10 years of FAO SSF Guidelines; What does it mean for Planet Indonesia?

By Marc Fruitema

Small-scale fishers navigating their daily challenges and triumphs.

What are the internationally agreed upon guidelines?

2024 is the 10th anniversary of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication.

The Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (the SSF Guidelines) is the first internationally agreed instrument dedicated entirely to the immensely important - but until now often neglected – small-scale fisheries sector.

The guidelines focus on:
(1) responsible fisheries and sustainable development and
(2) ensuring an enabling environment and supporting implementation.

WHO are the small-scale fishers in Indonesia?

To mark the 10 years of existence of these important guidelines, we wanted to reflect on what they mean for us as an organization working directly with small-scale fishers. Since 2017, we have worked with small-scale fishers in the Kubu Raya district and more recently with small-scale fishers living inside the Karimata Marine Reserve.

Map of the Kubu Raya district and the Karimata Marine Reserve where Planet Indonesia works in partnership with communities.

Small-scale fishers in both of these seascapes face similar challenges, from the recognition of their rights as small-scale fishers, equitable access to markets, access to credit and savings mechanisms, the establishment of protected areas in traditional fishing grounds, conflict with large-scale or industrial fisheries, access to healthcare and more.

Small-scale fishers in Indonesia face numerous challenges, including access to markets and savings mechanisms.

Why is this important?

We feel strongly that the FAO SSF Guidelines set a high standard for supporting the good governance of small-scale fisheries while advancing the human rights of small-scale fishers. Planet Indonesia’s work over the past years has demonstrated to us the value of working in more integrated ways and adopting a human-rights-based approach. Planet Indonesia’s recent participatory impact assessment has shown that integrated approaches can actually create the enabling conditions for good governance.

Importantly, Indonesia is positive towards the standard embodied in the FAO standards, further validating its potential role in informing approaches to small-scale fisheries governance across the Indonesian archipelago. 

Training fishers on the use of technology for sustainable fisheries management

“Indonesia underlines the role of the SSF Guidelines as a tool to achieve the SDGs and supports the FAO activities in encouraging the implementation of the SSF Guidelines.”

-FAO.

Secure tenure rights and sustainable resource management are two of the four pillars in the Planet Indonesia model. As has been put forth by Elinor Ostrom and countless global studies and communities, secure tenure rights are a foundational precursor to effective and sustainable natural resources management by communities. Tenure rights are often a ‘bundle’ of rights, meaning they are a combination of management, access, exclusion and withdrawal of rights (RRI).

Diving into the guidelines

Looking at the FAO guidelines, there are several passages that we especially align with. Below are some of our reflections in relation to different excerpts; 

6.2 States should promote investment in human resource development such as health, education, literacy, digital inclusion and other skills of a technical nature that generate added value to the fisheries resources as well as awareness raising. States should take steps with a view to progressively ensure that members of small-scale fishing communities have affordable access to these and other essential services through national and subnational actions, including adequate housing, basic sanitation that is safe and hygienic, safe drinking water for personal and domestic uses, and sources of energy. Preferential treatment of women, indigenous peoples, and vulnerable and marginalized groups – in providing services and giving effect to non-discrimination and other human rights – should be accepted and promoted where it is required to ensure equitable benefits.

Small-scale fishing communities are often living in remote coastal areas, particularly in an archipelagic country such as Indonesia, making them further removed from many government services.

Coastal communities often face challenges in accessing healthcare, financial services, and higher-level education. Where access is there, sometimes the cost of accessing it, in the form of fees or transportation costs, can be prohibitive. Due to the coastal and/or island environments where they live, some small-scale fishing communities also lack secure access to clean drinking water.

Health initiatives support the well-being of small-scale fishers, addressing access to essential services.

These are some of the many challenges facing small-scale fishers on top of the challenges to do with ensuring effective governance of the fishery resources upon which they depend, in the midst of changing climate and fishing pressures. Addressing these underlying challenges, which are also fundamental human rights, must be a precursor to advancing conservation or fisheries management objectives.

6.4 States should support the development of and access to other services that are appropriate for small-scale fishing communities with regard to, for example, savings, credit and insurance schemes, with special emphasis on ensuring the access of women to such services.

The remote or isolated nature of many coastal communities in Indonesia means their access to credit, savings, and insurance schemes typically found in towns and cities is more difficult. While Indonesia has small-scale fisher insurance schemes, the ability of small-scale fishers to formally register and access these faces some obstacles.

Community members, including women, participating in a savings group meeting.

