Tales you should know
The 12th Indian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum (12IFAF) was held in Chennai from 5 to 7 May 2022. We are pleased to report on two events with special relevance to gender in aquaculture and fisheries. The first is an award to a gender stalwart, Dr B. Shanthi, and the second is a report by Dr Nikita Gopal of the Special Session on Gender in Fisheries held at 12IFAF.
The Cooperative Action Plan recognizes this issue and presents a guide for addressing gender and labor issues faced by women workers in Asia-Pacific fisheries and aquaculture. It focuses on women’s labor and business opportunities, recognizing that women are not a homogenous category and their needs vary according to their working situations, life stages from youth to elderly, ethnicity, education, social and economic positions, immigrant status, among others. A call is made to individuals and organizations to make the Plan a reality.
The 13th Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum (13AFAF) was a watershed for how gender was included in Asian Fisheries Society’s triennial Forums. Gender topics were in the Plenary, as a topic session and in the Forum’s graphic elements. The gender theme has come a long way in Asian Fisheries Society and can still go much further. Three messages to take home: why and how research is practices is critical to gender; need to focus more on women’s agency rather than their victimhood and marginality; and gender relations are dynamic under changes in resources and even new technologies.
The assumption that the tuna fishing industry is a man’s world is not only misleading, but also damaging.
This special issue of ICSF’s Yemaya features articles drawn from the presentations and discussions at the webinar, ‘Women Work in Fisheries, Too!’, held on 29 November 2021.
Getting to the Core Principles of Gender and Fisheries: The Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section of the Asian Fisheries Society (GAFS), celebrates International Women’s Day 2022 by releasing its Core Principles statement. The GAFS Core Principles are based on the formal Objectives in our By Laws, and our own and others’ experiences working in gender equality. The Principles have been drafted, discussed and put through open consultation among GAFS members and other interested experts.
Read the latest E-Newsletter of the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section (GAFS) of the Asian Fisheries Society, our second COVID-19 era edition.
Local Sama-Bajau do not passively accept the conservation regulations imposed upon their communities. Instead, they continue to access marine and coastal resources for their culture and livelihoods in ways that they consider to be morally fair. Despite much ‘women’s work’ being made illegal by the protected area, and social stigmatization, the women are important providers and contributors to household livelihoods.
This webinar – “Women Work in Fisheries, Too!” – on gender and labor in fisheries will be conducted to increase awareness and recommend cooperative actions that are necessary in having a gender and social inclusive approach to address labor issues in the fisheries sector.
by Madu Galappaththi. Dried fish is considered a ‘hidden’ sub-sector within small-scale fisheries, and is particularly important in Asia and Africa. Women make up a significant portion of the workforce in this sub-sector. A new framework may reveal a thick description of gender relations.