Respect at Home what Agreed at Internationally: Furture of IG-SSF and More

Friends,
I got a very interesting note from Comrade Andrew Johnston of South Africa on International Guidelines on Small Scale Fisheries, [IG-SSF]. This is a critical note to us, those who engage in IG-SSF formulation process. We need to critical assess the out come of the IG-SSF once we adopted it at FAO in June, 2014.
Andy had given us some clue to be cautious about the content of the IG-SSF as how it contribute to eradicate, hunger, poverty and social evils which are being oppressed the small scale fishing communities around the globe. There are so many international instruments coming up though the existing ones are not respected by the States. Mainly because most of those instruments which are coming from FAO are not binding ones and no proper mechanism for monitoring and evaluation  to assess the progress and impact.
Yesterday, it was VGGT. Tomorrow it will be IG-SSF. We hope States are serious enough to keep the promise and respect their own agreements, guidelines or conventions to treat their citizens as it agreed as minimum as possible even at the negotiations.
Andy, thank you for reminding these points in your mail.
I share it with all others.

Herman
Guidelines;
We the small- scale fishing communities find ourselves in an era of exceptional economic, cultural and political upheaval, not one of happiness and success but in an environment of prejudice, alienation and inequality. We have become the prisoners of a belief that we can be fashioned at will to an ideology of that if we are industrialized, it will eradicate the poverty. Even though this creates an uncaring, corrupt, dog eats dog society, with human values an after thought. We no longer live in a communally based society but in social isolation. Global warming /climate change is spoken as the foremost issue, as if it is the only plight we face,but hides the much larger and important environmental problems that affronts the small- scale fishers, -that of pollution, over catching, economic oppression, marginalization, mass extinction of stock, dying coral reefs, unjust laws, and bad management. Food security is thus at risk because the harvesting of high value fish is mainly for export rather than for local food needs in fact Africa has become the bread basket for the rich nations and not for the needy at home. The discussion on the trade issue at the forthcoming Guidelines meeting should set importance to the trade proposals and;
Admit that economic growth cannot be achieved if we continue  to harvest un-sustainably to fuel the economy of the state.
Abandon the obsession with maximizing sustainable yields but look to local sufficiency.
Change from the non- caring capitalistic complex economies that has a detrimental effect on the complex frail ecosystem and the vulnerable small- scale fisher folk.
The fluctuation of value of money that leads to high costs of fuel, material, food and taxation keeps the small- scale fishing communities forever in the jaws of impoverishment.
The introduction of the protection of human values beyond and above human rights that is being eroded by Machiavellian economic policies.

End of part 1

Andrew Johnston
Artisanal. Fishers Association
Republic of South Africa.