Category Archives: gleaning

Women disadvantaged by how fisheries are structured

Posted on October 30, 2016 | Leave a comment

The September 2016 issue of Yemaya (Issue 52), the gender and fisheries newsletter of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) is full of articles that explore the structural inequalities affecting women in fisheries and aquaculture. This is recommended reading!

gaf6-group-photo

GAF6 Group Photo, 4 August 2016, Bangkok. Yemaya 52 includes a report of GAF6.

Contents (below) and link to Issue 52

  • Gathering cooperation (Costa Rica mollusk gatherers) by Aracelly Jimenez and colleagues
  • Milestones (highlights the new document “ICSF’s Journey with Women in Fisheries”) by Ramya Rajagopalan
  • Fighting invisibility (Brazil’s women on their rights to social security and decent work) by Beatriz Ferrari
  • What a woman! (women are the new “watermen” in Chesapeake Bay, USA) by Mariette Correa
  • Profile of Mercy Wasai Mghanga (Kenyan woman fishworker leader) by Hadley B. Becha
  • Nurturing the eel (inland fisheries management in the Netherlands) by Cornelie Quist
  • Gender inequality: GAF6 asks ‘WHY?’ by Meryl Williams and colleagues
  • The climate for change! (gender discussions at FishAdapt conference) by Meryl Williams and Angela Lentisco
  • Q & A (Interview with Cao Thi Thien, Chairwoman of Hoang Phong Commune
    Women’s Union, Vietnam) by Nguyen Thu Trang
  • Yemaya Mama (The fish value chain cartoon)
  • Yemaya Recommends: El Rol De La Mujer En La Pesca Y La Acuicultura En Chile, Colombia, Paraguay Y Perú Integración, Sistematización Y Análisis De Estudios Nacionales Informe Final = rreview by Vivienne Solis

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Posted in AFS GAF events, Brazil, Chile, Climate Change, Cornelie quist, Costa Rica, Fish post-harvest, Fisheries, GAF6, Gender and development, Gendered labor studies, gleaning

Reflections on gleaning

Posted on February 23, 2016 | Leave a comment
BrotherSisterGleaningBilangbilangan,Bohol,Philippines,2011-DK

Brother and sister gleaning, Bilangbilangan, Bohol, Philippines, 2011. Photo: Danika Kleiber

By Margaret (Nonas) Kunkel, Masters Student, Asian Studies, Murdoch University, Australia. E-mail: mnonas@iinet.net.au

Also see our overview of gleaning and gender: Discover Gleaning

The Philippines is one of Southeast Asia’s many diverse cultural regions, and together with other Asian nations is in an area that has gone through tremendous changes, economic, social and environmental. Changes which have occurred through not only local policy but from colonial times, through to the present concept of globalism[1]  The poorest members of society live in agricultural areas and work as farmers or fishers or in urban cities work in the informal sector. One of the important areas of employment for the unskilled worker due to its many coastal, lake and inland waterways is the fishing industry.

From coastal fishing which has almost destroyed the sea gypsies of the country to small scale fisheries women are important members of this industry. They can work close to their homes, choose the hours they want and don’t require a lot of gear, whilst their children can go along with them so childcare is not necessary. Also where spiritual or gender roles prohibit women partaking in certain employment, such as fishing in boats, gleaning is an ideal way to supplement the family income. Women are not restricted by biological means but can be restricted by cultural norms. Women collect what is on the bottom of the waterways, the invertebrates whose habitats can be in reefs, mangroves and seagrass generally using their hands to collect such items as octopus, squid, prawns, crab, sea urchins and sea cucumbers. These practices are often done at night with torches or lanterns to see the catch.

Gleaning according to Klieber[2] who did research in the Bohol region, is rarely counted however when statistics are being looked at to determine how many people are involved in the fishing industry. Marine protected areas (MPAs), restricting the areas where women can glean, and the views of other stakeholders, government, big business and such also affect their efforts. Promoting gender equality is the most important part of alleviating poverty and creating equality. Programs, including women’s participation, using local knowledge and cultural adaption, community controlled MPAs which restrict ‘Malthusian’ overfishing of the local commons is one way at least to reclaim equality for many workers in the small scale fishing industry.

