Quito/ New York/ Washington, DC – On 18 May, the Chairperson of the National Group of PGA in Ecuador, Asambleista Soledad Buendía, convened the first meeting of the group in 2020 to discuss programmatic priorities and learn about the areas of development of the work of the PGA during this COVID-19 pandemic.
During exchanges, the Secretariat of PGA laid emphasis on initiatives within its Oceans Program and its partnership with the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) on a Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF) project. In this sense, the National Group meeting counted on the presentation of Mr. Xiao Recio-Blanco, Director of the Oceans Program of ELI, who gave an overview of the project and painted a holistic picture of the importance of SSF for the economy, but also its fundamental importance for the preservation of biodiversity and sustainable management of marine resources.
In the current context, the pandemic is provoking an economic crisis and the conservation of marine resources is become pressing.
The SSF project aims to promote the sector of small-scale fisheries - defined as small fishing communities that operate on coasts and that go out to sea and return within the same day or the next day. The SSF sector can generate high levels of economic security for thousands of people around the world and do so within a strong and efficient regulatory framework of environmental sustainability. The goals are to identify and promote 6 public policy tools that can be tailored to each country to strengthen governance (including the creation of co-management mechanisms for SSF). Additionally, after analysis of best regulatory language in different country worldwide, a parliamentary manual will be circulated to all PGA members. The manual will include regulatory comparative analysis and model language for regulatory reforms that legislators can use to tackle domestic challenges.
Currently, the suggested regulatory reforms are those proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in its Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries, published in 2015.
Small-scale fisheries are a key area of governance for ocean health that combine many policy challenges.
Although they represent a significant source of income and are the engine of job creation and wealth, especially in rural coastal areas that are very frequently affected by poverty and suffer population loss, legislators do not dedicate meaningful portions of their legislative activity to their regulation; the focus being on managing the large-scale commercial or industrial fishing.
Asambleísta Marcela Aguiñaga, former Minister for the Environment and Fishing Authority of Ecuador and PGA member informed that the National Assembly approved the Organic Law for the Development of Aquaculture and Fishing, which was published on 21 April 2020 in the Registro Oficial Nº 187 of Ecuador. Asambleista Aguiñaga also mentioned some of the difficulties related to SSF, including the social problem caused by drug trafficking mafia enrolling fishermen in their operations. Consequently, the fishermen abandon their traditional fishing activity and their families face serious economic hardship. In the same vein, Asambleísta Esther Cuesta, PGA member, explained that the fishermen who abandon fishing to work for drug-traffickers get caught, many of them in Costa Rica, where they are imprisoned and can no longer provide for their families as head of households additionally to incurring legal fees.
Another issue mentioned by Asambleísta Liliana Durán, member of the biodiversity committee and PGA member, is the necessity for competent authorities to investigate the seizure of 26 tons of shark fins in Hong Kong from Ecuador, in May 2020. Indeed, Asambleísta Juan Cárdenas, also a member of the biodiversity committee and PGA member, intervened in the committee’s session that day to discuss fishing vessels and the control of national fishing authorities over them, in particular near the Galapagos, as there is an urgent need to protect the ocean and its biodiversity. Right before his committee presentation, Asambleísta Cárdenas expressed his support for a global comparative legislation tool would be especially useful and of interest to Ecuador at many levels, including to promote the sustainability of the use of marine resources (SSF and the protection of marine ecosystems).
Now, more than ever, is the time to act for a sustainable and governance of the oceans.
