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Tides of change: a project makes a difference in the livelihoods of artisanal fishers Fighting rural poverty is a multifaceted challenge. It is not only about increasing the incomes of poor rural people, and providing them with access to safe water, health and education. It is also about transferring knowledge and know-how. And more importantly, it is about implementing policies that empower people and lead to reducing rural poverty. This is what the IFAD-funded Sofala Bank Artisanal Fisheries Project is doing in Mozambique. The Sofala Bank, which is rich in fishing resources, lies off the coast of Mozambique. It stretches 950 km from the waters off Sofala and Zambezia province to the waters halfway up Nampula province to the north.
The IFAD-funded Sofala Bank Artisanal Fisheries Project focuses on the narrow strip of coast facing the Sofala Bank and on its fishing waters. Nampula, Zambezia and Sofala, the three provinces within the project area, account for a large share of the country’s poor households and fishing communities whose livelihoods depend primarily on fishing. The project is implemented by the Institute for the Development of Small-Scale Fisheries (Instituto de Desenvolvimento de Pesca de Pequena Escala (IDPPE)), which is under the authority of the Ministry of Fisheries. IDPPE is in a good position to lobby on behalf of artisanal fishers and advocate for their cause. Fishing is a challenging and complex activity, and the life of artisanal fishers is far from easy," says Rui M.M. Falcão, project coordinator of the Sofala Bank Artisanal Fisheries Project. “Fishers find themselves continually competing with industrial and semi-industrial fishers for space and resources." "You know, there are more boats in the prawn industry than prawns," he says.
Before the project started, the fishing communities operated in a difficult regulatory environment that did not protect poor and vulnerable people. The communities were isolated and had poor access to markets and financial services. They used poor post-harvest and preservation technology, and had limited access to safe water and to basic social services such as health and sanitation. In addition, they were poorly organized at grass-roots level. "The partnership between IDPPE and IFAD is an ideal alliance", says Alessandro Marini, Country Programme Manager for Mozambique. "We share the same vision and approach. We work with the communities to understand their needs, constraints and challenges". Thanks to a people-centred approach, IDPPE has helped fishers improve their livelihoods in a number of ways.
"IDPPE and IFAD worked with the fishers and raised awareness about the importance of preservation and of improving their primary tools – their boats and fishing gear," says Falcão with a smile.The fishers realized that fishing on the open sea was an opportunity to catch high-value fish, which they needed to preserve with ice on board so they could sell the catch on the market at its real value." "They also realized that to venture further out to sea, they needed safe boats," he says. “Today more and more fishers are going out with secure boats, and slowly but surely they are adopting ice to preserve their catch." Visionary leadership influences policy Before the Sofala Bank project helped change things, fishery regulations and law allowed both industrial and semi-industrial fishers to fish as close as one nautical mile from the shore. This meant that trawlers could pass over and destroy the nets of artisanal fishers.
A fisher's net is like a businessman's blackberry or cellphone – it is his lifeline. The one-mile regulation had a devastating impact on the livelihoods of fishers and the more than 12 people who work in each fishing unit. It also affected fishers casting beach seines from the shore. The IDPPE team through their advocacy work managed to change national maritime fishery regulations. They lobbied with the Ministry of Fisheries to raise awareness that the narrow, one-mile fishing zone was disastrous for artisanal fishing.
"In the beginning we had a tough time convincing the authorities," says Falcão. “The fishing industry would rebut our claim, telling the authorities that artisanal fishers used old nets on purpose but asked for full compensation." The project worked with the communities and documented cases of the destruction of fishers’ nets by trawlers. The project's systematic documentation and perseverance led to a change in policy. The Ministry of Fisheries revised maritime fishery regulations and institutionalized a national policy that extended the fishing zone to a limit of three miles. "This change in policy has improved the livelihoods of approximately 100,000 artisanal fishers at the national level and 26,000 artisanal fishers in the Sofala Bank," says Falcão. Equipping fishers to fish in the open sea
Once this hurdle was overcome, the next challenge was to equip artisanal fishers to fish in the open sea instead of inshore. They needed better boats and improved fishing techniques, and they needed to acquire new fishing skills. They had to use diversified fishing gear such as gillnets and long lines and improve their on-board preservation methods. The project sensitized fishers about better ways to manage their resources by using appropriate technologies, techniques and tools. Fishers now know that using mosquito nets instead of regular fishing nets can damage fish resources because the finer nets trap undersized and young fish. Fishing is risky not only in terms of catch but also because fishers are at mercy of the weather, which is even more uncertain now because of climate change," says Falcão. “Fishers need to learn how to ‘read’ weather to know when it is safe to go out to fish in the open sea."
