It is widely recognised that small-scale fisheries have the potential to significantly contribute to sustainable development, in particular with respect to such key issues as poverty reduction, food and livelihood security, balanced nutrition, wealth creation, foreign exchange earnings and coastal-rural development. The important role of small-scale fisheries in equitable and inclusive development and attaining the millennium development goals (MDGs) has received growing attention in national, regional and international fora by governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, private sector groups and civil society organizations.
There are, however, a number of significant impediments to small-scale fisheries realising their full potential. Small-scale fishers often face precarious and vulnerable living and working conditions because of insecure rights to land and fishery resources, inadequate or absent health and educational services and social safety nets, and exclusion from wider development processes due to weak organizational structures and representation and participation in decision-making.
The Conference will have a broad scope allowing for the discussion of a wide range of issues including, inter alia, wider social and economic development and human rights issues, governance, fisheries policy processes and systems, fisheries management approaches and market access aspects and means of increasing post harvest benefits. A special focus of the conference, however, will be on the issue of securing access and user rights by small-scale fishers, indigenous peoples, and fishing communities to coastal and fishery resources that sustain their livelihoods.
Participants
The subject matter and focus of the Conference is of particular importance to developing countries and stakeholders from directly concerned countries are encouraged to participate. Since management issues as well as valuable experience from different systems and approaches exist also in industrialised countries, those concerned with small-scale fisheries in the North and sub-tropics are also encouraged to participate.
The organizers look forward to the participation of fish workers, fisheries managers, social scientists, government officials, representatives of professional associations, NGOs and other civil society organisations, the private sector, and international and regional development partners and agencies.
Given the important role of women in the small scale fisheries sector, the organizers will ensure their presence and as wide as possible participation in the conference. Since the issues to be discussed combine social development and fisheries management, officials, professionals and representatives dealing with both – or one or the other – of the two issues are invited to participate. Representation from the local community level is sought. |