Providing access to savings and credit schemes has become a core part of Planet Indonesia’s approach and the conservation cooperative model. This service, equally available and accessed by women, is consistently reflected as a positive contribution in the biannual participatory impact assessments. Small-scale fishers are able to take loans for the purchasing or reparation of gear or the establishment of small-medium enterprises.

9.3 All parties should recognize the need for integrated and holistic approaches, including cross-sectoral collaboration, in order to address disaster risks and climate change in small-scale fisheries. States and other relevant parties should take steps to address issues such as pollution, coastal erosion, and destruction of coastal habitats due to human-induced non-fisheries-related factors. Such concerns seriously undermine the livelihoods of fishing communities as well as their ability to adapt to possible impacts of climate change.

Planet Indonesia's holistic approach to conservation is central to who we are and what we do; developing responsive and community-determined initiatives that focus on governance, education, health, economic and environmental challenges. Listening to communities early on, we learned that without supporting communities to address social, economic and health-related issues, community governance of natural resources would be difficult. 

10.6 Small-scale fisheries stakeholders should promote collaboration among their professional associations, including fisheries cooperatives and CSOs. They should establish networks and platforms for the exchange of experiences and information and to facilitate their involvement in policy- and decision-making processes relevant to small-scale fishing communities.

Small-scale fishers need support in gaining access to decision-making processes and information regarding nearshore fisheries and marine spatial planning. A lack of access and information can lead to the marginalization of fishers through their exclusion from decision-making and consultation processes, as marine spatial plans and protected areas are developed without consultation of local resource users and rights holders. CSOs, local leaders, and informal networks can help bridge this

11.1 States should establish systems of collecting fisheries data, including bioecological, social, cultural and economic data relevant for decision-making on sustainable management of small-scale fisheries with a view to ensuring the sustainability of ecosystems, including fish stocks, in a transparent manner. Efforts should be made to also produce gender-disaggregated data in official statistics, as well as data allowing for an improved understanding and visibility of the importance of small-scale fisheries and its different components, including socioeconomic aspects

Small-scale fishers need to be equipped and enabled with data for informed decision-making. Our experiences have shown that this can be challenging to set up, but once established it provides valuable information for years to come. Depending on the backend systems, fishers can get insights into their landings with only slight delays. We have found it is easy to support communities in establishing landings monitoring systems, but the most challenging part is ensuring consistent feedback, interpretation, and analysis of this data.

Fishers collecting data on their catch as part of community-led monitoring initiatives.

Although we would ideally like to see this in the hands of small-scale fishers, the reality is that data interpretation and analysis skills are often lacking in most coastal communities. This is where partnerships with CSOs can be really meaningful, assuming the CSOs are committed to ensuring equitable access to the data and are dedicated to building an understanding of what the data means and is showing.

11.4 All parties should recognize small-scale fishing communities as holders, providers and receivers of knowledge. It is particularly important to understand the need for access to appropriate information by small-scale fishing communities and their organizations in order to help them cope with existing problems and empower them to improve their livelihoods. These information requirements depend on current issues facing communities and concern the biological, legal, economic, social and cultural aspects of fisheries and livelihoods

When evaluating the state of small-scale fisheries and the effectiveness of management efforts, we must look beyond only fisheries data. Different data sources might tell different stories, so it is imperative that we seek a balance between ecological, fisheries, social, and economic data to provide a holistic understanding of what is happening and how things are going.

Conclusion 

Reflecting on the FAO SSF Guidelines and our experiences at Planet Indonesia, it is clear that holistic, integrated approaches are essential to sustainably managing small-scale fisheries. Addressing underlying social, economic, and health issues is vital for effective community governance of small-scale fisheries. By advocating for secure tenure rights, financial inclusion, access to healthcare, and community-led governance, we can empower small-scale fishers to manage nearshore fisheries effectively. 

Key Takeaway: Empowering small-scale fishers through secure tenure rights, financial inclusion, and community-led governance is essential for sustainable resource management and the well-being of fishing communities.

This work is supported by Blue Action Fund, in partnership with BKSDA, DKP, local communities, and Blue Ventures.

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References:

FAO. (2015). Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from FAO Open Knowledge Repository.

FAO. (2021). SSF Guidelines Uptake and Influence: A Pathway to Impact.

Rights and Resources Initiative. (2020). Bundle of Rights Methodology and Statutory Typology. Retrieved from Rights and Resources.

Planet Indonesia. (2023). Annual Report 2023. Retrieved from Planet Indonesia: Annual Report 2023

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