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

Kurien, John

English

Aquatic Commons

28
SAMUDRA RepoRt No. 82
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  
Fisheries
SUSTAinABiliTy
Policy opportunities for supporting small-scale fishers 
must focus on radically different reasons. This requires 
a deeper and more nuanced interpretation of the SSF 
guidelines.
This article by John Kurien  
(kurien.john@gmail.com), Visiting Professor, 
Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India  
and  Honorary Fellow, WorldFish, Penang, 
Malaysia and  based on his keynote address 
at FAO International Symposium on Fisheries 
Sustainability, 18-21 November, 2020,  
Rome, Italy
one: fisheries sustainability 
and small-scale fisheries: new 
perspectives for valorizing 
artisanal fishers
Most maritime countries have 
neglected and shunned their small-
scale fisheries since the mid-1950s. 
This was done in the name of fisheries 
development, to make the transition 
to a modernized large-scale fishing 
industry. Despite this historical 
neglect and lack of support small-scale 
fisheries continue to exist and even 
thrive in most countries around the 
world even today, seven decades later. 
Small-scale fisheries are still “too big 
to ignore”. Their enormous resilience 
and continued relevance are supported 
today by a considerable body of 
research studies worldwide. 
International agencies including—
importantly—FAO have recently 
made clarion calls for support to 
small-scale fisheries, largely with the 
policy objective of alleviating poverty 
and supporting welfare needs. This 
orientation alone is inadequate because 
it fails to perceive and appreciate many 
of the innate qualities of small-scale 
fisheries. We need new perspectives for 
the future. 
Policy opportunities for supporting 
small-scale fishers must focus on 
radically different reasons. This 
requires a deeper and more nuanced 
interpretation of the Voluntary 
Guidelines for Responsible Small-
Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food 
Security and Poverty Eradication (the 
SSF Guidelines). 
Small-scale fisher people must 
be valorized for several reasons and 
through several ways. Here are some:
For their phenomenal vernacular 
ecological knowledge: This is the 
result of their intimate knowledge 
of natural processes, which yields a 
holistic understanding of the local 
aquatic ecosystems that they relate 
with regularly. 
For their innate contribution to 
biodiversity conservation through 
convivial technologies: This results 
from combining their vernacular 
ecosystem knowledge with their use of 
small, passive, seasonal, diverse, skill-
intensive and convivial fishing craft-
gear combinations. 
For their largely owner-
operated and collegial harvesting, 
which fosters greater equity and 
camaraderie in work: This is the result 
of work being viewed as livelihood and 
the resource as a shared heritage of the 
whole community.
For their cost-effective and 
energy-efficient operations with 
a lower carbon footprint: This is 
possible because, compared to all 
other types of fishing, small-scale 
fishers incur far lower costs to harvest 
a unit of fish due to limited use of non-
renewable energy.
For their entrepreneurial prowess 
in making high private and social 
returns despite limited means: This 
is a combined function of ecological 
knowledge, convivial technologies, 
energy-efficient operations and a 
collective work ethic that are embedded 
in the socio-cultural fabric of their 
communities.
For their greater contribution 
to food security and wholesome 
19
29
FEBRUARY 2020
s u s t a i n a B i l i t y
ricarDo De luca / fao
john kurien delivering his keynote address at fao international symposium on fisheries sustainability, 18-21 november, 2019, rome, italy. Much 
of small-scale fishers’ knowledge is encapsulated in pithy statements—economy with words, but prodigious with meaning
nutrition for local rural consumers at 
affordable prices: This happens due to 
the relatively smaller harvests, creating 
shorter value chains, mostly reaching 
the immediate hinterlands where they 
operate. In short, production by the 
masses for consumption by the masses.
For their generation of inclusive 
livelihoods — particularly among 
women — along these short value 
chains: This is due to the customary and 
familial orientation of their occupation.
For their provision of localized 
physical protection and security to 
coastal and riparian territory: This 
is made possible due to their spatially 
dispersed habitation and the ability to 
provide quick feedback about unusual 
events and activities.
For their vital contributions to 
the economy of their countries: This 
arises from, inter alia, the considerable 
foreign exchange from their fresh 
harvests; the tourist revenues they 
incidentally promote; and the 
significant ancillary employment they 
