Asian Fisheries Science 30S Special Issue (2017)

This Special Issue of Asian Fisheries Science journal includes 25 papers and a report based on the presentations and posters of the 6th Global Symposium on Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries (GAF6) held during the 11th Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum, August 2016, Bangkok, Thailand.

Reference: Gopal, N., M.J. Williams, S. Gerrard, S. Siar, K. Kusakabe, L. Lebel, H. Hapke, M. Porter, A. Coles, N. Stacey and R. Bhujel. 2017. Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries: Engendering Security in Fisheries and Aquaculture. Asian Fisheries Science (Special Issue) 30S. 423 pp.

Download complete Special Issue – Link

Asian Fisheries Society became the first fisheries and aquaculture professional body to move from talk to action by formally creating the new Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section.

Thanks to the Asian Fisheries Society and its Council, the Local Organising Committee of 11AFAF in Bangkok under the leadership of Dr Cherdsak Virapat, Director General of the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), The AquaFish Innovation Lab of the United States, Thailand Department of Fisheries and the Asian Development Bank, Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific and the United States Agency for International Development Oceans and Fisheries Partnership (USAID-Oceans), Asian Institute of Technology, University of the Philippines in the Visayas, Aquaculture without Frontiers, Marketing Seafood,  Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,  French Agency for Development (Agence française de développement, AFD, Prof. Mohamed Shariff, Editor of the Asian Fisheries Science journal and the presenters and their host organisations. 

This Guest Editorial introduces the collection of papers and reports from GAF6 and considers its outcomes. We take the theme of GAF6 – “Engendering Security in Fisheries and Aquaculture” – literally, meaning that “engender” is to cause to exist or to develop. The Guest Editorial examined engendering security through looking at the adequacy (and inadequacy) of policies and practices, the importance of fair livelihoods and decent, safe work in fish value chains, and the impacts of change in coastal communities. It also reviewed recent directions of work on gender in fisheries and aquaculture by FAO and noted the cautious self-assessments of progress on gender in the programs of the Asian Development Bank. Global Environment Facility and CGIAR. It concluded that realising security will require making better use of Sustainable Development Goal 5 (gender equality), and the transformation of the fish sectors and social norms. This presents enormous challenges and requires much more organisation by those who hold the vision. Small steps, such as the creation of the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section of the Asian Fisheries Society and other like-minded networks can help set us on the pathway.

RESEARCH PAPERS

This study uses ethnography to describe the spaces of women in the Fish Port Tambler Complex of General Santos City, and investigates the points of convergence with and divergence from the value-chain nodes of the tuna fishing industry. 

This paper, set in Phan Thai Norasing fishing village, portrays how the legal amendment effects hindered the capability of fishermen to maintain their masculinities. The research illustrates the adaptive strategies of fishermen in this village in response to the change in law, and the impacts of the quick enactment of new laws on men and women. 

Mariculture was envisioned to contribute to poverty reduction by increasing employment opportunities and income in the area where it is situated. This paper assesses the participation in mariculture of local men and women in seven mariculture sites in the Philippines, the roles they perform, and their willingness to be involved in mariculture operations. 

The Saemangeum Seawall Project, South Korea, is a major land reclamation scheme with a goal to create agricultural land and to strengthen the Gunsan area’s position as an international centre of trade and industry. By the development of this large-scale national project, the livelihood foundations of the women and men fishers were removed and yet the national government and administration did not guarantee their livelihoods. The present study aims to elucidate the impacts and changes of the tideland reclamation on the fishers’ communities and their cultural cohesion, the gender roles and the differences people of different ages experienced from the time of closure of the tide embankment. 

TECHNICAL PAPERS 

The study applies the vetted methodology of assigning authorship gender in peer-reviewed literature, according to the U.S. Social Security Database of names, to the broad discipline of aquaculture in peer-reviewed journals in the complete JSTOR database archive, and compares these results to authorship by gender in the International Aquaculture Curated Database (IACD). 

