Ocean Outcomes, a Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.-based fisheries nonprofit, works with a wide range of stakeholders, including small-scale fishers, to create and implement science-based initiatives that promote sustainability across seafood supply chains.
SeafoodSource spoke with Ocean Outcomes Small-Scale Fisheries Manager Ivan Martinez-Tovar about the organization’s C-FIP model and how it aims to improve fisheries that lack proper government management and supply chain leverage.
SeafoodSource: What are community-based fishery improvement projects, or C-FIPs, and how does Ocean Outcomes use them?
Martinez-Tovar: Community-based fisheries and aquaculture projects (C-FIPs and C-AIPs) are our adaptation of the “traditional” FIP model for use in small coastal communities. To achieve this, we use a more robust approach considering these communities' environmental, social, and economic contexts.
These projects are underpinned by deep involvement from communities and local stakeholders, who validate the work by identifying needs and actively participate in developing and implementing solutions.
Ocean Outcomes, Conservation International, and the Wildlife Conservation Society co-created this C-FIP approach and have been piloting it in Latin America. It provides a mechanism to engage and improve domestic small-scale fisheries and aquaculture enterprises while aligning with internationally recognized benchmarks.
SeafoodSource: What makes the model uniquely beneficial for the development of small-scale fisheries?
Martinez-Tovar: Although there are other holistic community development approaches to fisheries improvement, what makes the C-FIPs and C-AIPs effective is that … the actions are sequenced and prioritized based on the local context and the specific characteristics of each fishery project site.
In general, efforts to drive improvements in small-scale fisheries tend to focus exclusively on environmental sustainability goals. For most communities and the fishing livelihoods they depend on, there are a number of issues, challenges, and barriers to producing sustainable seafood that are not directly related to environmental goals, such as a lack of access to essential services like water or electricity, health services, and education to name a few. Similarly, when fishing rights are not guaranteed or protected – or participation in decision-making processes is not an option – that can make achieving effective management or compliance more difficult.
Focusing too much on environmental aspects has prevented us from scaling improvements as we expected. Social and economic factors intersect with environmental sustainability and are often at the top of fishers' minds. For example, fishers may be more willing to engage in environmental improvement efforts if they see investment in education opportunities that benefit the whole community, including their children.
We want C-FIPs and their supporting methodologies to be as agnostic as possible; community needs should dictate the process, not our assumptions about what the community needs.
C-FIPs have a proposed method for economic, environmental, and social assessment … but if a community wants to use a different approach that is a better fit, the frameworks allow it. We aim to make it as easy as possible to get necessary information, see the whole picture, and identify and understand all the barriers to better fisheries management and fishing practices. We are convinced that this gives us the best chance of driving real improvement.
SeafoodSource: Is driving improvement difficult when you are addressing social issues that are often embedded in broader societal dynamics and you do not have the supply chain leverage of a traditional FIP?
Martinez-Tovar: True, we are trying to address complex problems.
However, considering that all Latin American countries have small-scale fisheries and aquaculture products that don’t reach international markets, it does not make sense to leave them behind while improving management only for fisheries with international supply chain leverage. We want to see all fishing and aquaculture in a country move in the same direction regarding management improvements, such as developing sustainable harvest measures.
Other incentives go beyond market leverage, and this is where our approach's social and economic elements are really important. For C-FIPs and C-AIPs that lack international markets, we look for alternative enabling conditions. Suppose there is a motivated domestic end market, such as local restaurants, that wants to buy FIP products. In that case, there may be an opportunity to leverage improvements through price premiums. When price incentives are not an option, we have found other effective incentives such as data generation, capacity enhancement, or tourism.
SeafoodSource: Another complicating factor in this approach is that you are dealing with multiple species in a single improvement project; does this model always take a multispecies approach?
Martinez-Tovar: That's the nature of small-scale fisheries, right? Latin American small-scale fisheries tend to be multispecies. Defining which species will be your target versus which ones will be considered non-target can be a challenge. For example, one species may be most commonly caught during the summer, while a different species is most important during the winter.
We consider all the species that play a role in fishers' livelihoods important. Still, we typically start by focusing on four or five species to ensure reporting does not become overly burdensome. We collaborate closely with producers and other project stakeholders to decide on the project's focal species – often those that have the most significant markets and any other points of leverage for sustainability work.
SeafoodSource: The organization's C-FIPs are located in Costa Rica. How many projects are you operating in Costa Rica, and how many species are covered?
Martinez-Tovar: We have three wild capture and eight aquaculture projects in six coastal communities in northwest Costa Rica. Across these projects, communities are directly involved in the project design and implementation. In the case of the wild capture, the focus is on different species of corvinas and snappers. Other, less commonly caught species, such as conger or less abundant grouper, are evaluated as non-target species.
Regarding aquaculture, the project's focus is on oysters, mussels, and shrimp. The goal is to increase the availability of sustainable and socially responsible products that cover local demand. During the first phase of the implementation of these projects, one of the fishing associations was able to commercialize more than 3 tons of their product, with a 25 percent increase in price compared to regular market options.
SeafoodSource: Are there national management plans or stock assessments in place in Costa Rica?
Martinez-Tovar: Sadly, the reality for many species in Latin America is that only the most economically important species, in terms of international market demand, tend to have good data and official management measures.
That's not the case for most species in the Costa Rican C-FIPs. While there are very basic rules like a minimum size limit, an offseason that applies to a wide variety of species, and some restrictions on gear, that's it, and there are no stock assessments.
We're trying to address this gap by inviting management institutions to work with us, use our information, and participate in the effort in a way that can support their own goals. However, we know there are limited resources to do this work. In the longer term, we can work with the government to develop better regulations and legislation.
