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KIARA (Fisheries Justice Coalition of Indonesia), ASIA (Asia Solidarity Against Industrial Aquaculture), NAFSO (National Organization of Fisherfolk), WFFP (World Forum of Fisher Peoples)

Rome, 17 November 2009. This statement is being created when world leaders and civil society representatives held World Food Summit on Food Security–WSFS on 16-18 November 2009, Rome, Italy. The meeting base on concern of serious food crisis, including food from fishery sector. The most recent estimate, released on October 14, 2009 by FAO, said that 1.02 billion people are undernourished, a sizable increase from its 1996 estimate of  800 million people. Food crisis is now affecting one sixth of all humanity, roughly 94.11 percent from Asia and The Pacific, Sub Saharan Africa, Latin America and The Caribbean.

By understanding that concrete action on hunger has been lacking, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf called for a day-long, worldwide hunger strikes against chronic hunger. Jacques Diouf and UN General Secretary Ban-Ki Moon involved in the hunger strike respectively on 14 and 15 November 2009 (Antara, 15 November 2009). The WSFS tends to look promising at this point. However, growing attention on the crisis doesn’t touch pillar of food, the fishery.

In the fishery sector, crisis grows together with more capture fishery industries which gain support from unfair world trade scheme and parlous technology. Fishery modernization has begun since 1970’s by modernizing fishing gears to maximize marine resources yields. Currently, 75 percent Asia fishery products  are  sold to Japan, European countries and China consumption with lower tariff. National government  issued credits for distribution of modern technology (read: trawl), and which is followed by fishery infrasctructure establishment.          

Likewise in aquaculture. Traditional ponds were integrated part of coastal community tradition and history. However, they were replaced by intensive and industrial based aquaculture with incentive from world financial institutions namely World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and numbers of international development agencies, managed by transnational companies Charoen Phokpand and Cargill. USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and DFID (UK Departpment for International Development) have supported exploitation by facilitating export to developed countries. At this point, fishery as food and integrated element of knowledge and culture have been reduced as merely economic goods. Trawl utilization, marine pollution, contract farming in shrimp sectors, privatization of coastal areas and small islands, creation of no fishing zone areas by tourism and conservation actors have replaced fisherfolks’ housing and fishing grounds, also perpetuating poverty of coastal communities. Those burgeoning systems have created greater gap between fishers and farmers from access and control over natural resources. More unemployment in coastal areas, more fishers become fishworkers in a pinch way.

Food quality and quantity (read: fish) have declined. On quality, mass death of fish likely in Indonesia,  representing hundred cases of marine pollution. Oil field in Montara has blew out recently. It is located in Timor sea in Indonesia and handled by Australian company. On quantity, massive illegal fishing practices and big vessels using trawls are entering traditional fishing grounds. They boost scarcity, less local fish supply both pelagic and demersal fish.         

At this point, its important for states promoting fisherfolk rights, both basic and principle rights, either as citizen and existence as fishers which have been neglected for many decades.
 

Principle Rights of Fisherfolks
Twenty seven years ago, United Nations through United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has stated that,… an archipelagic State shall respect existing agreements with other States and shall recognize traditional fishing rights and other legitimate activities of the immediately adjacent neighbouring States in certain areas falling within archipelagic waters. The terms and conditions for the exercise of such rights and activities, including the nature, the extent and the areas to which they apply, shall, at the request of any of the States concerned, be regulated by bilateral agreements between them. Such rights shall not be transferred to or shared with third States or their nationals (Article 51 on Existing Agreements, Traditional Fishing Rights and Existing Submarine Cables, Paragraph 1). This paragraph must be basic law to put traditional fishery as main pillar in all fishery activities in the world.

For us, UNCLOS 1982 has enforced sovereignty, existence and priviledge of archipelagic and oceanic countries. Unfortunately, for 27 years, there isn’t yet any utmost protection of tradisional fishery and fisherfolk rights as required by The Convention.   

Ostrom and Schlager (1996) said that users of natural resources have two different rights, namely: first, the use rights, respectively include access rights, authority to enter fishing grounds and; withdrawal or harvest rights, authority to capture or take natural resources harvest. Second, collective choice rights comprise of management rights, authority to make decision and use natural resources; exclusion rights, rights to determine who are allowed to enter certain natural resources areas and take harvest and; alienation rights, authority to transfer ownership in the model of selling, renting or hand above rights over as legacy.

With this spirit, KIARA (Fisheries Justice Coalition) together with ASIA (Asia Solidarity Against Industrial Aquaculture), NAFSO (National Organization of Fisherfolk), WFFP (World Forum of Fisher Peoples) encourage acknowledgement of fisher rights over fishing grounds, freedom on choice of fish to catch, appropriate fishing equipments (boat and fishing gears), also including protection from trawlers, protection of women, children and fishworker rights, refusing aquaculture and certification scheme as solution of scarce fish supply –in The World Summit on Food Security.    

World efforts in addressing food, climate and financial crisis couldn’t be carried on without acknowledgement and dignification of fisherfolk rights. For us, those are urgent request to prevent absence of fishery actors, the fisherfolks. They are protein hero who supply food for the earth. The world society through UNCLOS 1982 has required protection of traditional fishery, therefore its reasonable for world leaders to generate policies to protect basic and principle rights of fisherfolks!

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