Presented at the International course on Advanced Lessons on Fisheries and Aquaculture Economics: A Tribute to Prof. M. C. Nandeesha (1957 – 2012) held at Santander, Spain from 22 to 26 July 2013. By Piyashi DebRoy I begin with expressing my heartfelt thankfulness to Prof. Josè Fernández Polanco for having provided me with the humble opportunity...

On 27th December 2012, Dr M.C. Nandeesha, who initiated the first efforts to address gender in aquaculture and fisheries in Asia, passed away. We honor his memory and achievements and hope that his legacy will continue to grow through the gender efforts of the Asian Fisheries Society and other professional and grassroots groups. In collaboration with...

The latest Secretariat of the Pacific Community Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin (#26), “highlights gender roles in coastal fisheries and development, and women’s fishing activities in urban and rural communities”, said its editor, Veikila Vuki. The issue contains the following articles, and can be downloaded here: Guest editorial: Gender in aquaculture and fisheries – Navigating change, by...

Brief report on the Proceedings of the Seafood Industry and Social Development Conference 21-22 September 2015, Annapolis, Maryland, USA By Arlene Nietes Satapornvanit In early 2015, NACA (Network for Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific) was invited by Oxfam/SFP/UNDP to participate in the Seafood Industry and Social Development Conference to present the work we are doing on...

As part of the European project Oceans Past Platform, a new working group on gender and fisheries history has been established. See our video introduction on Youtube. Gendered Seas will explore the different roles and responsibilities of women and men in the exploitation and management of living marine resources over time.

In the August 2015 issue of Samudra Report, the journal of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers, Marie Christine Monfort describes her expedition to “fish out” what was happening for women in the fish sector. She also provides an abridged version of the recent Globefish Report, “The Role of Women in the Seafood Industry”...

The July 2015 issue of Yemaya (from the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers) highlights the experiences of women in fish trade and support industries. The editor, Nilanjana Biswas, concludes that the evidence is that women are being ‘ousted from local markets’, typically ending up in more dangerous, less lucrative substandard sites. Read the Editorial...

In a recent FAO report (A Review of Women’s Access to Fish in Small Scale Fisheries), Angela Lentisco and Robert Lee have gone beyond the typical portrayal of women as fish processors and marketers have reviewed and categorized three main ways in which women access fish in small scale fisheries. First is primary access through...

Women are particularly important in the key industrial tuna and coastal fish value chains in the Solomon Islands. They are active inshore fishers, critical in providing labour in the large SolTuna at Noro in Western Province, and in certain domains of local fish marketing. A recent World Bank study [“Gender, Fisher, Trader, Processer: Towards Gender-Equitable...

Charlotte Moser worked among Lao fishers in the Sekong River basin that begins in Vietnam, traverses Lao PDR and flows into the Mekong in Cambodia. The project on which she worked, in Samakhixay and Saysettha districts of Attapeu Province in southern Laos, involved Lao PDR, World Bank and IUCN support. She reports [“Listening to Women Fishers on...

In 2000, the Western Australian rock lobster (Panulirus cygnus) fishery was the world’s first fishery certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. Since then, however, the stock has had shocks from climate shifts. The fishing communities that harvest it, especially on the remote Abrolhos Islands, have been affected both by the...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through its GLOBEFISH unit on international fish trade, recently released a report – “The Role of Women in the Seafood Industry” – that highlighted the contributions and constraints on women through all levels and scales of the fish industry. The report, written by Marie-Christine Monfort, ...

These reports on the Women in Aquaculture and Fishery Session at WA2015, held at the ICC Jeju, Korea, 27 May 2015, have been written by Jin Yeong Kim, Bibha Kumari and Jenny Cobcroft. Thanks also to Aquaculture without Frontiers (AwF) Women’s Network, World Aquaculture Society, Roy Palmer and all the presenters. Women in Aquaculture and Fisheries ...

The 34 year old series of FAO-Norwegian fisheries projects based on capacity building and use of the Research Vessel (R/V) Dr Fridtjof Nansen has released the report of its first gender audit. The latest phase of the Nansen work is based on the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF), hence the need to take a much more ...

The latest issue of Yemaya, the newsletter on gender and fisheries put out three times a year by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers, is full of interesting and thought-provoking articles, several centered around International Women’s Day and continuing struggles for decent lives and rights around the world. The whole issue or individual Read more about Latest ICSF Yemaya Newsletter Now Out ...

The Ba Women’s Forum, a peak body of 79 women’s groups in the Ba area of Fiji (62 km from Nadi, a tourist center on the main island of Fiji), has gradually been developing its engagement and the identification of opportunities in the pearl culture and marketing sector, with help from an ACIAR project.

The Fish for Life project, initiated by experts from Canada, Brazil and Bolivia, and carried out with families in Yapacani, Bolivia, has succeeded in expanding the farming families’ diversity of food and farming options – previously based on single crop rice farming – by successfully introducing women-led fish farming. The comprehensive development project, complete with pilot...

This International Women’s Day we are pleased to share a heartening and forward looking set of messages from Asian women in the aquaculture sector. The presentation comes courtesy of the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific and Aquaculture without Frontiers. Click on the picture above to launch the slide show, which starts with the challenges...

The Secretariat for the Pacific Community’s recent regional workshop on the “Future of coastal/inshore fisheries management,” 3 to 6 March 2015 included the role of women (along with youth and culture) in fisheries management as one of the main topics. Other topics included community based resource management, livelihoods and the private sector, and the role of tuna in...

Food security is often presented as a gender-neutral problem, but unequal access to food affects women and girls disproportionately and so gender-sensitive solutions are needed. The UK-based BRIDGE gender and development initiative has just released a policy brief and report on gender, food security and nutrition exploring the evidence and providing a new vision of gender-justice with implementing...

A tremendous emphasis in agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture research is given to developing new, more efficient and profitable technologies for farmers and fishers. Governments all around the world support research and extension institutes, and the private sector also has a huge influence. But how are women faring in having a say in what their priorities...

Rapid economic development in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors often relies heavily on local or migrant women workers entering the paid workforce. This has been the case on the Island of Chiloé in southern Chile, one of the areas of intense growth of salmon aquaculture and salmon processing for export. In their recent paper in...

A Tribute by Pedro Bueno, former Director General NACA He went to work in what was then called Kampuchea whose countryside was still strewn with unexploded bombs and land mines. He was young and probably cared little if he stepped on one. He promoted to a country, reeling from genocide, aquaculture development. It was for...

A new report from the CGIAR Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) research program picks out some early lessons from the floodplains of Bangladesh and Zambia where the gender transformative approach is being tested in the field. The approach, which the AAS program seeks to apply, tries to go beyond simple gender approaches and checklists that usually...

Our Genderaquafish website continued to grow in popularity in 2014, with visits to the site increasing by 9% over the 2013 level, reaching 18,454 visits from people in at least 162 countries, covering all regions. Our top 5 countries for visitors were: India (4,734), USA (2,528), Philippines (941), Malaysia (831), UK (696). REGIONS Posts from Asia and Africa were...