Category: Leadership
CeDePesca — Centre for Development and Sustainable Fisheries
CeDePesca is a nonprofit organization founded in 1997 with the goal of helping Latin American fisheries attain sustainability. Today, CeDePesca has expanded into the Caribbean and is working together with stakeholders in Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, implementing Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) for small and large, artisanal and industrial fisheries. These FIPs aim to encourage and lead changes in fishing, management and research practices in order to ensure fisheries sustainability. For example, in Panama, CeDePesca encouraged Panama’s only fishmeal and fish oil company to implement an onboard observers program for its small pelagics fishery that CeDePesca coordinates. In Brazil, CeDePesca worked with local organizations to implement a Legal Verification Program to add traceability to products coming from fishers who use legal fishing gear. CeDePesca has encouraged ten fishing communities to participate while obtaining support from eight US import companies to help set clear market incentives. CeDePesca creates opportunities for engagement, training and dialogue among fishermen, fishery managers, researchers, academics, representatives of fishing companies and NGOs in the conservation and sustainable use of fisheries resources and marine ecosystems. It also supports the Rincon Fisheries Museum of Natural Sciences “Lorenzo Scaglia” and provides educational presentations to children and young people attending primary schools in Argentina.
