BBNJ” or “High seas treaty”) and the progress of the Global Biodiversity Framework, especially target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Agreement (protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030). They point at the fact that both these instruments recognise the rights of Indigeneous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) and recall COFI members that no decision on conservation and trade should be made without “recognising and securing our tenure and access rights, […] and putting food security and livelihoods” first.
Furthermore, in another contribution regarding responsible fish utilisation and responsible international trade (art. 11 of CCRF), small-scale fishers recall that the “Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food emphasised the essential contribution of small-scale fisheries to the right to food, urging their integration into national right-to-food strategies.” Ensuring the inclusion of small-scale fisheries in policy and investment priorities would therefore help FAO members fulfil their human rights obligations.
2. Women at the heart of fisheries economies and food systems
The FAO Illuminating Hidden Harvests study shed light on the specific contribution of women, especially in post-harvest activities. However, it also highlighted persistent challenges for women such as inadequate infrastructure, insecure tenure, lack of access to finance, and insufficient market information. All of these challenges limit the capacity of women small-scale operators to improve quality, meet market standards, and capture fairer prices. And indeed, the FAO background document for COFI:FT on sustainable value chains recognises that upgrading these value chains requires more than technical standards: it also depends on access to infrastructure, skills and financing.
African small-scale fishers explain that “investment in local processing, packaging, and storage facilities can transform the economic prospects of artisanal fishing communities, reduce post-harvest losses, extend fish product shelf life, and increase participation in inland and regional markets.” More specifically, when looking at the role women play in fisheries, African SSF fishers insist that these investments must consider and benefit women equally: “Removing barriers to women’s participation is not only a matter of equity, but also essential for the resilience and competitiveness of fisheries value chains.”
Upgrading value chains depends on more than technical standards: it requires access to infrastructure and services. Women are the primary players in the post-harvest and marketing activities and often face dire working conditions with poor access to quality infrastructure. Photo: the fish market in Grand-Béréby landing site (Côte d’Ivoire), after a short rain storm, by Joëlle Philippe.
Moreover, women are the primary actors of informal artisanal fish trade networks which can span throughout regions in the African continent: they “make a vital contribution to regional food security and income generation.” To ensure “inclusive fisheries governance”, they call on FAO members to increase their support specifically to women in fisheries. In this regard, states should adjust to artisanal fisheries contexts by adapting sanitary and phytosanitary measures and supporting tailored trainings and capacity-building. This would ensure that small-scale fisheries, and women more particularly, “realise their potential” and that “post-harvest and trade policies can deliver equity, food security, and sustainable development for Africa’s coastal and inland fishing communities.”
Women also face trade barriers, especially through harassment by authorities at border controls. In their joint contribution, African small-scale fishers see the potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which was launched in 2021 “to reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers, simplify trade procedures for small-scale fisheries, and provide targeted support to cooperatives.”
Finally, the implementation of policies in support of women heavily depends on understanding the scale and importance of women’s contribution to fisheries, livelihoods and food security: “Gender-disaggregated data is the minimum requirement for understanding and strengthening the role of women in fish trade and for designing effective interventions for their benefit.”
3. The hidden costs of industrial blue sectors
A) THE OTHER SIDE OF AQUACULTURE’S SUCCESS STORY
Aquaculture regularly now makes the headlines for having surpassed fisheries production, currently having the 52.2% of the share in total quantity. Aquaculture also surpasses by 8 million tonnes the live weight of fisheries. And these figures from 2023, shared with COFI:FT participants prior to the session, exclude algae, which is an aquaculture sector in full speed. The growth of aquaculture is generally perceived as a success story for preserving wild-fish stocks and producing protein with a smaller carbon footprint than livestock farming. FAO has widely been promoting aquaculture as part of its “blue transformation” strategy: an alternative to provide aquatic products to the planet’s growing population.
“The industrial feedlot aquaculture model is displacing coastal small-scale fishing communities, competing with them for space. The production of fish feed also competes with the livelihoods of small-scale fishers, by taking fish away from human consumption chains and redirecting it to feed fish and livestock.””
What rarely makes the headlines, however, is the negative impacts of the mass production of farmed fish. In a statement by at least 16 organisations from civil society and small-scale fishing organisations, signatories ask FAO and its members to stop its blanket support to aquaculture and to recognize the negative social and environmental impacts of intensive industrial feedlot aquaculture: “Across the globe, [this] model is displacing coastal small-scale fisheries, competing with them for space on land and in waters traditionally used for navigating and fishing.” The statement also names a long list of environmental impacts, including eutrophication, the accumulation of organic matter under the farms, massive escapes of farmed fish and die-offs, increased diseases and epidemics, and water pollution from the use of chemicals.
