Geographies of the Sea: Negotiating Human–Fish Interactions in the Waterscapes of Colombia’s Pacific Coast

The realities of many coastal dwellers have been shaped by their interactions with fish and water along the world’s waterscapes. However, human and cultural geographers have largely overlooked how waterscapes influence coastal people’s behaviors and social interactions. Studies of geographies of the sea have acknowledged the importance of human–nonhuman interactions in the context of fluid ocean spaces and political economies. Critically engaging capitalist, industrialized perspectives of oceans, our article contributes to this literature to study how Afro-descendant small-scale fishers in the Gulf of Tribugá respond to intensifying neoliberal fishing regimes in Colombia’s Pacific coast. We do so by examining how fishers negotiate diverse representations of fish and how these influence their behaviors and practices over time and space. We bring the sea to the center of inquiry to investigate how the sociomaterial character of fish intersects with political, economic, and cultural forces and how they influence perceptions, access, and use of oceans. We argue that the scarcity induced by industrial fisheries overexploitation has changed people’s access to and control over fish and enabled biodiversity conservation discourses to marketize and transform fishing practices. This process has added value to fish through the creation of marine protected areas and the rebranding of fish in terms of traceability and “valued-added” sustainability. In this context, however, we highlight how fishers and their practices have endured through situated institutional practices despite being wrapped up in the complex power dynamics that have marginalized Afro-descendant people in Colombia since colonial times. Key Words: assemblage, Colombia, geographies of the sea, institutions, neoliberalism

Fluid geographies : marine territorialisation and the scaling up of local aquatic epistemologies on the Pacific Coast of Colombia

The Pacific region of Colombia, like many sparsely populated places in developing countries, has been imagined as empty in social terms, and yet full in terms of natural resources and biodiversity. These imaginaries have enabled the creation of frontiers of land and sea control, where the state as well as private and illegal actors have historically dispossessed Afro-descendant and indigenous peoples. This paper contributes to the understanding of territorialisation in the oceans, where political and legal framings of the sea as an open-access public good have neglected the existence of marine social processes. It shows how Afro-descendant communities and non-state actors are required to use the language of resources, rather than socio-cultural attachment, to negotiate state marine territorialisation processes. Drawing on a case study on the Pacific coast of Colombia, we demonstrate that Afro-descendant communities hold local aquatic epistemologies, in which knowledge and the production of space are entangled in fluid and volumetric spatio-temporal dynamics. However, despite the social importance of aquatic environments, they were excluded from Afro-descendants’ collective territorial rights in the 1990s. Driven by their local aquatic epistemologies, coastal communities are reclaiming authority over the seascape through the creation of a marine protected area.We argue that they have transformed relations of authority at sea to ensure local access and control, using state institutional instruments to subvert and challenge the legal framing of the sea as an open access public good. As such, this marine protected area represents a place of resistance that ironically subjects coastal communities to disciplinary technologies of conservation

Manifiesto para la protección de los derechos humanos de las comunidades pesqueras artesanales en Colombia

Estimado editor, En el 2019, investigadoras de la Universidad del Magdalena (Colombia), en colaboración con una investigadora del Instituto Helmholtz para la Biodiversidad Marina Funcional (HIFMB, Alemania), implementaron el proyecto Vulneración de Derechos Humanos en la Pesca Artesanal en Colombia, gracias al cual se generó una línea de trabajo interdisciplinario (Justicia en Territorios Pesqueros) enfocada en investigar y denunciar diferentes injusticias en espacios marinos y costeros. Por medio del análisis sistemático de 91 sentencias de tutelas revisadas por la Corte Constitucional de Colombia, se identificaron violaciones a derechos humanos asociados a las comunidades de pescadores artesanales en todo el país. Uno de los resultados de este proyecto ha sido la construcción de una base de datos digital denominada Justicia en Territorios Pesqueros (disponible en http://pescayjusticia.unimagdalena.edu.co/) que busca visibilizar estas violaciones y facilitar acciones futuras para la protección de los derechos humanos en el sector de la pesca artesanal en Colombia (ver Figueroa et al. 2023). El 10 de marzo de 2023, se llevó a cabo el Primer Conversatorio Nacional Pescando Justicia: Violaciones a Derechos Humanos en Territorios Pesqueros, en donde se hizo el lanzamiento de la base de datos y se socializaron los resultados del proyecto con líderes y lideresas de comunidades pesqueras, miembros de la academia, funcionarios de las agencias gubernamentales de pesca, medio ambiente, derechos humanos y miembros de organizaciones no gubernamentales. Luego de dialogar sobre los resultados socializados y discutir su relevancia en el país, se redactó un manifiesto que presentamos a continuación.</jats:p

