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

Illuminating the multidimensional contributions of small-scale fisheries.

Sustainable development aspires to "leave no one behind"1. Even so, limited attention has been paid to small-scale fisheries (SSF) and their importance in eradicating poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Through a collaborative and multidimensional data-driven approach, we have estimated that SSF provide at least 40% (37.3 million tonnes) of global fisheries catches and 2.3 billion people with, on average, 20% of their dietary intake across six key micronutrients essential for human health. Globally, the livelihood of 1 in every 12 people, nearly half of them women, depends at least partly on small-scale fishing, in total generating 44% (US$77.2 billion) of the economic value of all fisheries landed. Regionally, Asian SSF provide fish, support livelihoods and supply nutrition to the largest number of people. Relative to the total capture of the fisheries sector (comprising large-scale and small-scale fisheries), across all regions, African SSF supply the most catch and nutrition, and SSF in Oceania improve the most livelihoods. Maintaining and increasing these multidimensional SSF contributions to sustainable development requires targeted and effective actions, especially increasing the engagement of fisherfolk in shared management and governance. Without management and governance focused on the multidimensional contributions of SSF, the marginalization of millions of fishers and fishworkers will worsen

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

Cutaneous T cell lymphoma atlas reveals malignant TH2 cells supported by a B cell-rich tumor microenvironment

\ua9 The Author(s) 2024. Cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) is a potentially fatal clonal malignancy of T cells primarily affecting the skin. The most common form of CTCL, mycosis fungoides, can be difficult to diagnose, resulting in treatment delay. We performed single-cell and spatial transcriptomics analysis of skin from patients with mycosis fungoides-type CTCL and an integrated comparative analysis with human skin cell atlas datasets from healthy and inflamed skin. We revealed the co-optation of T helper 2 (TH2) cell-immune gene programs by malignant CTCL cells and modeling of the tumor microenvironment to support their survival. We identified MHC-II+ fibroblasts and dendritic cells that can maintain TH2 cell-like tumor cells. CTCL tumor cells are spatially associated with B cells, forming tertiary lymphoid structure-like aggregates. Finally, we validated the enrichment of B cells in CTCL and its association with disease progression across three independent patient cohorts. Our findings provide diagnostic aids, potential biomarkers for disease staging and therapeutic strategies for CTCL