A study on a gender-based post-harvest fisheries technology transfer scheme was conducted to come up with an alternative intervention model that can provide more effective and responsible livelihood activities to capacitate women in coastal communities in the Philippines. The study included a rapid resource and needs assessment of the coastal community and the design of appropriate skills training modules for the women of Carles, a coastal town in northern Iloilo, Philippines. 

This information regarding values and beliefs is vital for marine protected area (MPA) managers since values and beliefs influence behavior of the community members, which in turn affect the management operation of the MPA. This study was conducted to examine the values and beliefs on MPAs of community members in San Joaquin, Central Philippines. Results show that women and men have different perspectives on their marine resources and differ on their knowledge and perceptions regarding MPAs. 

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) risks are emergent issues for the female work force in the Bangladesh shrimp processing industry. Recent investigations of OSH in shrimp processing revealed that female workers suffered more than their male counterparts from several illnesses and occupational diseases. Since the majority of the shrimp processing workers are female, the OSH risks require additional scrutiny. The paper investigated and presents findings of a study conducted to assess OSH status of shrimp processing workers in Bangladesh. 

This study reveals the impact of disaster threats, climate and environmental changes on the livelihoods of women and men, the village environment, the village infrastructure and institution, gender and social issues. This study, as a successful model, can help the concerned development organizations and policy makers to plan and develop programmes for the upliftment of coastal women, actions to be taken towards disaster mitigation and adoption, environmental management and appropriate technologies to be disseminated to develop sustainable livelihoods among the fishers. 

SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 

The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus, in an environment of increasing climate variability, is one lens which stakeholders must develop and embrace. Heightening the women fish driers’ awareness about the nexus and strengthening their roles within the nexus are crucial towards attaining sustainable and resilient livelihoods. Likewise, policymakers’ appreciation of the WEF nexus is necessary as a basis for crafting integrated policies on climate, environment, and socio-economics. 

This paper describes the roles of men and women in the sergestid shrimp (Acetes spp.) value chain to provide a better view of the industry in Oton and Tigbauan, Iloilo, Philippines. Results show that if the value chain is examined, the sergestid shrimp industry turns out to be a sphere of both women and men. While certain activities are more commonly undertaken by men, others are dominated by women. Although few women were involved in the capture segment, more women were in the processing and trading segments. 

Despite the significant presence of women in seaweed production in Indonesia, most of the data collected in official statistics fail to capture their participation. These data gaps reinforce the policy neglect of gender issues in seaweed culture that also affects strategy to increase seaweed production and quality. This study examines the role of women and men in seaweed production in Nusa Tenggara Timur Province, Indonesia. 

An on-farm trial of carp polyculture was carried out with participation of women farmers from Sundardeep Women Fish Farmer’s Cooperative (15 women farmers) in Chitwan District and Mishrit Fish Farmer’s Cooperative (22 women farmers) in Nawalparasi District to field-test the enhancing effect of periphyton on use of feed and fish production. The trial showed that culturing carps with SIS with 50 % feeding amount and with bamboo substrates in ponds resulted in a 22 % higher fish production as compared to the culture of carps with normal feeding. 

The FAO data of sex-disaggregated statistics on employment focuses on the primary sector and does not include information about the secondary sector of post-harvest processing activities. In 2014, the average number of women engaged in the primary sector for both fisheries and aquaculture in the reporting countries was 19 % of the total workforce and, when considered across a four year average, the figure was 15 %. This paper presents a focus section on the reported statistics for Asia, where women, on average, made up 15 % of the workforce in the primary sectors for those countries reporting. 

Numerous studies have validated that consumer awareness is not univocally consistent with behavior. This study attempted to compare awareness and behavior of milkfish, Chanos chanos (Forsskål 1775) purchase decision makers in the Province of Iloilo, Philippines towards food consumption trends. 

