Fish Night 8: Keeping up momentum for artisanal fisheries and aquaculture

Webinar

This event on Tuesday, 28 March discussed how to keep up global support and attention on small-scale, artisanal fisheries and aquaculture, after the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture.

Online
Last updated 3 April 2023
Boats on the sea shore

Small-scale fishers in Zanzibar (Photo: Rod Waddington, via FlickrCC BY-SA 2.0)

Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture are critically important sources of livelihoods and nutrition for hundreds of millions of men and women. Around 7% of the world’s population depends at least partially on the small-scale fisheries sector for employment or subsistence.

In recognition of this importance, 2022 was designated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization as the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA). IIED’s eighth Fish Night on 28 March discussed how to maintain global support and attention on small-scale fisheries and aquaculture going forward.

IYAFA provided an opportunity to highlight the diversity, capacity and potential of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture. It worked to raise awareness around small-scale fisheries and artisanal aquaculture, strengthen interactions between scientists and policymakers, and to build and solidify existing partnerships.

Key actions included promoting the inclusion of small-scale fishers, fish farmers and fish workers in building enabling policy environments, supporting inclusive value chains for small-scale actors, acknowledging women and men as equals, and increasing the preparedness and adaptive capacity of small-scale fisheries to shocks and climate change.

Fish Night 8 discussed the importance of the small-scale fisheries and aquaculture sectors, and looked ahead to explore opportunities for supporting small-scale actors to overcome challenges and fulfil their potential contributions to sustainable development.

About the speakers

  • Editrudith Lukanga is co-founder and executive director of Environmental Management and Economic Development Organization (EMEDO), a not-for-profit organisation working in areas of environment and natural resources governance in Tanzania. She holds several leadership positions in small-scale fisher and fish worker organisations, including the World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish Workers (WFF) and the African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network (AWFISHNET), and she is also vice-chair of the International Steering Committee (ISC) of IYAFA, representing the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) Working Group on Fisheries.
  • Jeremy Percy has been crew, skipper and owner of a variety of vessels fishing UK and Irish waters. He is master of a fisheries protection vessel as well as deputy director of a Sea Fisheries Committee with responsibility for inshore fisheries management. Jeremy managed the first real-time internet based fresh fish auction in England and Wales and was the owner and managing director of a successful fish processing and export company based in Milford Haven. Previously, Jeremy was the CEO of the main Welsh Fishermen’s Federation, CEO to the Low Impact Fishers of Europe Platform and is currently CEO to the New Under Ten Fishermen’s Association for England and Wales.
  • Tom Mitchell (moderator) is the executive director of IIED.

Event coverage

Watch a full recording of the event below or on IIED's YouTube channel, where individual links to the start of each speaker's contribution are also provided.

About Fish Night

IIED's Fish Night events bring together people from academia, government, NGOs, fisherworkers’ collectives, associations and networks to discuss issues around sustainable fisheries, aquaculture and oceans governance and to demystify complex theories and scientific findings.

The events also create space to share hard-earned lessons and are intended to inspire change to create fisheries that work today and into the future.

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Contact

Annabelle Bladon (annabelle.bladon@iied.org), senior researcher (inclusive blue economy), IIED's Shaping Sustainable Markets research group