Winter 2011

G-FISH 2011 Annual Meeting:

The Global FISH Alliance (G-FISH) held its third Annual Meeting on Friday, December 9, 2011, at the FHI 360 Offices in Washington, D.C. Members and associates of the Alliance participated in a one day meeting to provide updates on current work, to
re-affirm the Alliance's common goals, and commit to collaborative action and engagement going forward. Representatives from eight alliance partners attended the meeting including Conservation International (CI), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), FHI 360, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), USAID, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), The WorldFish Center, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), as well as a delegate from the Clinton Foundation. During the Annual Meeting, Alliance partners did a series of self-guided exercises
aimed at improving collaboration, and then committed to common goals for the Alliance highlighted in the graphic below.

To view the full Annual Meeting report, please click here: Annual Meeting.

Media Coverage:

An important story on the plight of divers in Honduras, an issue the Global FISH Alliance's (G-FISH) Spiny Lobster Initiative has focused on for three years, was featured on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams on Monday, January 2, 2012. Lobster demand from the U.S. has led to overfishing and unsafe and destructive fishing practices in Honduras. The G-FISH Spiny Lobster Initiative has worked with local stakeholders in Honduras for the past three years to improve the safety and management of the spiny lobster fishery to support the divers and their livelihoods. Overall, G-FISH promotes better management practices to increase lobster populations, enhance livelihoods, and conserve biodiversity. With Dr. Elmer Mejia as a member of the Initiative, G-FISH has supported safe diving trainings for boat captains and divers along the Miskito Coast.

The video can be found on the NBC website as well as news articles entitled "Dying and disabled in Honduras, in pursuit of lobster to sell to the U.S." and "Doctor's quest to save injured lobster divers". To view the full press release to click here: Press Release.

The Global FISH Alliance is working to convene importers, retailers, and restaurants in the U.S. to discuss options that could improve social and environmental conditions in Honduras and invites our Alliance members and other interested parties to join us. The first meeting will be held at the International Boston Seafood Show, March 11-13, 2012. Please contact us if you will be at the Seafood Show and able to attend.

In addition, Honduras has received extensive media coverage nationally and internationally. Multiple newspaper articles at the national and regional levels, several TV interviews with local stakeholders, and a media field trip to La Moskitia were part of the coverage in the last few months. Internationally, the New York Times and UK Channel 4 published and broadcasted stories about the plight of lobster divers and the current status of the lobster fisheries in Honduras.

Website:

The Global FISH Alliance redesigned its website to feature the new work. G-FISH has also increased its social media presence so please view the G-FISH Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/
Global-FISH-Alliance/198270160253219?sk=wall. G-FISH continues to manage a Partner Activities map. Please review the map and if your organization or programs are not featured, send us the key information and we will update the map so we can keep the information accurate.

Honduras - Spiny Lobster Initiative (SLI) :

Updates on Reforming the Fisheries Laws in Honduras

The Spiny Lobster Initiative has been working to engage stakeholders to actively participate in the consultation process for the new Honduras fishery law that the Government is coordinating. In August and September 2011, three regional workshops were held in Roatan, La Ceiba and La Moskitia with lobster fisheries stakeholders. As follow-on to the workshops, an updated fisheries bill has been submitted to the National Congress for debate prior to approval. The new Honduras fisheries law will create the proper legal platform for better fisheries management in the country, including implementing tools for fisheries management such as: limited access, creation of responsible fishing areas, and indigenous rights to resources among other things.

SLI members have also been directly involved in the lobster dive fishing National Transition Plan that the Honduran government is developing. In November 2011, three regional workshops in La Moskitia, La Ceiba, and the Bay Islands were held to collect input from the lobster dive fisheries stakeholders (private sector and divers) to develop a strategic two-year plan (2012-2013) to phase out the lobster dive fishery in Honduras, based on consensus through concrete action plans. This two-year transition plan will help establish strategies for lobster fishery stakeholders to successfully phase out dive fishing for lobster by 2013.

Engaging Moskitia fishers

A three-year project for $700,000.00 will start in 2012 for the reconversion of lobster divers into artisanal fishers, as part of the transition away from diving lobster fisheries. The Miskito Active Diver Association developed this project, which will enable Miskito divers to become stewards of conservation using rights based approaches to certain fishing grounds in La Moskitia and the promotion of best artisanal fisheries practices including fin-fish and dive-free lobster fishing. The project was submitted and approved by Pronegocios (local technical donor funded by the World Bank). Matching funds from the Miskito Diver Association as well as a bank loan will support the project. This project will be technically assisted by SLI technical fisheries partners, including the Center for Marine Ecology.

Partner Engagement

Over the past several months, SLI continued to engage partners to become more active in collaborating with SLI, especially for technical support of local initiatives. Partners such as the Center for Marine Ecology, OSPESCA, and the The Nature Conservancy have worked closely together in 2011. A local partnership with the Summit Foundation promoted support for the creation of marine reserves in the north coast of Honduras. Additionally, a partnership with WWF increased awareness and adaptation of certification standards for the lobster trap fishery. Through a partnership with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), SLI started to promote knowledge about catch shares and rights based access among lobster fishery stakeholders as sustainable management tools for fisheries.