generate—all with negligible state 
subsidies.
For their protection of balanced 
life both below and above water: This 
is achieved by commitment to socially, 
culturally and economically embedded 
management practices of their aquatic 
‘community commons’. This creates a 
moral economy yielding greater socio-
economic well-being, balanced with 
income and gender equity. 
The list is even longer. It is obvious 
that supporting small-scale fishers 
and fisheries makes more ecological, 
economic, nutritional, social, 
cultural and moral sense. However, 
implementing this support will require 
practical and sustained support from 
three sources. One, there must be socio-
political pressure from the dispersed 
micro-level struggles and also from 
the numerous examples of small-scale 
fishers doing things differently. The 
world bodies of small-scale fishers and 
their supporters have a crucial role in 
this task of aggregating the examples to 
create a global lobby.
Two, support from the committed 
researchers and scientists who have, 
over the last decades, diligently 
provided the solid scientific support 
for valorizing small-scale fisheries 
worldwide. They must continue to 
persevere in their efforts to provide 
30
SAMUDRA RepoRt No. 82
f i s h e r i e s
the synergistic push to goad the 
policymakers. Three, the national 
governments concerned, who must 
enact laws that guarantee the rights 
and democratic space for small-scale 
fisheries to flourish. 
We are trending into a future 
with exciting possibilities. People 
are becoming ‘prosumers’—at once 
producers and consumers); 3-D 
printing is challenging the virtue of 
economies of scale; the marginal cost 
of information is falling drastically; 
science-intensive use of renewable 
energy is gaining rapid ground; the 
call for globalizing localism, building 
creative commons, humanizing the 
economy and making it generative 
rather than extractive, is growing 
stronger. 
Small-scale fishers and fisheries 
already imbibe many of these 
potentials. Given appropriate support 
and encouragement, they can become 
trailblazers. Rephrasing La Via 
Campesina, they can become the best 
bet “to feed the world (with fish) and 
cool the planet”, two of the biggest 
global concerns today and into the 
future.
two: fisheries sustainability 
and climate change: inclusive 
Knowledge Partnerships in the 
age of Climate Change
Small-scale fishers have an elaborate 
understanding and special narratives 
about the sea, the coast, the fish, 
the wind, the currents, the stars 
and the inter-relationships between 
them. Much of their knowledge is 
encapsulated in pithy statements—
economy with words, but prodigious 
with meaning. 
Consider this: The sea starts in 
the mountains. Here’s another: Sandy 
beaches make playgrounds for waves. 
From their frolic we divine the mood of 
the distant sea. 
In November 2017, as a freak 
cyclone was brewing unannounced 
in the Arabian Sea, the elders of the 
village of Marianad in the Indian state 
of Kerala watched the manner in which 
the waves were breaking on the beach. 
They decided it would not be judicious 
to venture into the sea for the next 
few days. In many other villages in 
southern Kerala, where the beaches 
were totally eroded and replaced with 
stone seawalls, the fishers were unable 
to watch the play of the waves. They 
set out to fish. Two days later, while 
fishing, they became hapless victims of 
the freak cyclone.
Even at the beginning of this 
millennium the spectre of climate 
change was still viewed with some 
degree of cautious scepticism at 
national and international levels. In the 
words of author Amitav Ghosh, “It is 
humanity’s great derangement that we 
refuse to grasp the scale and violence of 
climate change.” 
The experiential reality of extreme 
weather events and temperature 
change of the last two decades has 
resulted in a wider acceptance of an 
undeniable climate crisis looming 
large on land and at sea. As Pope 
Francis reminded us, “We must never 
forget that the natural environment 
is a collective good, the patrimony of 
all humanity and the responsibility of 
everyone.” 
The Intergovernmental Panel 
on Climate Change (IPCC) has given 
adequate warnings about the bleak 
future scenario, supported with hard 
scientific facts. Scientists of FAO and 
others have eloquently articulated the 
impacts of climate change on marine 
ecosystem production in societies 
dependent on fisheries. There is no 
dearth of scientific facts, ominous 
warnings or ethical exaltations.
To achieve fisheries sustainability 
that will leave none behind we must 
understand and take into serious 
consideration the ‘experiential and 
concrete lived reality’ of fishing 
communities. They have been least 
responsible for climate change but they 
are on ground zero and always the first 
to be affected by the unpredictable 