Manifiesto para la protección de los derechos humanos de las comunidades pesqueras artesanales en Colombia

Dear Editor, We are an interdisciplinary group of researchers working at the Universidad del Magdalena (Colombia), in collaboration with a researcher from the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB, Germany). In 2019, we developed the project “Human Rights Violations in Artisanal Fisheries in Colombia”, co-producing a line of interdisciplinary research (Justice in Fishing Territories) focused on researching and reporting on the injustices experienced in fishing territories. Through the systematic analysis of 91 court rulings from the Colombian Constitutional Court, we have identified human rights violations associated with artisanal fishing communities across the country. Our research led to the construction of the “Justice in Fishing Territories” digital database (available at http://pescayjusticia.unimagdalena.edu.co/), which seeks to increase the visibility of human rights violations experienced by the artisanal fishing sector and to facilitate future actions for the protection of the ways of living and rights of fishing communities in Colombia (see Figueroa et al. 2023). On March 10, 2023, we hosted the “First National Dialogue Fishing for Justice: Human Rights Violations in Fishing Territories” where we launched this database and shared our research findings with representatives from fishing communities, academics, government agencies working on fisheries, environment, human rights, as well as non-governmental organisations. The dialogue and discussion of these results and their relevance to Colombia triggered the writing of the manifesto that we present below.Estimado editor, En el 2019, investigadoras de la Universidad del Magdalena (Colombia), en colaboración con una investigadora del Instituto Helmholtz para la Biodiverdidad Marine Funcional (HIFMB, Alemania), implementaron el proyecto “Vulneración de Derechos Humanos en la Pesca Artesanal en Colombia”, generando una línea de trabajo interdisciplinario (Justicia en Territorios Pesqueros) enfocada en investigar y denunciar diferentes injusticias en territorios pesqueros. Por medio del análisis sistemático de 91 sentencias de tutelas revisadas por la Corte Constitucional de Colombia, se han identificado violaciones a derechos humanos asociados a las comunidades de pescadores artesanales en todo el país. Uno de los resultados de este proyecto ha sido la construcción de una base de datos digital denominada Justicia en Territorios Pesqueros (disponible en http://pescayjusticia.unimagdalena.edu.co/) que busca visibilizar estas violaciones y facilitar acciones futuras para la protección de los derechos humanos en el sector de la pesca artesanal en Colombia (ver Figueroa et al. 2023). El 10 de marzo de 2023, se llevó a cabo el “Primer Conversatorio Nacional Pescando Justicia: Violaciones a Derechos Humanos en Territorios Pesqueros”, en donde se hizo el lanzamiento de&nbsp; la base de datos y socializaron los resultados del proyecto con líderes y lideresas de comunidades pesqueras, miembros de la Academia, funcionarios de las agencias gubernamentales de pesca, medio ambiente, derechos humanos, y miembros de organizaciones no gubernamentales. Ante los resultados socializados y la discusión de su relevancia en el país, uno de los resultados de este diálogo fue la redacción del manifiesto que presentamos a continuación

Adelante / Endavant

Séptimo desafío por la erradicación de la violencia contra las mujeres del Institut Universitari d’Estudis Feministes i de Gènere "Purificación Escribano" de la Universitat Jaume

The unintended consequences of ‘responsible fishing’ for small-scale fisheries: Lessons from the Pacific coast of Colombia

