PCFS represents grassroots organisations at the Expert Meeting on fisheries

Written by Administrator Wednesday, 23 May 2012 16:29

PCFS was invited to attend the recent Expert Meeting on Fisheries hosted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter. PCFS was onlyone of THREE? CSOs invited to attend the meeting which included experts from research institutions, international agencies and policy makers at national and international levels.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food hosted the roundtable meeting to solicit the perspectives of experts from a wide range of disciplines on the impact of current fisheries practices and policies on the right to adequate food. The contributions to the expert meeting are intended to feed into the UN Special Rapporteurs reports and recommendations to the 67^th Session on the UN General Assembly.

The expert meeting was held to specifically address declining productivity of global fisheries as a source of food and the impact of food security of current fisheries policies and practices and the implications of climate change. It was noted that the individuals most vulnerable to the negative impacts of mismanagement of fisheries are residents of developing coastal and island countries, particularly in Low-Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDC).

These issues were considered in the meeting and participants identified the following key issues:

1. There is a lack of coherent, reliable and accessible information in the fisheries sector. Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia, stated that the recent country estimates on fisheries production reveal that the FAO data do not accurately reflect artisanal catch and discards among other statistics. The estimates on fisheries capture and subsequent decline in capture is therefore severely underestimated. Pauly’s findings indicate that analyses of fisheries which are predominantly based on FAO’s data and information will need to be reviewed.
2. PCFS, with other representative CSOs from the fisheries sector, raised current issues facing small-scale fisherfolk. Of particular concern is the impact of commercial fishing and the pressure of export-driven fisheries industries on fishing communities in the developing world. Roy Anunciacion, PCFS said “insert quote here”. Chadrika Sharma of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers also raised on small-scale fishers’ living and working conditions are deteriorating due to the market driven fishing industry and their exclusion from development policies.

The discussions from the expert meeting will feed into the UN Special Rapporteurs report to the UN General Assembly in September 2012.

PCFS will also continue with the theme of the expert meeting and build on these discussions by hosting an International Conference on Fisheries and Globalisation on 3-7 September 2012, in the Philippines. This will be attended by grassroots organisations and collectives representing small-scale fisher folk. The conference will provide a venue for participants to share knowledge and advocacy tools and to build strategies for sustainable development in the face of globalisation.

If you are interested in attending or would like further information about the conference, please contact PCFS.