Context
Aquaculture is a globally fast growing sector. About 200 million people in developing countries depend directly or indirectly with their livelihoods on fishing and aquaculture. About 90 percent of those fishermen and –women are small scale fishers. However, massive global subventions are leading to overcapacity in the sector and overexploitation. The level of overfishing is reaching a catastrophic dimension: 88 percent of world’s fish stock are fully used, exhausted or collapsed. Any diminishing catch level is threatening the very existence of the population in costal zones of developing countries with socioeconomic consequences and shortages in their protein supply. The increased pressure on the resource fish also causes severe ecological problems, threatening the marine biodiversity and entire ecosystem.
Objective
Project goal is to promote sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in context of small scale fisheries and farming to secure nutrition and income as well as to contribute to the protection of natural resources.
Approach
All activities are based on the development goals of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and use the experiences of previous projects in the sector. The project comprises a multi-level concept:
On the macro level it supports the BMZ initiative "One world without hunger" directly through political consulting. Further it fosters national and international dialogue with governmental and non-governmental actors and contributes to the development of international agreements, declarations and other standards for the enhancement of sustainability in fisheries and aquaculture. In close cooperation and consultation with international development institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) standards and procedures for sustainable production in fisheries and aquaculture are developed and implemented in selected countries in cooperation with the private sector. The developed instruments and methods are designed to fit into investment strategies of partner governments and the private sector.
On the meso level the project cooperates with the private sector and relevant partners on the development of innovations for the improvement of sustainable resource utilization with reference to food security, income and resource protection.
On a micro level individual farmers and local stakeholders are supported through pilot projects with direct interventions and consulting.
The combination of those three levels creates the necessary synergies for a successful implementation. The sector project "Promotion of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture" has a global mandate. It is designed to contribute expertise within the following three spheres of activities: political consulting, innovation development and networking.
Results
Through its expertise the sector project was able to partly influence German, European and international policy making concerning sustainable (wild catch) fisheries, aquaculture and coastal zone management. Its most successful leverages are in developing standards and guidelines, with regard to strengthening small scale fisheries (see FAO-VGSSF, Voluntary Guidelines in Small Scale Fisheries), and the engagement in relevant European and international networks and working groups.
In context of sustainable resource utilization and reliability of supply chains, the attention for the relevance of good fisheries and aquaculture practices is rising within the group of cooperation partners in the private sector. The share of sustainable and certified products in relation to the total volume of goods is increasing and contributes to the protection of natural resources and respective producers livelihoods. The innovative approaches of the sector project concerning certification of wild catch and aquaculture in developing countries may contribute to an added value of fishery products, a better linkage into European markets and therefore to an increased income for fish farmers and people working in the fish industry.
The example of Nile perch (Lake Victoria) showed an improvement in living conditions and income increase of the fishing communities through certification as well as successes in the fields of education and health.