The ‘Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries’ developed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has been central for the governance of fisheries. Most responsible fisheries initiatives are market-driven and motivate transitions towards greener economies. These added-value fish economies have increasingly connected fishing grounds to external markets that demand high quality sustainable products. This article problematizes the framework of responsible fishing and examines its intersections with place-base institutional processes in the Pacific coast of Colombia. In doing this, it explores how the concept of ‘responsible fishing’ has been framed, arguing that it has been used to operationalize the expansion of neoliberal processes in the oceans. It draws on small-scale fisheries performed by Afro-descendant people in the Gulf of Tribugá, where responsible fishing narratives have been linked to the creation of marine protected areas and responsible fish supply chains. Two dominant framings of responsible fishing were identified; a 'sustainability’ framing that denotes the sustainable use of fishing resources, and a ‘technical’ framing that refers to the use of environmentally safe practices. However, none of these framings accounts for social responsibility. Instead they have enforced the division of fishing practices between ‘responsible’/‘irresponsible’, and produced static, ahistorical and oversimplified understandings of fishing dynamics. All this has triggered a local need for external control over fisheries governance, disempowering place-based control mechanisms. This article concludes by questioning whether responsible fishing can successfully ensure a sustainable use of fishing resources, or if moving beyond ‘responsibility’ is needed to strengthen local institutional processes and autonomy among coastal peoples

Producing difference: the political economy of small-scale fisheries governance on Colombia’s Pacific coast

© 2017 Dr. Paula Satizábal PosadaThe importance of small-scale fisheries for coastal people has been largely overlooked. Governments have often framed oceans as open access spaces prioritising processes of capital accumulation that have had major socio-environmental impacts. Neoliberal approaches to fisheries and environmental governance have relied on territorialisation processes and market-oriented mechanisms to control and ensure the conservation and sustainable use of fishing resources. This thesis investigates how the political economy of small-scale fisheries governance has led to the production of difference and interacted with place-based institutional processes. I have studied the participatory process undertaken by nine coastal Afro-descendant villages along the Gulf of Tribugá in the Pacific coast of Colombia, that led to the creation of a marine protected area. Critically, I examine how difference materialises and manifests in multiple ways by way of: i) territorialisation processes; ii) commodification of fish; and iii) neoliberal biodiversity conservation. I draw on political ecology and geographies of the sea to analyse how the production of difference has influenced place-based institutional processes, social relations, and socio-natural interactions. I argue that the expansion of the political economy of fish and the processes that led to the creation of the marine protected area have enforced static, homogeneous, and atemporal images of reality at sea that fail to reflect the complex and fluid dynamics shaping the lives of coastal dwellers. Sea materialities, social relations, and socio-natural interactions are central in the production of place-based institutional processes. As such, this research highlights the need for legal and political instruments for the recognition of waterscapes as social spaces, and the inclusion of coastal fishing communities in the negotiation of fisheries governance and marine territorialisation processes

Geografías fluidas:territorialización marina y el escalamiento de epistemologías acuáticas locales en la costa Pacífica de Colombia

El Pacífico colombiano ha sido imaginado vacío en términos sociales y lleno de recursos naturales y biodiversidad. Estos imaginarios han permitido la creación de fronteras de control que históricamente han despojado a afrodescendientes e indígenas de sus territorios ancestrales. Este artículo examina la territorialización en los océanos, tomando como referencia el Golfo de Tribugá. Muestra como comunidades afrodescendientes y actores no estatales se ven obligados a usar el lenguaje de recursos, en vez del de arraigo socio-cultural, para negociar los procesos de territorialización marinos. Informadas por sus epistemologías acuáticas, las comunidades costeras reclaman su autoridad sobre el mar a través de la creación de un área marina protegida. Usan instrumentos del estado para asegurar el acceso y control local, subvirtiendo el marco jurídico del mar como bien público de acceso abierto. El área protegida representa un lugar de resistencia que irónicamente somete a las comunidades a tecnologías disciplinarias de conservación

Humanising agricultural extension: A review

Agricultural extension is booming. This interest is critical in the context of numerous pressing issues linked to agrarian change and rural development. Because of its importance, extension has attracted significant critique for its persistent exclusion of social and political factors. In this light, the history of extension can be thought of as a paradigm composed of approaches aimed at increasing agricultural production through the transfer of technologies from experts to farmers, and a series of criticisms of technology transfer as hampered by neglect of socio-political factors, a process labelled ‘rendering technical’. By reviewing criticisms of extension for its rendering of socio-political factors, we account for the rendering of power, place, and people. Equally important, we offer examples that consolidate critiques in order to open the possibility that humanized extension may more successfully support farmers. Our review is an effort to engage extensionists in order to speak about power to those who attempt to speak truth to power