conditions and extreme events. 
We need to reconcile the ‘cognitive 
scientific facts’ of global science with 
the collective responses spurred by 
the normative imaginations of fishing 
communities who deal with nature on 
a day-to-day basis.
People’s actions when encountering 
these sudden, emergent, place-
based and local situations yield an 
accumulated wealth of ‘experiential 
31
FEBRUARY 2020
s u s t a i n a B i l i t y
knowledge’. Sadly, this is not 
aggregated and transmitted up to the 
policy-making level. We must explicitly 
recognize that scientific knowledge is 
not the only type of knowledge relevant 
to a science-policy nexus. Other types 
of knowledge—local, indigenous, 
social, political, moral, religious and 
institutional—are also valid, exchanged 
and co-created. 
Climate change is already spurring 
local-specific changes in fishery yields 
and species distribution. Fathoming 
these impacts will call for both good 
science and nuanced observation 
of local changes. Today we are well 
positioned to create a bridging 
opportunity that will put together a 
credible and inclusive research process 
and science-technology studies that 
will encompass relations between 
laboratory scientists and those 
neglected barefoot worker-scientists—
our vastly knowledgeable fisherfolk. 
Such collaborative ventures within 
countries will lead to co-evolution 
and joint construction of knowledge, 
resulting in a visible difference in the 
lives of millions of ordinary fisher 
people, yielding greater fisheries 
sustainability in the age of climate 
change. 
three: fisheries sustainability 
and the blue economy: trans-
generational Justice
The concept of the Blue Economy has 
generated considerable discussions at 
a variety of global platforms and high-
level panels formed by governments 
and civil society. However, children 
like Greta Thunberg and many others 
may want to ask the adult discussants 
a question: Will your numerous 
debates and discussions about the Blue 
Economy include your moral obligation 
towards us and ensure that we will 
have enough fish to eat and access to 
bountiful and clean seas to frolic in and 
enjoy?
The social, cultural and moral 
aspects of human society should 
extend beyond one’s lifetime. But there 
is a contradiction in not wanting to 
discriminate against future generations 
and, at the same time, giving priority 
to those who are living now. In other 
words, you cannot save the fish for 
the future and eat it all now. This 
concept was well understood by the 
Urhobo people of the Niger Delta who 
say “resources belong to the dead, the 
living and those yet to be born”. We 
have forgotten such wisdom but it will 
surely be the next generation’s concern.
If we accept this position, then we 
are obliged to stand by the claim of 
future generations to the resources 
of the planet and be mindful of our 
own present consumption patterns. 
Mahatma Gandhi is often quoted to 
say that our planet’s resources are 
adequate for everyone’s needs but not 
everyone’s greed. It is for this reason 
that the justice and equity perspectives 
regarding the Blue Economy—that 
have been well articulated by small-
scale fisher organizations and their 
supporters—gain significance. While 
we rightly stress the issue of human 
rights for today, we also need to 
think beyond and raise the matter of 
trans-generational access and use of 
resources from the oceans. 
By delving into this question, 
there is a big policy opportunity for 
the current generation to spearhead 
the normative agenda for trans-
generational justice into the Blue 
Economy debates. We must give the 
welfare of future generations weight 
in our economic and moral decisions 
of today. Once again, to borrow from 
Gandhi’s words, the future depends on 
what we do in the present.  
http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/
sustainable-fisheries-symposium/
presentations/en/
international Symposium 
on Fisheries Sustainability 
strengthening the science-policy 
nexus, Rome, 18-21 november 2019
https://www.icsf.net/en/occasional-
papers/article/en/149-some-aspects-of.
html?start=10
Eyes On Their Fingertips: Some 
Aspects of the Arts, Science, 
Technology and Culture of the 
Fisherfolk of Trivandrum, india
http://www.fao.org/tempref/FI/
Cdrom/bobp/cd1/Bobp/publns/mISC/
eConomICS%20oF%20ARtISAnAL%20
And%20meCHAnIZed%20
FISHeRIeS%20In%20KeRALA.pdf
Economics of Artisanal and 
Mechanized Fisheries in Kerala
https://www.icsf.net/en/monographs/
article/en/121-perspectives-fr.
html?start=10
Climate Change and Fisheries: 
Perspectives from Small-scale 
Fishing Communities in india 
on Measures to Protect life and 
livelihood
for more


Fisheries: Leaving none behind

http://aquaticcommons.org/27056/1/Sam_82_art08_Fisheries_John_Kurien.pdf

Fisheries: Leaving none behind

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Aquatic Commons