In 2013, Super typhoon Haiyan wreaked havoc on the coastal communities of Northern Iloilo and other areas of the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. Tremendous losses in livelihood and property were recorded and various international, national and local institutions responded through immediate and strategic interventions. The present paper aims to highlight coastal village women’s experiences with post disaster relief and rehabilitation. 

Mud crab (Scylla serrata (Forsskål 1775)) fattening and culture is an emerging industry in Bangladesh that directly benefits households in the coastal region of Bangladesh. Currently, 37.8 % of crab fattening and culturing facilities are owned and operated by women whose households are generally poor. The study was conducted to promote the integration of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus (Linnaeus 1758)) into mud crab culture, thus diversifying the crops and potentially improving household income and nutrition. 

Small-scale aquaculture is one of the options for improving household family nutrition and it also supplements income for rural poor. Family nutrition depends on women as they prepare, cook and provide food for the family in most of the Nepalese communities. This short communication deals with the use of foothill riverbeds for aquaculture involving women in order to improve family nutrition and supplement income of an ethnic community. 

Gender role profiles of the ornamental fish producers are used to explore the differences between men and women’s access to and control over resources in the ornamental fish enterprises in the northern coastal Maharashtra districts of Thane and Mumbai. The study suggests that the role of women in ornamental fish production can be enhanced through targeted schemes for women with a focus on increasing ownership and training programmes. 

This paper aims to describe the role of key players in the value chain for milkfish Chanos chanos (Forsskål, 1775) in a mariculture Park in Balingasag, Misamis Oriental in the Philippines with an emphasis on gender dimensions. It also estimates the value additions done by the key players and assesses implications on income distribution. 

EXTENDED ABSTRACTS

This paper is a review of the gender-related findings from a series of studies in Northern Thailand. Gender differences found in perception and management of risks could not be explained by gender differences in attitudes to risk as measured on risk aversion scales. The studies found that modest gender differences and emotions both influenced risk-taking and decision-making, and thus are significant factors in how climate-related risks are managed.

On a global scale, quantitative and qualitative data on the participation of women in the seafood industry is sparse and when it exists it may be of poor quality and only cover some segments of the industry. Thus, the knowledge and understanding of the very complex distribution of roles, power, access to resources and profits between genders are incomplete and vary greatly between regions and industry sectors. This presentation draws on a study (Monfort 2015) that, among other themes, illustrates the level of knowledge, the level of awareness and the understanding of the distribution of roles by gender through case studies in 6 different countries, Croatia, Egypt, France, Iceland, India and Senegal. 

Household food security has become a serious concern in the Philippines. There are socio-cultural, institutional, and behavioural factors which limit women’s capability to access food for their families. This paper investigates the experiential measures of food security by 30 women in 3 coastal villages (Calaparan, Sto. Nino Norte and Sto. Nino Sur) in the highly urbanized Iloilo City.

Aquaculture plays an important role in income generation, poverty alleviation and household nutrition in Bangladesh. In aquaculture, women in rural households have important roles that are often ignored. The current study, carried out in the districts of Khulna, Sathkhira and Bagerhat under a USAID supported AIN (Aquaculture for Income and Nutrition) Project of WorldFish, assessed women’s participation in different aquaculture systems. A

This study was conducted in the Pizhala area of Kadamakudy Panchayat in Ernakulam district, Kerala, India. With the objectives of ensuring equal opportunity in aquaculture and providing supplementary income to families, ICAR-CMFRI, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (Ernakulam) and the Kerala State Fisheries Department disseminated several technologies in the village, which is predominantly an area where the activities of capture fishermen dominate. The activity was conducted in a participatory mode and involved only women.

ANNEXES

GAF Section
Asian Fisheries Society,
Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology,
Institute of Bioscience,
University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang,
Selangor, Malaysia
genderaquafish@gmail.com
gafschair@gmail.com
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