On Batasan Island, one of the six island Barangays of the municipality of Tubingen in the Bohol region of the Philippines, women and children glean shells, seaweed etc at low tide to support household income. This may be necessary as the women often spend their household income on illegal gambling because they are bored.[3] One negative effect of these practices is that some families force their children to leave school to help them with the gleaning, thus affecting their children’s education. School attendance in the barangays is extremely low which in turn leads to a cycle of poverty as the children eventually have to resort to the same methods of earning an income in the future.[4]

[1] Hofman, B, J Nye, S Rood & V Nehru, 2012. Economic and Political Challenges in the Philippines. http://carnegieendowment.org/2012/04/27/economic-and-political-challenges-in-philippines

[2] Kleiber, DL. 2014. Gender and Small-Scale Fisheries in the Central Philippines. University of British Colombia, PhD Thesis. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286084034_Gender_and_small-scale_fisheries_in_the_Central_Philippines

[3] Gonzales E & Savaris J 2005. International Seafood Trade: Supporting Sustainable Livelihoods Among Poor Aquatic Resource Users in Asia (EP/R03/014). Output 2 Marine Ornamentals trade in the Philippines and options for its poor stakeholders Poseidon Aquatic Resource Management Ltd, Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), and the STREAM Initiative.

[4] Macfadyen, G., R Banks, M Phillips, G Haylor, L Mazaudier & P Salz. 2003. Output 1 Background paper on the International Seafood Trade and Poverty. Prepared under the DFID-funded ECPREP project (EP/R03/014) “International Seafood Trade: Supporting Sustainable Livelihoods Among Poor Aquatic Resource Users in Asia”. Poseidon Aquatic Resource Management Ltd (UK), Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific and STREAM Initiative.

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Posted in Bohol, Danika Kleiber, Fisheries, gleaning, Philippines, Uncategorized

Coral Gleaning in Lido Village, Papua New Guinea

Posted on January 21, 2016 | 3 comments

By Aung Si

University of Melbourne, Australia, e-mail: aung.si@unimelb.edu.au

The women of Lido Village, on the north coast of Papua New Guinea, have traditionally made an important contribution to their families’ protein intake by gleaning for marine invertebrates and small fish off exposed reef flats at low tide. Unlike their counterparts in many Pacific communities, however, Lido women improve their catch by constructing “gardens” on the reef flat, which are demarcated by metre-high rock walls, and enclose numerous rock pyramids of a similar height. The pyramids provide shelters for delicacies such as catfish and octopus, which are trapped by the rock walls when the water recedes. Crushed pieces of a poison vine are dropped into the water to stun the trapped organisms.

2015 PNG coral gardens Si2015_Chapter8

Fig. 8.2 from the chapter. Aerial view of Lido Village (N. coast PNG) at high tide, showing location of the o lɛ̃ depression in the fringing reef and the approximation of the coral garden belonging to Witepu, the mother of author Lahe-Deklin. The surf zone at the edge of the fringing reef is clearly visible, as is the seaward extent of the reef flat. Image courtesy of Google Maps.

In recent decades, an influx of imported “city” foods has significantly changed the diet of the people of Lido. As a consequence, coral gleaning has declined in importance, and the garden walls and pyramids are no longer maintained. Contact with powerful neighbouring languages, such as Bahasa Indonesia, Tok Pisin and English, has also impacted adversely on the knowledge of the names of numerous reef fish and invertebrates that were once consumed as staples. Many children are no longer able to name these common, culturally important organisms in their mother tongue, called Dumo. In a chapter of the book Ethnobiology of Corals and Coral Reefs (Chapter 8 Coral Gardens of the Dumo People of Papua New Guinea: A Preliminary Account), my co-author Francesca Lahe-Deklin and I have tried to document some of this endangered vocabulary of the Dumo language, as well as describe the cultural beliefs and practices associated with coral gardens. Historically, women would have been the main repositories of this knowledge, passing it onto the children (both boys and girls) that accompanied them on gleaning trips. The open sea beyond the reef flat is the domain of adult men, who catch large fish such as cod and shark. Women, on the other hand, specialised in tending their coral gardens in family groups, with each person in charge of a part of the garden.

