Unas 40 organizaciones medioambientales en toda España habían convocado para participar, el sábado 12 de noviembre, en una manifestación por la justicia climática y mejores esfuerzos para frenar el cambio climático.
La acción iba dirigida a los participantes de la cumbre de la ONU sobre el cambio climático (COP27) reunidos en Sharm el-Sheikh en Egipto.
Los análisis muestran todos que todavia crecen las emisiones de CO2 y gobiernos y empresas continuan gastar masivamente en la exploración y la explotación de fosiles.
El seminario web de septiembre 2022 organizado por la plataforma de investigación V2V de la que Mundus maris es socio, presentó a Melissa Marschke y Peter Vandergeest, quienes han trabajado juntos durante la última década más o menos en "Condiciones de trabajo inaceptables en la pesca mundial: anarquía, criminalidad o políticas favorables y economías políticas". Compartieron los resultados de su investigación y de campañas de grupos de defensa que investigan hechos sobre condiciones de vida y de trabajo a veces horrendas, particularmente en embarcaciones que navegan en alta mar fuera del alcance de regímenes legales. Estalló el primer escándalo sobre el abuso laboral de trabajadores, en su mayoría birmanos y camboyanos, en las pesquerías tailandesas a mediados de la década de 2010.
“Imagine lo inimaginable”, éste fue el lema de la reunión regional europea del 4º Congreso Mundial de Pesca en Pequeña Escala convocada en Malta del 12 al 14 de septiembre de 2022: tres días intensos de presentaciones y debates en busca de soluciones a la crisis abierta en la pesca artesanal en Europa. Fue organizado por el gobierno de Malta y por la plataforma de investigación global “Too Big To Ignore” dirigida por Ratana Chuenpagdee. El congreso atrajo a unos 120 participantes, en su mayoría presenciales, pero también ofreció participación en línea. La investigadora convertida en Secretaria Parlamentaria, Dra. Alicia Bugeja Said, inauguró el congreso.
Marsaxlokk, once primarily the harbour for the famous colourful traditional boats, called luzzus, of the coastal fisheries in Malta is today even more of a tourist attraction than a major seafood conveyor in Malta's economy and society. It also hosts new types of vessels where tradition meets modernity. This island in the middle of the Mediterranean, close to Sicily and Tunisia, bears witness of thousands of years of mixing cultures, colonisation and creating a unique blend of architecture, food, arts and practices influenced by the locals, past invaders and today's visitors. Nice restaurants now line the harbour promenade. On Sunday, 11 September 2022 the traditional fish festival brought out masses of people to the fish, fruit, vegetable and souvenir stands of the market along the pier with traditional boats, small tourist transport vessels and other boats anchoring in sight.
As part of the official calendar of the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022), FAO and others supported the organisation of a Small-Scale Fisheries Summit from 2 to 4 September 2022 in preparation of FAO's 35th Committee of Fisheries (COFI) convened the following week to hear about the bi-annual World Fisheries and Aquaculture Report 2022 and give orientations for future work. Mundus maris contributed an Africa focused session to the SSF Summit.
Dr. Haseeb Md. Irfanullah is an independent consultant on environment, climate change, and research systems and a visiting research fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) in the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB). His talk briefly introduced two emerging approaches - Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and Locally-Led Adaptation (LLA). In the context of climate crisis and he discussed the currently available standards/principles related to them. Using a couple of cases from small-scale fisheries (SSF), he explored the challenges and opportunities to capitalize on these novel concepts to influence our efforts in the context of SSF's vulnerability and viability, especially in the knowledge/evidence creation and system/policy influencing spaces.
Las mujeres comerciantes de pescado han sido durante mucho tiempo fundamentales para comercializar las capturas en la pesca en pequeña escala y, por lo tanto, no solo hacen prosperar a sus propias familias, sino que también contribuyen considerablemente a la seguridad alimentaria de los hogares a nivel nacional e incluso regional. Aunque ignoradas durante mucho tiempo por la burocracia y los proyectos de desarrollo, estas mujeres han estado enfrentando con notable creatividad y tenacidad los muchos cambios que su contexto social y económico ha estado experimentando desde hace bastante tiempo. El trabajo de la Academia de Pesca Artesanal de Senegal ha prestado especial atención a sus necesidades de fortalecimiento de sus capacidades para seguir siendo protagonistas y no víctimas en las cadenas de valor.
In February of 2022, the South Africa National Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment gazetted the national inland fisheries policy. This marks the first time in South Africa’s history, that inland small-scale and traditional fishers are recognised within the legislative framework. Until now, South Africa’s inland fisheries has been dominated by recreational fisheries, a product of colonial priorities. In this presentation, we explore how colonial policies shaped inland fisheries and the transition to a democratic sector that is now aligned to the constitution of the country.
After postponing the event originally scheduled for 2020 event due to the pandemic, the 20th Biennial IIFET Conference was held 18th-22nd July 2022 in Vigo, Spain. Vigo has a long-time connection with the ocean. Vigo’s Bay was mentioned by Jules Verne in his book ‘20,000 Leagues under the Sea’. It is now one of the world’s largest fishing ports and one of the busiest in terms of volume. Spain holds the third rank among European countries for the dimension of its small-scale fishery. This has a really high impact in the local culture, tradition and social life which is reflected by the large number of associations, communities and programmes present on the territory. The strong connection of Vigo with its roots in the fisheries community is clearly displayed in the impressive murals dedicated to fishers and seafood around the city like the one showing a 'mariscadora' - a woman working in seafood collection with a 'percebes', a typical Galician goose barnacle (courtesy S.T. Boschetti).
On the road to Lisbon, many organisations had organised preparatory events to contribute to the mobilisation in support of the most neglected and underfunded of all Sustainable Development Goals. The Ocean Conference was co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal. The European Parliament convened a preparatory event organised by a group of MEPs with Ambassador Peter Thomson, Special Envoy for the Ocean of the UN Secretary General, on 21 June 2022.
This month's webinar of the research platform 'From vulnerability to viability' (V2V) was delivered by Dr. Jessica Blythe on 24 June. She argued that transformations towards ocean equity and blue justice are needed to address the inequitable distribution of access to ocean benefits and resources, as well as disproportionate exposure to harms. Yet, actions that fundamentally restructure relationships between people and the ocean are highly political and can produce substantial risks for coastal communities and the marine environment. This seminar explores recent scholarship and practice on navigating this critical and complex space.