"If bad weather hits when they are at sea, they risk losing their fishing gear and losing their bearings, too," he says. “We are conducting safety awareness campaigns to sensitize fishers to the fact that they cannot go out into the open sea with dugout canoes." The project also strengthened fishing organizations by helping participants establish community fisheries councils. Falcão and IDPPE were aware that to give the councils teeth, they needed to be full-fledged legal entities that could exercise power and influence policy. Passionately pursuing the matter, they successfully facilitated the process of obtaining legal status for the councils. "Now the government and fishing authorities recognize that fishing councils play a crucial role in managing fishery resources, fishers have a voice and are fully involved with fishery management at local and national level and are influencing decisions and policy," says Falcão. Breaking the ice: Learning how to better preserve fish
Now that the area to be fished exclusively by artisanal fishers has been extended, they can catch high-value species in the open sea up to three miles off the coast, and they no longer have to compete for space with industrial and semi-industrial fishers. Industrial fishers go out to sea in boats that measure 20 metres or more, and they freeze their catch on board. Semi-industrial fishers use 10-20 metres boats and use ice to preserve fish on board. Industrial and semi-industrial fishers concentrate their fishing in specific areas and have access to appropriate infrastructure.
To enable artisanal fishers to preserve their catch, the project piloted the use of small ice plants. Operating in areas without electricity, the units rely on fuel-powered generators that are expensive to run. "Using ice all along the value chain means selling the product at a higher price, having more clients, increasing income and improving livelihoods," says Falcão.
The challenge is to keep the ice factories going. Presently, the cost of running the ice-making units is relatively high because they are not eligible for any kind of fuel tax relief. IDPPE will work with authorities to extend fuel tax relief to small ice-making enterprises. "This will make investment in ice factories more attractive," Falcão says. "The next challenge is to encourage banks and credit institutions to extend credit for setting up ice production units." Facing the challenge of a closed season
The new challenge for Falcão and IDPPE is to circumvent the negative impact of a regulation that closes the fishing season for a period of three and a half months every year. The big players claim that artisanal fishers' activity damages the interest and catch of industrial and semi-industrial fishers. Falcão and IDPPE experts argue instead that there is no evidence that artisanal fishers are seriously harming the resource base and that there are no grounds for imposing the three and a half -month closed season. They are preparing to fight this new battle, persuading policymakers to revoke the closed-season regulation. "In past years we managed to get a waiver in Nampula, but it was revoked recently." he says. “The closed season has a negative social and economic impact on the fishers. “Because they are unable to fish, their protein intake decreases and they lose their only source of income," he says. “We hope the authorities will reconsider this regulation and apply it only to industrial and semi-industrial fishing." Getting ready for the next challenge
"There is still much more to do," says Falcão . "My vision is that one day all the fishing communities will have access to safe water, education, health, roads, electricity from the grid and communication tools such as cellphones." “The project team and I are striving to make the fishers’ organizations stronger so that they are able and equipped to negotiate with policymakers and become influential opinion leaders." "We've come a long way in advocating for and implementing pro-poor policies, but we are only halfway along in our journey," he says. “We still need to implement more policies to improve the assets and capabilities of poor rural people and build the capacity of local organizations and communities so that they advocate for themselves." The Sofala Bank Artisanal Fisheries Project started in 2002. IFAD's loan is US$18.0 million. The Government of Mozambique contributes US$3.0 million and the project beneficiaries' contribution is US$384,000. The project is cofinanced by Belgian Survival Fund for a total of US$3.4 million and by NORAD for a total of US$5.8 million. Total project cost is US$30.6 million. The project reaches out to 26,000 households living in the Sofala Bank coastal area. Source: IFAD |
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