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The ten steps to responsible Inland fisheries in practice: reflections from diverse regional case studies around the globe

Authors :
Leandro Castello
Devin M. Bartley
Ian G. Cowx
John D. Koehn
Elizabeth A. Nyboer
Christian Skov
Simon Funge-Smith
Emmanuel Kaunda
Andrea J. Reid
Edith Gondwe
Gretchen L. Stokes
Steven J. Cooke
Abigail J. Lynch
T. Douglas Beard
Nicholas J. Souter
Craig P. Paukert
Dana M. Infante
Nancy J. Leonard
Abigail Bennett
Søren Berg
William W. Taylor
Source :
Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries. 31:843-877
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2021.

Abstract

Inland fisheries make substantial contributions to food security and livelihoods locally, regionally, and globally but their conservation and management have been largely overlooked by policy makers. In an effort to remedy this limited recognition, a cross-sectoral community of scientists, practitioners, and policy makers from around the world convened a high-level meeting in 2015 at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations headquarters in Rome, Italy to develop recommendations for sustainable inland fisheries management. This meeting resulted in the production of the Rome Declaration, outlining ten key steps needed to achieve responsible inland fisheries. When the Ten Steps were conceived, they were framed in a global context because inland fisheries around the world face similar challenges, and it was hoped that these large-scale and ambitious steps would draw the attention of regional or international bodies for greater investment in their proper management. Most inland fisheries, however, are managed at a local (often community, watershed, or waterbody) scale with the "on-the-ground" practitioners, managers, assessment biologists, and stewardship officers responsible for achieving the promise of the Ten Steps. Here, we reflect on the relevance of the Ten Steps to practitioners using six regional case studies from around the globe (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa) to identify the extent to which existing efforts align with the Ten Steps and where there are opportunities to do more. Learning what is effective from local/regional actions should better inform a more global "action plan" and provide tangible guidance for implementation recognizing that global guidance needs to be informed by and acted upon by local practitioners. We conclude by considering the common challenges, synergies, and other emergent properties that arise from these case studies, and use these as a path forward to advancing responsible management of inland fisheries through the Rome Declaration. Of particular importance is the need to balance the high-level aspirational goals of the Ten Steps with the local cultural, socio-economic, and institutional realities that ultimately influence how humans interact with fisheries resources and aquatic ecosystems. This assessment provides valuable information on how to refine and implement the Ten Steps recognizing that success will require coordinated efforts among on-the-ground practitioners, scientists, stakeholders, rightsholders and international decision makers. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; Genome Canada; Fonds de recherche du Quebec -Nature et Technologies grant from the Government of Quebec, Canada; Danish Rod and Net Fishing License Funds Published version Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada(Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)CGIAR); Genome Canada(Genome Canada); Fonds de recherche du Quebec -Nature et Technologies grant from the Government of Quebec, Canada; Danish Rod and Net Fishing License Funds Public domain – authored by a U.S. government employee

Details

ISSN :
15735184 and 09603166
Volume :
31
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....c0dcf0fd2e263d5022421f70a7bce3f9
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-021-09664-w