WORKSHOP 3: HALIEUTIC RESOURCES

We are currently seeing the development of a set of laws and practices preventing artisanal fishermen and their communities from having rights to fishing stock. The topic of halieutic resources generally provokes little interest when raised in relation to natural resources grabbing, despite the fact that millions of people’s income earning rely on fishing and aquaculture1. In the same way, fishing is vital to ensuring global food security. In many countries, fish is the largest source of high-quality animal protein for people and form an important part of their diet. Witness accounts reveal that the overfishing of sea and rivers is a reality, just like land grabbing. All over the world, fishermen, like farmers, are facing serious threats to their livelihood. Since the mid-1980s, various countries have privatised fishing by implementing quotas for large-scale industrialists. We are seeing fish stock increasingly controlled by a handful of large companies to the detriment of the communities of artisanal fishermen who are much more numerous. In Chile, for example, fishing reforms in 2013 led to 90% of quotas being awarded to just seven families active in the industrial fishing sector. Figures like these reveal the exclusion of thousands of small fishermen, quite simply signalling the end of family and artisanal fisheries.