Untangling subsidies, supporting fisheries: the WTO fisheries subsidies debate and developing-country priorities

This paper examines, from the fishery perspective of a developing country, the current debate on the role of fisheries subsidies in the context of the negotiations relating to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). While providing a background on fish production and trade in developing countries, it sketches the history of the role of the State and subsidies in the fisheries of the now-developed fish economies of the world.It goes on to analyze the manner in which fishery issues and the fisheries subsidies debate have been carried out in the GATT and WTO negotiations, leading up to the Doha Ministerial Declaration, which is the basis for a more structured negotiations on subsidies. Drawing on the analysis, the paper envisions some of the development priorities that developing countries must pursue, and the nature of support they need to achieve them. Finally, it suggests what ought to be done by developing countries in the current negotiations on fisheries subsidies. (88pp.

SSF Guidelines: the beauty of the small

An examination of the role of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication in the context of the small-sale fishery of Kerala, India

International fish trade and food security: issues and perspectives

pp. 147-15

Factoring social and cultural dimensions into food and livelihood security issues of marine fisheries : a case study of Kerala state, India

Some of the social and cultural aspects of marine fishing communities, as they emerge in the course of the pursuit for food and livelihood, are the subjects of this paper. The focus is on the marine fishery of Kerala State, India and attempts to show how these dimensions evolved in the context of very specific resource and ecological determinants. Social and cultural dimensions have been often considered a "drag" on the transformation of societies into modern entities. However, the numerous failures encountered when development is given an exclusively techno-economic orientation, provide the basis for a new search to give meaning to hitherto neglected socio-cultural norms. This search is all the more relevant in this era of globalisation that set into momentum the tendency to homogenize social and cultural specificity. The sustainability of any society will depend in large measure on the degree of diversity and self-reliance that it is able to maintain with regard to reproducing its social and cultural concomitants. At the core of this are issues pertaining to the food and livelihood security of its people. The paper examines the visible manifestations of deeper social and cultural attributes in the marine fishery sector, which have been fashioned over a very long history. The list includes: the nature of the sharing patterns in the fishery; traditional knowledge and technology; the old and new institutional arrangements in fishing communities; fish and the question food security; and the role of women. JEL Classification: O17 ; O20: Q22 Key Words: Marine fisheries, Kerala State; social and cultural dimensions; ecological determinants; food and livelihood security

Collective action for common property resource rejuvenation : the case of people's artificial reefs in Kerala state, India

This paper is about the efforts being made by communities of coastal fisherfolk in South India to build artificial reefs as a means of rejuvenating the ecosystem of their coastal waters damaged by indiscriminate trawling. These initiatives provide the basis for questioning the now influential opinions that in the case of resources in the realm of the commons, precious Uttle will be done to save them from ruin, particularly by those individuals who enjoy access to them. It hopes to add to the accumulating evidence that collective action by the laboring masses in the developing world - peasants, fisherfolk and forest dwellers, to mention a few - to revive and rejuvenate their common pool resources calls to question the undiscriminating policy prescriptions which continue to see only "market or state" interventions to solve issues relating to environmental degradation

Obituary, Pierre Gillet: the priest of multitasking (1939 – 2015)

Pierre Gillet was the rare sort of clergyman who escaped classification—but fishers around the world will remember him as a godsend

Profile: Tribute: A fishing village in Kerala mourns Italian nurse Lauretta Farina of Bergamo

Did you know that there is a small fishing village called Marianad, in Thiruvananthapuram district, Kerala, India, which owes a lot of its history to a public health nurse from Bergamo – the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Italy? This nurse, Lauretta Farina, 86, passed away on 12 March 2020, in a retirement home in Bergamo

Fisheries: Leaving none behind

Artisanal fishers’ experiential knowledge contains qualities that can help the world face some of its most difficult problems including climate change. We need to value their wisdom

The blessing of the commons : small-scale fisheries, community property rights, and coastal natural assets

The first part of this paper describes the nature of the oceans and human use of the living natural assets therein. It discusses the technology and institutional arrangements through which coastal communities interacted with these living resources, and the political economy of the movement from small-scale to large-scale fishing operations and from community rights to open access. The second part of the paper examines the potential of natural asset-building strategies. This draws upon examples from the Asia-Pacific region to highlight how small-scale, community-based fishing is both ecologically and economically suited to make a blessing of the coastal commons that will simultaneously ensure sustainable natural resource use and community well-being. Key words: Community property rights, small-scale fisheries, natural assets JEL Classification : D 23, Q22, Q3