Strengthening Governance of Small-Scale Fisheries: An Initial Assessment of the Theory and Practice

Preferred citation for this report: Basurto, X., Virdin, J., Smith, H. and R. Juskus. 2017. Strengthening Governance of Small-Scale Fisheries: An Initial Assessment of Theory and Practice. Oak Foundation.Often hidden in national statistics, small-scale fisheries have been poorly measured at a global level, and in thepast often ignored in states' policy-making. Yet estimates suggest their aggregate global contribution tonutrition, food security and poverty eradication is massive. The most recent estimates available suggest thatsmall-scale fisheries account for over 90 percent of the world's commercial fishers, processors and otherpersons employed along the value chain, equivalent to over 108 million people. Roughly half areemployed in the ocean and the other half in inland fisheries—making small-scale fisheries far and awaythe ocean's largest employer (greater than oil and gas, shipping, tourism, etc.). This level of activitytranslates into a large portion of the global fish catch: an estimated 46 percent of the total, and 38 percentof the fish caught in the ocean. SSFs are also estimated to provide over half the animal protein intake inmany of the world's least developed countries, and over half of the fish for domestic consumption indeveloping countries more broadly. In sum, in many regions of the world SSFs provide both incomes tohelp reduce poverty and safety nets to help prevent it

Beyond the Tragedy of the Commons.

To move beyond Hardin’s tragedy of the commons, it is fundamental to avoid falling into either of two analytical and policy traps: (1) deriving and recommending “panaceas” or (2) asserting “my case is unique.” We can move beyond both traps by self-consciously building diagnostic theory to help unpack and understand the complex interrelationship between social and biophysical factors at different levels of analysis. We need to look for commonalities and differences across studies. This understanding will be augmented if the rich detail produced from case studies is used together with theory to find patterned structures among cases. In this paper, we briefly illustrate important steps of how we can go about diagnosing the emergence and sustainability of self-organization in the fishing context of the Gulf of California, Mexico. By doing so, we are able to move away from the universality proposed by Hardin and understand how two out of three fisheries were able to successfully self-organize, and why one of them continues to be robust over time

Teaching Resilience to People with Visual Disabilities

The objective of the research is to develop resilience in people with visual disabilities at the Technical University of Manabí. The work offers a conceptual analysis on visual disability in students. It deals with what is related to the conceptual understanding of resilience, where several authors who have studied the subject are analyzed. The resilient capacity of students with visual impairment and the importance of psychological support is analyzed. The importance of the intervention in resilience is exposed, where the content of the Manual of Intervention in Resilience of Eugenio Saavedra 2011 is analyzed. The results of the measurement of resilience are shown in the students of the Technical University of Manabí who suffer from a visual disability and the situation that could be verified after applying the work of training in resilience to said personnel. Finally, the conclusions of the work are exposed, where the relevance of the study is demonstrated and a group of recommendations is made based on the importance of the results obtained in the research

Recognize fish as food in policy discourse and development funding

The international development community is off-track from meeting targets for alleviating global malnutrition. Meanwhile, there is growing consensus across scientific disciplines that fish plays a crucial role in food and nutrition security. However, this ‘fish as food’ perspective has yet to translate into policy and development funding priorities. We argue that the traditional framing of fish as a natural resource emphasizes economic development and biodiversity conservation objectives, whereas situating fish within a food systems perspective can lead to innovative policies and investments that promote nutrition-sensitive and socially equitable capture fisheries and aquaculture. This paper highlights four pillars of research needs and policy directions toward this end. Ultimately, recognizing and working to enhance the role of fish in alleviating hunger and malnutrition can provide an additional long-term development incentive, beyond revenue generation and biodiversity conservation, for governments, international development organizations, and society more broadly to invest in the sustainability of capture fisheries and aquaculture

Capacity shortfalls hinder the performance of marine protected areas globally

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly being used globally to conserve marine resources. However, whether many MPAs are being effectively and equitably managed, and how MPA management influences substantive outcomes remain unknown. We developed a global database of management and fish population data (433 and 218 MPAs, respectively) to assess: MPA management processes; the effects of MPAs on fish populations; and relationships between management processes and ecological effects. Here we report that many MPAs failed to meet thresholds for effective and equitable management processes, with widespread shortfalls in staff and financial resources. Although 71% of MPAs positively influenced fish populations, these conservation impacts were highly variable. Staff and budget capacity were the strongest predictors of conservation impact: MPAs with adequate staff capacity had ecological effects 2.9 times greater than MPAs with inadequate capacity. Thus, continued global expansion of MPAs without adequate investment in human and financial capacity is likely to lead to sub-optimal conservation outcomes

The Comparative Risk of Delirium with Different Opioids:A Systematic Review

There is substantial evidence that the use of opioids increases the risk of adverse outcomes such as delirium, but whether this risk differs between the various opioids remains controversial. In this systematic review, we evaluate and discuss possible differences in the risk of delirium from the use of various types of opioids in older patients. We performed a search in MEDLINE by combining search terms on delirium and opioids. A specific search filter for use in geriatric medicine was used. Quality was scored according to the quality assessment for cohort studies of the Dutch Cochrane Institute. Six studies were included, all performed in surgical departments and all observational. No study was rated high quality, one was rated moderate quality, and five were rated low quality. Information about dose, route, and timing of administration of the opioid was frequently missing. Pain and other important risk factors of delirium were often not taken into account. Use of tramadol or meperidine was associated with an increased risk of delirium, whereas the use of morphine, fentanyl, oxycodone, and codeine were not, when compared with no opioid. Meperidine was also associated with an increased risk of delirium compared with other opioids, whereas tramadol was not. The risk of delirium appeared to be lower with hydromorphone or fentanyl, compared with other opioids. Numbers used for comparisons were small. Some data suggest that meperidine may lead to a higher perioperative risk for delirium; however, high-quality studies that compare different opioids are lacking. Further comparative research is neede