Tailwind for Sustainable Artisanal Fisheries: VOL. 55 NO. 4/2021

Global fish stocks have never before been under as much stress as they are today. And never before have so many aquatic species been heading for extinction, with more than a third of fish stocks being fished at biologically unsustainable levels – a share that, according to Food and Agriculture Organization figures, has tripled in the last 40 years. This poor state of our natural resources has also once again been highlighted at the recent UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Kunming, China – accompanied by demands to place at least a third of our marine areas under protection.

However, almost 3.3 billion people, most of them living in Africa and Asia, rely on fish for their daily supply of protein. Moreover, fish and seafood secure the livelihoods of about 800 million people worldwide, 90 per cent of whom are living in developing countries. For many of these countries, fish trade and the granting of fishing rights represent an indispensable source of income – in fact, alongside tourism, the only source for most small island development states. But so far, the crucial role the sector plays has hardly been reflected by international development cooperation.

Nevertheless, small-scale fishers and fish farmers are by no means per se the custodians of our aquatic resources, either. They all too often apply unsustainable production methods – for lack of knowledge or owing to insufficient technical equipment, but increasingly because factors such as the impacts of climate change or industrial fishing are forcing them to give up their traditional modes of production or extend their fishing grounds.

It is for this reason too that the United Nations has declared 2022 the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA) – a move which is to help get the sector out of marginalisation and highlight the importance of small-scale aquatic food production for food security and nutrition, for employment and income generation and hence for poverty eradication. But above all, it is to help place the sector on more sustainable pillars and make it viable for coming generations. In this edition, we present initiatives which have been committed to this goal for many years.

Other Publications

Ensuring that rural advisory services are responsive to women: good practices from FAO in Europe and Central Asia

This report builds upon FAO’s work promoting gender mainstreaming in extension and advisory services, cataloguing challenges and suggesting strategies for increasing the gender responsiveness of rural advisory services globally. The purpose of this review is to apply FAO’s accumulated knowledge about gender equality in the context of rural advisory services to assess the situation in the ECA region. The report provides a snapshot of the extent to which gender considerations are currently integrated into RAS in the region and highlights good practices that are in line with FAO’s gender equality strategies. The report concludes with recommendations for FAO, partner organizations and stakeholders in the fields of agricultural extension and rural advisory services, on how to further improve such services to extend their reach to rural women and men who have previously had limited or no access. This process requires moving away from gender‑neutral service provision, which often results in the exclusion of women, towards transformative extension and rural advisory services that challenge unequal gender relations and address underlying discriminatory norms and practices.

Regional Brief: Strengthening the Role of Public Extension and Advisory Services in Asia

In 2022, the Rural Development Administration(RDA) of the Republic of Korea through its Asian Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (AFACI), launched a project “Improvement of Rural Agricultural Technology Extension System in Asia (RATES)” to strengthen extension systems in 12 Asian countries. The Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) is a partner in this initiative and its regional network in Asia, the Asia-Pacific Islands Rural Advisory Services (APIRAS) is supporting the implementation of the RATES project. One of its early activities was to make an assessment of the EAS system in these countries. This brief is based on the assessment of EAS, especially focussing on the role of public EAS in these countries, the challenges they face, and identifying some of the potential ways forward to enhance the contributions of EAS.

Climate Change and Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services

Rising temperatures, longer droughts, more severe storms, warming oceans, and recurring floods are already threatening global agriculture and food security. Most smallholder farmers in middle- and lowincome countries have limited abilities to respond and adapt to these climate risks. While highly vulnerable to climate change, agriculture is also a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To strengthen the resilience of agriculture to changing climate, a two-pronged approach that supports adaptation – adjusting to actual or expected future climate change – and promotes mitigation – reducing greenhouse gases or enhancing accumulation and storage of GHG – is needed. Promoting these strategies at scale involves changing the behavior, strategies, and agricultural practices of millions of agricultural producers.