Identifying sustainability priorities among value chain actors in artisanal common octopus fisheries

The United Nations (UN) Decade of Ocean Science highlights a need to improve the way in which scientific results effectively inform action and policies regarding the ocean. Our research contributes to achieving this goal by identifying practical actions, barriers, stakeholder contributions and resources required to increase the sustainability of activities carried out in the context of artisanal fisheries to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA) Global Action Plan (GAP) Pillar targets. We conducted a novel ‘social value chain analysis’ via a participatory workshop to elicit perspectives of value chain actors and fisheries stakeholders associated with two Spanish artisanal common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) fisheries (western Asturias—Marine Stewardship Council [MSC] certified, and Galicia—non-MSC certified) about their priorities regarding sustainable octopus production and commercializationOpen Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Cephs and Chefs Project (https://www.cephsandchefs.com/) funded by the European Regional Development Fund (https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/erdf/) through the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme grant number EAPA_282/2016. CP, TF, KR and DC would also like to acknowledge financial support to CESAM by FCT/MCTES (UIDP/50017/2020 + UIDB/50017/2020 + LA/P/0094/2020), through national funds. CP acknowledges the FCT research contract 2020.02510.CEECIND. SV and PP acknowledge the financial support from the Xunta de Galicia (https://www.xunta.gal/portada) (RECREGES II project under Grant 1400 ED481B2018/017 and Grupo de Referencia Competitiva GI-2060 AEMI, under Grant 1401 ED431C2019/11). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscriptS

Identifying sustainability priorities among value chain actors in artisanal common octopus fisheries

30 pages, 6 figures, 1 table.-- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International LicenseThe United Nations (UN) Decade of Ocean Science highlights a need to improve the way in which scientific results effectively inform action and policies regarding the ocean. Our research contributes to achieving this goal by identifying practical actions, barriers, stakeholder contributions and resources required to increase the sustainability of activities carried out in the context of artisanal fisheries to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA) Global Action Plan (GAP) Pillar targets. We conducted a novel ‘social value chain analysis’ via a participatory workshop to elicit perspectives of value chain actors and fisheries stakeholders associated with two Spanish artisanal common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) fisheries (western Asturias—Marine Stewardship Council [MSC] certified, and Galicia—non-MSC certified) about their priorities regarding sustainable octopus production and commercialization. Our adapted Rapfish sustainability framework emphasised the importance of economic, environmental, ethical, institutional, social, and technological indicators to different actors across the value chain. We mapped participants’ shared sustainability priorities (e.g. integrated fisheries management, knowledge-based management, product traceability) to six Rapfish indicators, seven IYAFA Pillars and twelve SDGs to reveal how our results can inform ocean policy and actions. This identified how certification incentives and other cooperative approaches can facilitate environmental, economic and social sustainability (e.g. value-added products, price premiums for producers, gender inclusive organisations); support IYAFA priority outcomes (raised awareness, strengthened science-policy interface, empowered stakeholders, partnerships); and help to achieve UN SDG targets (e.g. SDG 14.b, SDG 17.17). The results can inform actors, stakeholders and policymakers about how different actors contribute to efforts to achieve the SDGs and how to manage priorities for sustainable actions within artisanal fisheries and their value chains. We recommend inclusive and equitable participatory knowledge transfer and governance platforms as part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science and beyond where participants can create theories of change towards sustainability involving the development of multi-sectoral ocean policies framed at the level of the value chain and supported by appropriate governance structuresOpen Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Cephs and Chefs Project (https://www.cephsandchefs.com/) funded by the European Regional Development Fund (https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/erdf/) through the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme grant number EAPA_282/2016. CP, TF, KR and DC would also like to acknowledge financial support to CESAM by FCT/MCTES (UIDP/50017/2020 + UIDB/50017/2020 + LA/P/0094/2020), through national funds. CP acknowledges the FCT research contract 2020.02510.CEECIND. SV and PP acknowledge the financial support from the Xunta de Galicia (https://www.xunta.gal/portada) (RECREGES II project under Grant 1400 ED481B2018/017 and Grupo de Referencia Competitiva GI-2060 AEMI, under Grant 1401 ED431C2019/11)Peer reviewe