Target 6: Sustainable management of aquatic living resources

IPLCs are increasing their contributions to Target 6 both by revitalising and strengthening customary sustainable practices; through collaboration and shared governance schemes with scientists and government institutions; and by progressing the recognition of the rights and interests of small-scale fishers.

• In the Asia-Pacific region, a very active network of locally managed marine areas (LMMAs) has emerged. An LMMA is defined as “an area of nearshore waters that is actively being managed in a ‘local’ practitioner context by residing or neighbouring communities and/or families, or being collaboratively managed by both resident communities and local government representatives based in the immediate vicinity.” Typically, they involve the creation of no-take areas (community marine protected areas) and restrictions on fishing equipment, species or seasons in order to improve sustainability or increase overall yields.
• In Costa Rica, responsible marine fishing areas (RMFAs) take a similar approach.⁹ In an RMFA, the government and local fishing communities work together to agree rules and decisions related to responsible fishing, and co-develop a fisheries management plan. The first RMFA was recognised in 2009. In 2019 there were eleven formally recognised RMFAs and two more had been requested. All RMFAs are linked through a national network, which aims to implement the FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (the SSF Guidelines)¹⁰. The network also facilitates sharing of experiences and lessons learned; monitors and promotes the generation of knowledge that incorporates both traditional and scientific knowledge; and implements a human-rights-based approach to marine conservation.
• In Zanzibar, the village of Kukuu on Pemba Island is one of many villages that has established a permanent no-take zone within a wider area that is subject to a temporary fishing closure, which is in turn part of the 1,000-square-kilometre Pemba Channel Conservation Area. These measures are designed to protect the villagers’ lucrative octopus fisheries and ensure sustainable use, and are supported by the Mwambao Coastal Community Network (a local NGO).¹¹ Mwambao collaborates with the government to improve fishery management and secure the future for local people and for the rich biodiversity of the area, which includes mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reef. It has played a key role in introducing and facilitating the implementation of the SSF Guidelines in Tanzania.¹²
• In Madagascar, since 2015 Fanamby (an NGO working with local community organisations) has been monitoring the marine protected area of Loky Manambato, which has 15,000 hectares of coral reefs and eight archipelagos. Ten rangers from the local communities patrol the sea throughout the year to make sure that season closures and core marine protected areas are respected. In 2018, 400 fishermen from four village pilot sites began monitoring their catches of fish and octopus. These fishermen are members of five associations which are all involved in elaborating the Dina (local communities’ laws, which are recognised at the national level).¹³

IPLCs also contribute to sustainable management of fish and other aquatic resources in inland waters such as rivers, lakes and streams. For example:

• In Cambodia, over 500 community fisheries institutions cover an area of over 850,000 hectares and with some 188,000 members, including over 61,000 women. Registration of a community fisheries institution requires the development of internal rules and regulations based on a calculation of sustainable yields. In 2012, an evaluation of 450 community fisheries institutions documented teeming fish stocks and real benefits to local people in terms of raised standards of living.¹⁴
• In Nepal, the Kirant indigenous peoples protect lakes and wetlands through a focus on language, cultural, religious and spiritual values.¹⁵ The protection of the sacred lake Shalpa Pokhari in Bhojpur province, while benefiting from a multi-stakeholder approach, is based on an ancient intangible heritage that emphasises the spiritual aspects of diverse habitats, including the wetlands’ birds, frogs and wildlife in the wider ‘Himalayan Sacred Landscape’.¹⁶
• In Indonesia, Sasi is a 400-year-old traditional conservation system and natural resource management concept applied to both terrestrial and aquatic resources; it is effective in regulating the use of resources in indigenous communities, and solving conflicts and protecting vulnerable groups such as women and children, particularly widows and orphans. In the Haruku community where Sasi has been used, community regulations have been put in place to implement customary laws and traditional knowledge for a more sustainable use of natural resources and lands owned by the community, including inland and coastal waters, and to successfully protect the community’s territory through collective and united action against development projects pushed forward by powerful external actors.¹⁷
• In Sabah, Malaysia, the customary tagal system, a sustainable system for inland fisheries, has received government recognition in recent years (see Box 10).

In some cases, IPLCs are also addressing the decline in fisheries and aquatic biodiversity using an integrated rights-and-ecosystem approach. This is particularly well exemplified by the case study from the Pacific Northwest in the United States (see Box 11). Successful IPLC projects related to salmon have also been reported elsewhere, including Arctic Finland, where Saami people are rewilding salmon in the Näätämö River¹⁸, and the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Federation (Box 3).

• IPLC fishers should continue to assert and renew their customary tenure rights and relationships to waters and aquatic living resources, and expand their local, regional and global contributions and solutions towards sustainable aquatic ecosystems.
• Governments and all relevant actors should formally recognise IPLC fishers’ traditional tenure and customary rights to aquatic resources as a matter of urgency, consistent with a human-rights-based approach to fisheries management and conservation, including through upscaling of implementation of the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (the SSF Guidelines).
• Governments should reform policy and legislation, with the full and effective participation of IPLCs, to recognise and support their role in sustainable fisheries and in managing aquatic resources, and grant IPLC fishers preferential access for fishing in waters under national jurisdiction. This includes recognising and supporting the role of women and youth.
• Governments and relevant actors should fully implement the ecosystem approach, addressing linkages between terrestrial and marine ecosystems and synergies between sustainable aquatic resources and the SDGs.
• Governments should reduce subsidies that contribute to overfishing and overcapacity, and redirect investments to sustainable small-scale fisheries and community-managed and community-conserved aquatic areas.

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2015) Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication. Rome: FAO. Available at: http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/I4356EN
• International Collective in Support of Fishworkers: https://www.icsf.net/en/page/588-About%20ICSF.html
• Harper, S., Zeller, D., Hauzer, M. Pauly, D. and Sumaila, U. R. (2013) ‘Women and fisheries: Contribution to food security and local economies’, Marine Policy 39(1), pp. 56–63. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2012.10.018.
• The LMMA (Locally Managed Marine Area) Network: http://lmmanetwork.org/