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A COLLECTIVE ACTION TOWARDS FISHERY SUSTAINABILITY

Ecuador reaches a historic milestone in the management of the small pelagic fishery

Por Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD) en América Latina y el Caribe

07 de June de 2021

The small pelagic fishery consists of different types of fish that live near the surface and the coast in large schools, including species such as mackerel, sardines, anchovies, pinchagua, chuhueco, botellita, picudillo among others. This fishery is considered the second most important in Ecuador in terms of landings and export.

The productive chain generated by these activities includes processing, including frozen fish, canned fish, and marine ingredients such as fish meal and oil. These activities attract foreign investment from multinational processing plants of aquaculture feed which, together with the fishery, provide approximately 25,000 jobs in the country.

However, in recent years the small pelagic fishery had been affected by a considerable increase in its rates of overexploitation. Among the main causes of this deterioration, Ecuador had a weak fishery governance system and environmental regulations for fisheries and lacked a coherent management strategy, which had made it difficult for stakeholders to organize and find a path forward.

The small pelagic fishery is the second most important industrial fishery in Ecuador.

A COLLECTIVE ACTION TOWARDS FISHERY SUSTAINABILITY

In Ecuador, after several years of work and agreements, and as a result of the articulated work of recent years and the intervention of the project Sustainable World Chains of Seafood Products - led by the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries with the support technician from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the NGO Sustainable Fisheries Partnership - this fishery has a roadmap: Plan of Action and Management of the Small Pelagic Fishery of Ecuador, which will govern the control measures and management of these resources, the first management instrument for a fishery on an industrial scale framed in the new Organic Law of Fisheries and Aquaculture of Ecuador.

Also as a result of this articulated work, in the last assessment of the populations of small pelagics presented in 2020, it was evidenced that 100% of the population of these species are no longer overfished and two of them are no longer overexploited.

The plan resulted of the work of 11 dialogues, held in the 2017-2020 period, had representatives from all areas of the productive chain of this fishing activity - from the public and private sectors - discussed and analyzed issues related to the current status of the fishery at a social, economic and environmental level, the critical points for the sustainable development of fishing resources, the control, and capture regulations, and the strategic guidelines for its proper management, among others. The officialization of this "Action and Management Plan" marks a before and after in terms of governance of the small pelagic fishery in Ecuador.

The dialogues coordinated by the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries of Ecuador; with the active participation of the private sector and the technical support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the NGO Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), through the Global Sustainable Seafood Chains project that is financed by the Global Fund for the Environment (GEF), allowed the country to have a management plan that establishes objectives, goals, measures, and rules for control of capture, as required by international sustainability standards, constitutes historical progress in the Ecuadorian fishing sector.

“We were able to demonstrate through dialogue and scientific evidence that goals and objectives can be defined to conserve fisheries resources, maintain the health of our oceans and guarantee jobs and livelihoods for our fishers.” Ricardo Perdomo, Undersecretary of Fisheries Resources Ecuador.

The management plan has 3 dimensions:

The biological fishery dimension, which has as an objective achieving the maximum sustainable yield for which reference points and harvest control rules have been defined.
The ecological dimension aims to reduce the fishery impacts on habitat non-target species and endangered, threatened, and protected (ETP) species.
The socioeconomic dimension establishes goals and objectives to obtain the greatest economic benefit without putting the biological small pelagic fish stocks at risk.

The Plan contains gender-sensitive actions and indicators to promote the participation and visibility of women in decision-making, both in local organizations as well as in dialogue roundtables.

Moreover, the participation of women and their role in fisheries was actively promoted and monitored in the dialogue roundtables, with the support of the Undersecretary of Fishing Resources and the Global Marine Commodities initiative, which provided technical assistance and training on the importance of a gender perspective and the crucial role of women in fisheries.

Likewise, these national coordination spaces enable the strengthening of decision-making processes based on the National Research Institute for Aquaculture and Fisheries' scientific information. The information obtained by the “ scientific - hydroacoustic cruises ” which were undertaken thanks to a public-private alliance, were shared and analyzed by members of the dialogue roundtables.

“We see with great expectation that the Government has portrayed in an official management plan the small pelagic fishery path towards the sustainability. The fishery should have an effective governance system in place and agreed goals to meet its sustainability. All these efforts support our work vision for present and future generations and respond to the challenges of global food security”. Carlos Cacao, President of the Small Pelagic Fishery Commission - National Chamber of Fisheries Ecuador.

The outcomes of this effective and cooperative governance model between the public and private sector show the importance of setting up systematic and inclusive processes that permit an articulated engagement of the fishery sector to respond to the sustainability challenges it is facing.

“The positive impact of these actions reflects the commitment of the small pelagic fishery sector to undertake articulated actions that permit the proposal of effective and sustainable solutions in response to the current challenges of the fishery sector. The collective action that has been moving this fishery forward is clear and conveys that dialogue is the most effective way to strengthening planning and improvement processes.” Matilde Mordt, UNDP Representative in Ecuador.