Women play an important role within small-scale fishing communities in the South Pacific, contributing to food security and income. Yet, decisions on the management of coastal fisheries are mostly taken by male community leaders. Given that women and men interact with marine spaces differently, there is a need to further analyze women’s and men’s differentiated roles and participation in marine resource use and governance. This study does so by drawing on qualitative data from a case study in Solomon Islands. In the fishing community studied here, women had crucial and differentiated effects on social, economic, and ecological sustainability. Our study reveals that women provided significant social and economic benefits to their families and the broader community. At the same time, we find that some women were inclined towards breaking local marine management rules (i.e., potentially lowering positive ecological effects of the conservation efforts) because (1) women had been little involved in the decision-making with regard to local marine management; (2) women had partly lost trust in the local male leadership due to a perceived misuse of money; and (3) women were more constrained in their fishing activities because a marine closure was located where mainly women used to fish. Our study highlights the importance of paying attention to women’s needs and actions in the governance of the fishery—including both the positive as well as potentially negative consequences thereof. Furthermore, our study shows that, besides gender, other socio-cultural variables (i.e., religious denomination and place of birth) shaped a person’s role and interactions in the fishery. It thus adds weight to intersectional approaches to gender.

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A gender lens on women’s harvesting activities and interactions with local marine governance in a South Pacific fishing community

The health of coastal human communities and marine ecosystems are at risk from a host of anthropogenic stressors, in particular, climate change. Because ecological health and human well-being are inextricably connected, effective and positive responses to current risks require multidisciplinary solutions. Yet, the complexity of coupled social–ecological systems has left many potential solutions unidentified or insufficiently explored. The urgent need to achieve positive social and ecological outcomes across local and global scales necessitates rapid and targeted multidisciplinary research to identify solutions that have the greatest chance of promoting benefits for both people and nature. To address these challenges, we conducted a forecasting exercise with a diverse, multidisciplinary team to identify priority research questions needed to promote sustainable and just marine social–ecological systems now and into the future, within the context of climate change and population growth. In contrast to the traditional reactive cycle of science and management, we aimed to generate questions that focus on what we need to know, before we need to know it. Participants were presented with the question, “If we were managing oceans in 2050 and looking back, what research, primary or synthetic, would wish we had invested in today?” We first identified major social and ecological events over the past 60 years that shaped current human relationships with coasts and oceans. We then used a modified Delphi approach to identify nine priority research areas and 46 questions focused on increasing sustainability and well-being in marine social–ecological systems. The research areas we identified include relationships between ecological and human health, access to resources, equity, governance, economics, resilience, and technology. Most questions require increased collaboration across traditionally distinct disciplines and sectors for successful study and implementation. By identifying these questions, we hope to facilitate the discourse, research, and policies needed to rapidly promote healthy marine ecosystems and the human communities that depend upon them. © Copyright © 2020 Friedman, Halpern, McLeod, Beck, Duarte, Kappel, Levine, Sluka, Adler, O’Hara, Sterling, Tapia-Lewin, Losada, McClanahan, Pendleton, Spring, Toomey, Weiss, Possingham and Montambault.

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02492506/document

Research Priorities for Achieving Healthy Marine Ecosystems and Human Communities in a Changing Climate

In this paper, we examine the role of gender in community-based management of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Central Philippines. MPAs are a common conservation and fisheries management tool in this area, but the relationship between gendered fishing practices and participatory MPA management is rarely considered. In this region, women and men’s fishing practices are often socially and ecologically distinct. MPAs are found in both intertidal and subtidal areas where women and men tend to fish respectively. Based on over 500 interviews in 12 fishing communities, MPAs were largely perceived to be a management tool for men’s fishing. Very few men and women reported a negative effect on their personal fishing or displacement from their fishing area. However, in two communities MPAs that had been in intertidal areas had either been moved or opened specifically to allow for gleaning. Women were less likely than men to report that the MPA had a positive effect on their fishing, but women and men recommended the MPA in equal numbers. Women and men reported attending MPA meetings, but women were less likely to describe active participation in MPA management such as decision making. This research adds to the larger body of work that considers gender and inequality to critically examine issues of power and exclusion in community-based resource management.

