Small Scale Fisheries
Past, Present and …
Gert van Santen, Former Senior Fisheries Specialist,
World Bank
Changing Currents: Charting a Course of
Action for the Future of Oceans
February 23-26, 2005
3 Messages
Small-scale fisheries is far more important
than you think…
 The colony of small-scale fisheries has been
largely forgotten by you
 Small-scale fisheries does require planning,
management and development, but different
institutions and governance
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Small Scale Fisheries
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Global marine catch:
100 m.tons
Developing countries:
70%
SS fisheries: 45-55%
Over 30 million
fishermen; 20 million
downstream + services
Industrial fishermen –
less than 1 million
Countries without industrial
fishing fleets
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Yemen
Maldives
Because of
Planning
Political commitment
External support
A one-slide history of fisheries
12000 BC - present
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Fish resources
Industrial fleet
Small-scale boats
Processing
Trade/marketing
Consumers
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Stakeholder objectives
Government role
‘Center of gravity’
The role of the Government: Industrial
Fisheries
Planning
Management
Public Sector
1950-75
1975-90
1990-2005
Infrastructure
planning
‘Merlin’
“market”
‘eco’
planning
Merlin &
Rights
Merlin &
rights &
OFDC
Publicprivate
Develop- ‘Sustainment
ability’
…and for small-scale fisheries
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Japan, Philippines
Mauritania, Senegal,
Ghana, Malawi,
Bay of Bengal
Program
TURFs
Social research…
Recent developments
Industry centralization; oligopoly and/or
cartel creation
 Global companies are being ‘hollowed out’
 Industry focus is on ascertaining access to
resources that are cheap to exploit and
enable reliable supplies
 Industry and consumer demand for
‘sustainable’ resource exploitation
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Int. trade as % of global fish
production 1950-2000
Int. trade
Fresh products
Frozen products
Fish meal
3 top import
markets
9
1
1
5
1
47
18
9
18
30
3 top export
countries
1
6
So what do small-scale fisheries
need?
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Planning – a vision and
how to get there
Leadership, local and
national level
A reasonably effective
organization
Access to ‘extension’ and
‘development finance’
Access to local knowledge
and scientific expertise
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Local ‘councils’ that deal
with management and
marine parks
Participation in regional
management processes
Access to ‘enforcement’
A crisis – or a ‘good’
Minister to focus the
political minds
A few more ideas
RABO bank – an example of organizing
small producers world wide
 An international business model that would
equitably share the sector’s value added
 Create jobs, jobs and more jobs outside the
sector
 Fishermen are people like you and me –with
the most dangerous job in the world, so treat
them like normal people
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