The signatories further point at the nonsense of overfishing of wild fish which is then used to produce fish feed: “Aquaculture takes fish away from local communities, especially in low-income countries, to feed fish in industrial feedlot aquaculture destined for consumption in wealthier nations.” They therefore ask that human consumption is prioritized over fishmeal production. For example, in the case of West Africa, more than 33 million people could be fed with the small pelagics that are currently being processed into fishmeal and fish oil which is fed to farmed fish and livestock.
In their recommendations, the signatories consider that small-scale, low-impact aquaculture, fishers and fishworkers, small-scale fish producers, processors and traders should be at the heart of food policies and systems. They call FAO and its members to “stop encouraging mass production of seafood through industrial feedlot aquaculture without consideration for the environment and local communities” and adopt an approach to food systems governance that includes social equity and an ecosystem-based approach.
B) THE BLUE PORTS INITIATIVE NEEDS SAFEGUARDS
FAO members will discuss the Blue Ports Initiative (BPI), an enterprise which seeks to modernise port infrastructure. Despite the supposed “inclusiveness” stated in the BPI roadmap, in many African states, this modernisation and expansion of ports has come with the marginalisation of fishing communities, with the displacement of small-scale fishers and women processors from their landing and processing sites and sometimes even from their homes. Instead of looking at a thriving inclusive blue economy, what small-scale fishers are looking at is “blue fear”, the uncertainty that comes with insecure rights, tenure and livelihoods.
Small-scale fishers warn that “without appropriate safeguards, the Blue Ports initiatives risk reinforcing inequalities, favouring industrial fleets and marginalizing artisanal fishers and women processors who are central to local economies.” They recall the recommendations from the SSF Guidelines, which encourage states to delimit zoning which would reflect the role and importance of small-scale fisheries for livelihoods, food security and poverty eradication.
Secondly, as the oceans and coasts become more prized and there is increased competition over their use, small-scale fishers should be involved in consultations, especially those linked to marine spatial planning (MSP). More specifically on the BPI, its “roadmap should require that all port development or expansion projects include participatory Environmental and Social Impact Assessments that explicitly assess risks to small-scale fisheries, fishing access, and critical habitats, with fishers organizations involved from the start.”
In many countries in Africa, the port development or improvement often comes with the displaccement of the artisanal fishing communities, such as for example the Port of Cotonou (in Benin). Its development plans will relocate fishing communities several kilometers further away from the city centre. Photo of the Cotonou Port from the artisanal fishing landing site taken in 2023 by Joëlle Philippe.
Finally, in the development of this initiative, states must make sure that these infrastructure projects include facilities that respond to the needs of small-scale fisheries: landing sites with clean water and sanitation, waste management systems, cold storage, and safe processing spaces for women. These should of course be designed in consultation with the users “and regular maintenance systems must accompany these projects.”
4. Building a future for youth through binding standards, not empty commitments
FAO has been working for several years in the development of a Guidance on Social Responsibility in Fisheries and Aquaculture Value Chains, which covers labour rights, decent work, social protection, and gender equality. “For African artisanal fisheries, where informal work arrangements are the norm and labour regulations are weak or inexistent, these are urgent daily concerns,” state African small-scale fishers in their contribution to this agenda point.
However, while they welcome the Guidance, they are concerned about its voluntary character: “Voluntary measures alone will not deliver the structural change needed.” Particularly looking at youth, women and migrant workers, they cite their vulnerability, the difficult working conditions and lack of prospects. “Concrete commitments and national implementation frameworks are required to ensure that artisanal fishworkers enjoy real protection.”
Their suggestion is that this Guidance should be accompanying binding obligations such as the ILO Work in Fishing Convention (C188), instead of becoming a substitute: “it should be explicitly framed as a complementary tool that supports, but does not replace, compliance with legally binding labour standards.” In this regard, “future reporting under the FAO Guidance should look at alignment with C188 provisions, so that the voluntary adoption of the guidance by countries is directly tied to progress toward ratification and enforcement of binding standards.”
Conclusion: translating commitments into global standards
For African small-scale fishers, women fish processors and traders, the COFI is one of the few places where their realities can be translated first into global commitments and then into global standards. What they ask for is a shift in priorities: from promoting industrial growth, industrial aquaculture, to safeguarding people and ecosystems. FAO and its members can make this shift real by ensuring that trade rules are fair, that investments go into infrastructure and services that communities themselves have identified, that women’s and youth’s contributions are fully valued, and that binding social and environmental protections underpin every initiative.
If COFI:FT members choose to listen and act, small-scale fisheries in Africa and elsewhere can become a cornerstone for resilient food systems and fair trade. If they do not, inequalities will continue to deepen, and coastal livelihoods will be lost. The choice is theirs, and the credibility of FAO “blue transformation” agenda depends on it.
Banner photo: A young fisher in Cacheu, Guinea Bissau, by Carmen Abd Ali.
FAO and its members should ensure that trade rules are fair, that investments go into infrastructure and services that communities themselves have identified, that women’s and youth’s contributions are fully valued, and that binding social and environmental protections underpin every initiative.