Link: Chapter 8: Coral Gardens of the Dumo People of Papua New Guines: A Preliminary Account.

E-mail:  aung.si@unimelb.edu.au

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Posted in Gender, gleaning, Oceania, Pacific, Oceania, Papua New Guinea, Uncategorized, Women

Gender roles in Pacific coastal fisheries

Posted on December 12, 2015 | Leave a comment
Picture2

Satellite image of Veivatuloa village, Viti Levu, Fiji, showing  its mudflats. Source: Google Earth, in SPC WIF 26, p. 18

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 Nikita Gopal and colleagues.
  • Pacific invertebrate fisheries and gender – Key results from PROCFish, by Meryl J. Williams.
  • An ecological study of the sea hare, Dolabella auricularia, on the southeastern coast of Viti Levu, Fiji, by Sandeep Singh and Veikila Vuki.
  • Livelihoods, markets, and gender roles in Solomon Islands: Case studies from Western and Isabel Provinces, by Froukje Kruijssen and colleagues.

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Posted in Fiji, Fisheries, Gender, Gender and development, gleaning, Men, Pacific, Pacific, Oceania, Regional, SPC, Uncategorized, Veikila Vuki, Women

Gender and small-scale fisheries in the central Philippines

Posted on September 21, 2014 | Leave a comment
People reef gleaning at low tide, Danajon Bank, Bohol Province, Central Philippines. Photo: Danika Kleiber.

People reef gleaning at low tide, Danajon Bank, Bohol Province, Central Philippines. Photo: Danika Kleiber.

In earlier posts on this site, we highlighted papers arising from the work of Danika Kleiber and her colleagues on gender in the Northern Bohol section of the Danajon Bank in the Central Philippines and on a global overview of gender in small scale fisheries. With pleasure, we draw your attention to Danika’s doctoral thesis, recently accepted by the University of British Columbia, Canada, and entitled: GENDER AND SMALL-SCALE FISHERIES IN THE CENTRAL PHILIPPINES. This thesis, as well as its accompanying papers, make a compelling and empirically justified case for the importance of factoring in women’s fishing work in fisheries management, policy and economics.

Here is the link to the thesis

And the links to our two earlier posts on Dr Kleiber’s work:

Counting all the fishers: a global overview

Philippines reef study shows the importance of defining “fishing”

Abstract of Thesis: This dissertation provides new evidence for why women should be included in smallscale fisheries assessments. Women are commonly overlooked in fisheries science and management because they are assumed not to fish, or to fish very little. My research focuses on community-based managed fisheries in the Central Philippines. I begin with a literature review of women’s fishing around the world, revealing that it is common, diverse, and dynamic. Women fishers also often focus on species and habitats different from those in men’s fishing. Notably, however, the review also identified a considerable data gap in quantitative assessments of women’s fishing.

I designed my case study specifically to quantify women’s contributions to the total community catch and effort. I found that women – who totaled 42% of all fishers – generated about one quarter of the total fishing effort and of the catch biomass. Explicit consideration of women’s fishing cast a spotlight on gleaning, an overlooked fishing method in which animals are collected in intertidal habitats. Almost all the women and half of the men gleaned. I found that gleaning primarily targeted sessile invertebrates, and was an important source of food, particularly when other fishing was not available.

Marine management that affects gleaners – such as no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) placed in intertidal areas – needs to consider distinct ecological and social features of gleaning. On that basis, I used a gender lens to examine community-based management in the form of no-take MPAs. In this cultural context resource management is a male sphere, both in perception and in practice. Women were less likely to feel that the MPA had a positive effect on their fishing, with MPAs mostly identified as a management measure for finfish. Women were also less likely to participate actively in MPA management.

In summary, my focus on women should prompt reexamination of how fishing is defined, who counts, and who is counted. Integration of women’s issues into fisheries management requires attention to gleaning, and exploration of alternative management methods. To overlook women, however, creates substantial underestimation of fishing labour and catch – with consequent worsening of our prospects for fisheries management globally.