Gender and marine protected areas: a case study of Danajon Bank, Philippines

Comanagement of natural resources is a well-established approach to the management of common-pool resources such as small-scale fisheries, operating in multiple contexts and settings for over two decades. These programs are expected to be adaptable and promote social and ecological benefits, such as sustainable livelihoods and biodiversity goals. As programs mature, it is important to consider how some core principles of comanagement have manifested in practice, as well as whether they deliver on these promised benefits. Drawing from the conservation, small-scale fisheries, and fisheries management literature, this paper examines three fundamental principles of fisheries comanagement: participation, equity, and power. The conceptualization, definitions, and measures of each theme are presented, with discussion of the current gaps in the literature. We also demonstrate the deep interrelationships between these key dimensions of comanagement, and the need for greater attention to their combined influence on comanagement outcomes and processes. While the literature offers foundational ideas for incorporating these themes into fisheries comanagement practice, tethering these concepts to clear, but context-specific goals and practices is essential for improving social outcomes. We find that key goals of fisheries comanagement could be impeded by the lack of depth in addressing these themes in practice, and suggest the need for greater critical attention to their expressions in comanagement processes.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/9/3324/pdf

Participation, Power, and Equity: Examining Three Key Social Dimensions of Fisheries Comanagement

Women are present in all phases of fish production, processing and distribution, and contribute to the generation of wealth, the preservation of aquatic ecosystems, and the maintenance of household...

Expanding the horizons for women in fisheries and aquaculture

Gender equity and equality is the fourth guiding principle of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines), and sits within its wider human rights framework. The SSF Guidelines contain acknowledgement of the roles of women in the small-scale fisheries value chain, the need for gender equity and equality in access to human well-being resources, and the need for equal gender participation in fisheries governance. While the inclusion of gender in the SSF Guidelines is unprecedented and encouraging, effective implementation is the critical next step. Part of the implementation process will include the creation of culturally and regionally-specific information that allows local agencies to recognize and prioritize gender needs. To provide an example of the diverse and interacting issues related to the implementation of the gender equity and equality principle, we use case studies and expertise from seven countries and regions. We examine the context-specific issues that should be considered in the implementation process and focus on the many barriers to gender equity and equality in small-scale fisheries. We conclude by outlining the many gender approaches that could be used to implement the SSF Guidelines, and suggest a gender transformative approach. Such an approach focuses on illuminating root causes of gender injustice and inequality, and requires on-going examination of power relationships as well as capacity development for women and marginalized groups.

Promoting Gender Equity and Equality Through the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines: Experiences from Multiple Case Studies

Women’s groups in rural fishery areas were established in the mid-1950s. By 1959, they became integrated in local Fishery Cooperative Associations as parallel organizations. These Fisheries Cooperative Associations, established in 1948, represent all fishers in Japan, who are primarily men. The purpose of the women’s groups was to provide well-being by improving the living conditions of families and communities. While men were busy building the production facilities and the cooperatives, women organized themselves to protect and improve the everyday life of families. From 1995 and the World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, some of these women groups ran economic entrepreneurial activities with the financial support of the State through the cooperatives. This new role of women’s groups aims to improve the economic and social development and environment of families and communities facing depopulation problems who need to increase the number of young people. This paper examines the role of cooperative associations in rural, fishery communities and shows how these associations “handed over” the social responsibilities to the women groups who then developed their social skills and competences. Special emphasis is put on how the women groups changed their activity from social issues to environmental protection, promotion of fishery products, and to entrepreneurial activities. The paper also problematizes the difficulties the women met in order to get their contribution to the fisheries communities and industry recognized, as well as their status.

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Kumi Soejima

Papers

Promoting Gender Equity and Equality Through the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines: Experiences from Multiple Case Studies

Fisheries women groups in Japan: a shift from well-being to entrepreneurship