Upcoming Plans

In 2012, SLI had plans to support the fishery reform action plans in order to have an effective legal framework for fisheries that includes the new fishery law, industrial fleet regulations, and the national transition plan for lobster diving. Some important exchanges between Belizean artisanal fishermen and Miskito Honduran fishers and divers are planned; and exchanges between government fisheries authorities in Honduras and Belize are also being considered. Additionally, support for the participation of some SLI stakeholders at the 2012 Boston Seafood Show is planned in order to explore new business partners and learn about market trends for sustainable fisheries.

Cambodia - Tonle Sap:

Whole System in the Room

On September 13-16, 2011, the G-FISH Tonle Sap team, in conjunction with WorldFish Center, hosted a Whole System in the Room (WSR) retreat under the theme "Improving Livelihoods in Tonle Sap Lake Communities by Increasing Collaboration in Fisheries Resource Management and Governance". This retreat called together 106 stakeholders from 10 sectors of the Tonle Sap fishery with the purpose of promoting collaboration and commitment to reform the Tonle
Sap fishery.

Through eight self-guided exercises focused on building trust, connections, and communication skills,
five common goals in four main categories were established with agreement of all stakeholders. These
goals include:

• Enrichment of Livelihoods
  • Improvement of community livelihoods through proper natural resource managemen
• Capacity Building
  • Effective and efficient communications on Tonle Sap resource management
• Good Governance
  • Improvement of collaboration among stakeholders
  • Effective compliance with fisheries laws
• Increase in fisheries resources
  • Conservation of flooded forests and promotion of sanctuaries for future generations to have food to eat

For a link to the WSR full report please click here: Cambodia WSR Report.

As a result of the WSR, six task forces were created by retreat attendees. The task forces created were: Fish Lots Task Force, Livelihoods Task Force, Media and Communications Task Force, Fish Sanctuaries Task Force, Flooded Forests Task Force, and a Patrolling and Enforcement Task Force.

Follow-up Work since the WSR

Since the WSR retreat in Siem Reap in September 2011, G-FISH has been convening meetings for each of the six task forces. Over the past four months, each multi-stakeholder task force has met three times and worked together to create work plans complete with budgets, time frames, and stakeholder commitments, for improving the Tonle Sap fisheries. Activities covered in these work plans include such ideas as capacity building workshops, radio programming, flooded forests replanting, sign postings of spawning habitat, community patrolling initiatives, community meetings to raise awareness and compliance with fisheries improvement projects, and stakeholder engagement meetings between the Tonle Sap Authority and communities to layout a common understanding and framework for managing the lake's resources.

Going Forward

As the task forces complete these work plans, G-FISH believes this is a strategic opportunity to invest in the projects since all work plans are developed locally and represent the demands of local stakeholders, which will make the outcomes of the investment more sustainable. Given G-FISH's limited funding, work plan activities are being prioritizing for investment. G-FISH has also committed to helping the task forces present their work plans to the donor community to seek further investment.

Mozambique - Pemba Bay:

The main vehicle G-FISH works through in Pemba Bay is the Conservation Committee which named itself the Iniciativa Local para o Desenvolvimento da Pesca Sustentavel na Baia de Pemba. The Committee is very active and meets twice a month; local G-FISH consultants carry out follow-up work between meetings, such as hosting community meetings and gathering and disseminating information to stakeholders. The work of G-FISH responds to the demands of the Committee with the premise that sustainable change is most effective when responding to local demands. Therefore, the Conservation Committee helps G-FISH vet investments and also alerts G-FISH to where outside expertise is needed. Below are some of the local demands G-FISH will respond to in 2012:

Roll out communications strategy

In order to 1) raise awareness; 2) promote local ownership; and 3) improve compliance in the Pemba fishery, G-FISH, through the Conservation Committee, will roll out a strategic communications campaign aimed at achieving these three objectives which will support implementing a co-management plan.

Increased capacity building

In order to work with and through Community Leaders, CCP heads, fishers, and other stakeholders, capacity building trainings focused on meeting facilitation, creating action plans, and conflict resolution are necessary to continue to build the local ownership in addressing fisheries reforms. G-FISH is engaging the FHI 360 Capable Partners program to develop capacity building trainings. These trainings will be geared towards Community Leaders and CCPs at first, but will be scaled up to do larger capacity building training, if there is demand.

Community Strengthening

As part of our awareness building campaign and call to action to improve compliance and co-management of the Bay, G-FISH will conduct a series of community meetings around Pemba. These meetings will feature community leaders, CCP heads, and Department of Fisheries representatives in an effort to engage communities in reforming the fishery. Key to these meetings are the planned capacity building trainings to ensure that meeting facilitators are optimizing the meeting time and continue to build a common vision and create constructive and actionable plans for fishery reforms.

Strengthen Partnerships with Local Government

The Conservation Committee has partnered with the Department of Fisheries to improve communications and collaboration. The Department of Fisheries has begun facilitating town hall meetings to further engage communities in reforming the Pemba fisheries. As a result, G-FISH will look to strengthen relations between the Conservation Committee and local government to improve the effectiveness of each stakeholder group's mission of improving management of the Pemba fishery while promoting biodiversity conservation.

Engage Partners

As G-FISH continues activities in Pemba, further engaging partners remains a priority to leverage funding and expertise to both scale up our efforts and continuously improve the effectiveness and reach of our activities. Over the coming months, G-FISH will look to partner with local NGOs such as AMA, Lorio University, and Radio Sens Fronteras among others; as well as engage WCS, TNC, WWF, and others interested in collaborating on efforts in Pemba.