Gran alivio y mucha emoción: esas fueron las sensaciones predominantes para los participantes que se dirigieron a la edición 2023 de la plataforma 'love your ocean' coordinada por la Fondación Alemana del Océano en la feria internacional Boot en Düsseldorf, Alemania. Después de una pausa de dos años debido a la pandemia, Mundus maris estaba feliz de estar a bordo junto con Quantitative Aquatics, la organización científica sin fines de lucro que administra las bases de datos globales FishBase, SeaLifeBase y Aquamaps. Estábamos en buena compañía con otras organizaciones comprometidas con la difusión del conocimiento sobre el océano, su recuperación y su protección y haciendo una contribución a la Década de las Naciones Unidas para las Ciencias Oceánicas para el Desarrollo Sostenible, 2021-2030.
This was the last webinar in the 2022 series of monthly events of the research platform V2V (Vulnerability to Viability) to which Mundus maris is a partner. Dr. Friday Njaya, Director of Fisheries in Malawi, presented the key lessons from the development of Transboundary Fisheries Management (TFM) on Lake Chiuta. The lake is shared between Malawi and Mozambique. Since the mid-1990s, fisheries co-management was introduced on the Malawian side of the lake by establishing Beach Village Committees (BVCs).so as to address any issues through greater participation.
The rotating presidency of the long-standing G7++ gatherings of country representatives interested in the maritime safety of the Gulf of Guinea convened its Plenary session this year in Abidjan under the shared lead of Côte d'Ivoire and Germany. The presidency had invited this time also a few representatives of civil society with particular emphasis on the 'Blue Economy'. The SWAIMS project to which Mundus maris members had contributed in previous occasions in the form of presentations and meeting participations had proposed Prof. Stella Williams of Mundus maris as one of those speaking for civil society.
"Leading by examples", thus was the motto of the African regional gathering of the 4th World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress convened in Cape Town, South Africa, 21-23 November 2022. This congress concluded the series of five regional conferences, one for each continent, towards the end of the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022). Hosted by the University of the Western Cape together with the Fisheries Department and organised by the Too Big To Ignore global research platform led by Ratana Chuenpagdee, the congress attracted some 160 participants mostly on site, but also offered online participation. Moenieba Isaacs of UWC (pictured) chaired the opening together with Shehu Akintola of Lagos State University.
Sustainability at Scale: Connecting Small-Scale Fishers for the Mobilization of Local Knowledge, Solutions and Capital Opportunities - thus is the full title of the V2V November webinar presented by Dr. Maria José Espinosa, CEO of the Mexican non-profit organisation Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI). Through their field work, COBI found and documented that small-scale fishers and their organisations are flexible and make daily decisions to adapt to local, national, and international stressors.
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.