 

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Posted in Asia, Bohol, Country, Danika Kleiber, Events, awards, grants, employment, Fisheries, Gender, Gendered labor studies, Geography, gleaning, Global, Men, Natural resource management, Philippines, Regional, Women

Report recommends integrating fish into food security and nutrition

Posted on June 5, 2014 | 3 comments


HLPE-Report-7_Cover-smA new report, Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture for Food Security and Nutrition, has provided probably “the most comprehensive recent attempt to review and synthesize the current knowledge” said Dr Christophe Béné. Dr Béné, of the Institute of Development Studies, chaired the team of the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security that produced the report.

The report recommends that fish need to be fully integrated into all aspects of food security and nutrition policies and programmes. It pays special attention to all dimensions of food security and nutrition and promotes small-scale production and local arrangements, as local markets, e.g. for procuring school meals, and other policy tools, including nutrition education and gender equality.

The report is dedicated to Chandrika Sharma who was one of the peer reviewers of the report.

HLPE Team for fish, food security and nutrition report. Left to right: Gro-Ingunn Hemre, Modadugu V. Gupta, Moenieba Isaacs, Chris Béné, Meryl Williams, Ningsheng Yang and Vincent Gitz (Secretary)

HLPE Team for fish, food security and nutrition report. Left to right: Gro-Ingunn Hemre, Modadugu V. Gupta, Moenieba Isaacs, Chris Béné, Meryl Williams, Ningsheng Yang and Vincent Gitz (Secretary)

Download the report here

Extract of the FOREWORD by Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Chair of HLPE Steering Committee

This report addresses a frequently overlooked but extremely important part of world food and nutrition security: the role and importance of fish in seeking food and nutrition security for all. Fisheries and aquaculture have often been arbitrarily separated from other parts of the food and agricultural systems in food security studies, debates and policy-making. I applaud the Committee on World Food Security for its decision to bring fisheries and aquaculture fully into the debate about food and nutrition security.

The report presents a synthesis of existing evidence regarding the complex pathways between fisheries and aquaculture and food and nutrition security, including the environmental, economic and social dimensions, as well as issues related to governance. It provides insights on what needs to be done to achieve sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in order to strengthen their positive impact on food and nutrition security.

The ambition of this compact yet comprehensive report is to help the international community to share and understand the wide spectrum of issues that make fisheries and aquaculture such an important part of efforts to assure food security for all.

…

The High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) was created in 2010 to provide the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security (CFS) with evidence-based and policy-oriented analysis to underpin policy debates and policy formulation. While specific policy interventions should be based on context-specific understanding, HLPE reports provide evidence relevant to the diversity of contexts, with recommendations aiming to be useful to guide context-specific policy interventions.

…

The main findings of the report cover the themes:

  • Fish as a critical food source
  • Fish has received little attention in food security and nutrition strategies
  • Risks and pressures affecting the world fisheries
  • Opportunities and challenges in aquaculture
  • Small vs large scale fishing operations
  • Unsettled debates on fish trade
  • Social protection and labour rights
  • Gender equity
  • Governance

In the Executive Summary, the report says the following on Gender Equity (paras 27-29; the body of the report contains more detail)

  • 27. The first comprehensive attempt to estimate the number of fish workers found that 56 million, near half of the 120 million people who work in the capture fisheries sector and its supply chains, are women. This is essentially due to the very high number of female workers engaged in fish processing (including in processing factories) and in (informal) small-scale fish trading operations. However, small-scale fisheries and supply-chain jobs outside production are not well recorded, so the actual number of women may be higher. Comparable estimates are not yet available for the 38 million aquaculture sector workers.
  • 28. Gender, along with intersectional factors (such as economic class, ethnic group, age or religion), is a key determinant of the many different ways by which fisheries and aquaculture affect food security and nutrition outcomes, availability, access, stability and diet adequacy, for the population groups directly involved in fish production and supply chains, but also beyond.
  • 29. Men are dominant in direct production work in fisheries and aquaculture. Much of women’s work, such as gleaning, diving, post-harvest processing and vending, is not recognized or not well recorded, despite its economic and other contributions. Gender disaggregated data are not routinely collected and, partly as a result of this, little policy attention is given to women and to the gender dimension of the sector.

In the Recommendations, item 7 addressed Gender Equity with the following recommendation (7)

States should

  • 7a) Ensure that their aquaculture and fisheries policies and interventions do not create negative impacts on women and encourage gender equality.
  • 7b) Enshrine gender equity in all fisheries rights systems, including licensing and access rights. The definitions of fishing must cover all forms of harvest including the forms typically practised by women and small-scale operators, such as inshore and inland harvesting of invertebrates by hand and the use of very small-scale gear.

