Over four days, small-scale fishworkers from more than 40 countries discussed issues that affect their livelihood such as ocean grabbing and climate change

The World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP), a social movement of small-scale fishworkers, had its 7th General Assembly at New Delhi last week.

Over four days, small-scale fishworkers from more than 40 countries discussed issues that affect their livelihood such as ocean grabbing and climate change. Ocean grabbing refers to actions or policies that deprive small-scale fishworkers of access to the ocean or its food resources. Many fishworkers at the assembly reported that tourism was a common method of ocean grabbing. Beach side hotels and resorts or water guzzling golf courses are built on public beach land, cutting off the fishworkers from the sea and depleting fresh water resources. Beaches are fenced off, labelled “private” and only tourists allowed on them. A lot of them also pointed out that governments often support ocean grabbing activities by making policies favouring industries or hotel owners failing to recognize the rights of small-scale fishworkers and failing to implement laws protecting these rights.

The assembly discussed a strategy to demand that governments around the world implement the Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries. These are Guidelines prepared by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. Governments around the world often ignore small-scale fishworker communities and their rights. These guidelines acknowledge that small scale fishing provides food and employment to many fishing communities around the world and attempt to push governments to recognize and protect community rights. Members of the WFFP hope that the guidelines will help combat issues such ocean grabbing and climate change that the community faces.

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