This report addresses a frequently overlooked but extremely important part of world food and nutrition security: the role and importance of fish in seeking food and nutrition security for all. Fisheries and aquaculture have often been arbitrarily separated from other parts of the food and agricultural systems in food security studies, debates and policy-making.

The onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in early 2020 led to a dramatic rise in unemployment and fears about food-security throughout the Caribbean region. Subsistence fisheries were one of the few activities permitted during emergency lockdown in The Bahamas, leading many to turn to the sea for food. This study highlights the role of small-scale fisheries as a ‘natural insurance’ against socio-economic shocks and a source of resilience for small island communities at times of crisis. It also underscores the risks to food security and long-term sustainability of fishery stocks posed by overexploitation of natural resources.

We tracked the impacts of COVID-19 on aquatic food value chains in Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Myanmar and Nigeria during 2020. We assessed the availability and price of aquatic foods and production inputs using a high frequency panel survey of 767 actors from eight value chain nodes. We also conducted semi-structured phone interviews with 63 respondents in Bangladesh and online interviews with 100 aquatic food value chain actors and key informants from 17 sub-Saharan African countries. This information provides insights into the pathways by which the crisis has affected aquatic food value chain actors, the scale of those impacts and how they have adapted. These findings give rise to policy recommendations aimed at mitigating impacts in the present, assisting recovery and building a more resilient aquatic food system in the future.

Para contribuir a los esfuerzos nacionales y globales, Comunidad y Biodiversidad, A. C. (COBI) ha iniciado un proceso de consulta con pescadores en ocho entidades federativas de México para conocer los impactos económicos y sociales de la pandemia. Así como, los roles del estado y la distribución de apoyos, los efectos en la salud, las soluciones locales aplicadas por los pescadores, la igualdad de género, el uso de tecnología y el impacto ambiental. Este primer reporte refleja los impactos económicos y sociales inmediatos del COVID-19 y concluye con una serie de recomendaciones expresadas por el sector pesquero.

The full range of activities required to deliver fish and fish products from production to the final consumer is subject to indirect impacts of the pandemic through new sanitary measures, changing consumer demands, market access or logistical problems related to transportation and border restrictions. This in turn has a damaging effect on fishers and fish farmers’ livelihoods, as well as on food security and nutrition for populations that rely heavily on fish for animal protein and essential micronutrients.

This policy brief reviews on going challenges and proposes measures to protect production and income of the sector and the most vulnerable, as well as maintain operations and support the supply chain.

En este octavo y último reporte, Comunidad y Biodiversidad, A.C. (COBI) se enfocó en entender qué ha cambiado en las vidas de los pescadoras y pescadores a raíz de la pandemia, qué se ha aprendido en estos meses y cómo regresar a pescar con seguridad en el contexto de la nueva normalidad.

Summary of recommendations for the revision of Ghana’s Fisheries Act

This publication brings to the frontline, issues that beg for attention in the fisheries sector.

Chapter one of this publication, titled COVID-19 and Fisheries, highlights how the pandemic has affected the fisheries subsector.

Chapter two, titled Dead Fish is not Manna, captures the peculiarities and challenges of fisheries in Nigeria noting the contaminated state of some of the fishes sold in the country's markets.

A policy paper addressing the numerous threats to fisheries in the Gulf of Guinea.

This report aims to accelerate climate change adaptation implementation in fisheries management throughout the world. It showcases how flexibility can be introduced in the fisheries management cycle in order to foster adaptation, strengthen the resilience of fisheries, reduce their vulnerability to climate change, and enable managers to respond in a timely manner to the projected changes in the dynamics of marine resources and ecosystems.

This document, Towards Gender-Equitable Small-Scale Fisheries – A handbook In support of the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (henceforth the “handbook”), was developed to support gender-equitable small-scale fisheries by enhancing the understanding of their gender dimensions, with a focus on the specific role and conditions of women in the small-scale fisheries sector.

Este libro da cuenta de los retos que pescadores y pescadoras de México y Cuba afrontan frente al cambio climático: el cambio en sus artes de pesca, el conocimiento que tienen sobre los cambios que han sufrido los ecosistemas y el clima –desde la perspectiva de varias generaciones atrás en contraste con la generación actual, así como los cambios climáticos locales que son periódicos, como “El Niño”-, de las formas de organización social, de la participación de las pescadoras en la ciencia ciudadana y también, de los cambios que como científicos y científicas hacemos a nuestros marcos teóricos y a las bases de datos para el análisis de especies y capturas. En fin, cada vez es más evidente que la multidisciplina es una necesidad creciente para entender los problemas complejos, y la relación entre cambio climático, pescadores-pescadoras y pesquerías no es la excepción.