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Posted in Africa, Americas, Aquaculture, Asia, Change, Conservation, FAO, UN Women, World Bank, IFAD, UNIDO and other multilateral, Fish post-harvest, Fisheries, Gender, Gender and development, Gendered labor studies, gleaning, Global, Globalization, ICSF, Localization, Men, Natural resource management, Pacific, Oceania, Regional, Research, communication resources, Risk reduction, Theme, Uncategorized, West Asia/Middle East, Women, women divers

Philippines reef study shows the importance of defining “fishing”

Posted on February 3, 2014 | 4 comments
Woman reef gleaning on a reef on the Danajon Bank, Bohol Province, Central Philippines. Photo: Danika Kleiber.

Woman reef gleaning on a reef on the Danajon Bank, Bohol Province, Central Philippines. Photo: Danika Kleiber.

Danika Kleiber and her co-authors have made a welcome contribution to the information on total fisheries harvest and the often un-recorded harvests of women and men, especially by reef gleaning. Working with local communities who live and work on the reefs on Danajon Bank, Bohol Province Central Philippines,  and 4 Cebuano-speaking research assistants (see photo), they have estimated  total catches and participation in all types of fishing including reef gleaning, an important local activity.  Their paper is: “Improving fisheries estimates by including women’s catch in the Central Philippines” (Danika Kleiber, Leila M Harris, Amanda C J Vincent in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences).

In the paper, they report on how the number of fishers, the percentage of women fishers, the total catch and its composition changes depending on the definition of fishing used. Including gleaning as fishing had a particularly strong effect. They distinguish the “cultural” and “livelihood” definitions of fishing. In the cultural definition, fishing tends to be a more male focused activity and does not include gleaning, even though some men also glean. In the livelihood definition, fishing and gleaning, especially of women, may not feature because it is secondary. Thus, using the cultural definition of fishing yielded only 20% of the fishers were women, and using the livelihood definition only 16%. If fishing is defined to include all the activities that harvest marine life, then 42% of fishers are women. In the communities studied, men outnumbered women who tended to have higher out-migration.

E-mail contact: Danika Kleiber@gmail.com

Field enumerators and the senior author. L to R: Aileen Montejo, Jay Estrella, Danika Kleiber, Bernie Calinajan, Venice Lazo. Photo: Danika Kleiber.

Field enumerators and the senior author. L to R: Aileen Montejo, Jay Estrella, Danika Kleiber, Bernie Calinajan, Venice Lazo. Photo: Danika Kleiber.

Abstract: Small-scale fisheries catch and effort estimates are often built on incomplete data because they overlook the fishing of minority or marginalized groups. Women do participate in small-scale fisheries, and often in ways distinct from men’s fishing. Hence, the inclusion of women’s fishing is necessary to understanding the diversity and totality of human fishing efforts. This case study examines how the inclusion of women’s fishing alters the enumeration of fishers, and estimations of catch weight, fishing effort, and targeted organisms in twelve communities in the Central Philippines. Women were 42% of all fishers, and contributed approximately one quarter of the fishing effort and catch weight. Narrower definitions of fishing that excluded gleaning (gathering of benthic macro invertebrates in intertidal areas) and part-time fishing masked the participation and contribution of most women fishers. In this case study it is clear that overlooking women, part-time, or gleaning fishers led to the underestimation of fishing effort and catch weight. Overlooking gleaning had also led to underestimation of shells and other benthic macro invertebrates in fishing catches.

People reef gleaning at low tide, Danajon Bank, Bohol Province, Central Philippines. Photo: Danika Kleiber.

People reef gleaning at low tide, Danajon Bank, Bohol Province, Central Philippines. Photo: Danika Kleiber.

See Danika’s post in 2011 on some of her data collecting techniques: http://seahorse.fisheries.ubc.ca/node/431

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Posted in Bohol, Danika Kleiber, Fisheries, Gender, Gender and development, Gender research resources, Gendered labor studies, gleaning, Men, Natural resource management, Philippines, Women