Abstract
This case study examines how the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) can be used, as socially-legitimized basic principles, to establish regulations in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that take into account the spatial, ecological, and cultural specificities of small-scale fisheries which are not reflected in national and European legislations. Based on a case study carried out in the Cap de Creus MPA in Catalonia, Spain, this chapter argues that the implementation of the SSF Guidelines in Mediterranean MPAs is a slow process, and highlights the difficulties involved in it in the context of small-scale fisheries. Through an empirically informed ethnography, it is argued that the idea of small-scale fisheries in Cap de Creus embodies a particular definition of fishing that sees the economic practice of fishing as one of socio-ecological embeddedness. Fishing is embedded in local culture and in a set of social relations with nature. In this chapter, we suggest ways in which the idea of socio-ecological embeddedness can contribute to the institutionalization of sustainability in fisheries. This can be done by seeing fishing as ‘heritage value’ and considering biological studies in a co-management plan. The SSF Guidelines, by recognizing small-scale fisheries’ tenure rights as a way to promote small-scale fishers’ stewardship over resources, can help meet the objectives of sustainable resource management.
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Notes
- 1.
National legislation currently regulating small-scale fisheries merely state that they are notably artisanal in character without specifying what artisanal fisheries actually refers to. (Statutory Order AAA/2794/2012. BOE (Official State Gazette) from the 28th of December, 2012, n° 312, Sec.I. Pp. 88675)
- 2.
Confraria is the name given to ancient and traditional fishers’ organizations. Although these associations function much like cooperatives and, historically, have had an important role in the co-management of marine resources in the Cap de Creus (Pi-Sunyer 1977), and elsewhere in the Mediterranean (see, e.g., Dufour 1988; Alegret 1995; Weber 1992), small-scale fishers have never been sufficiently represented in these associations because they are much fewer in number compared to purse seiners and trawlers.
- 3.
Statutory Order AAA/2794/2012. BOE (Official State Gazette), 28th of December, 2012, n° 312, Sec.I. p. 88675)
- 4.
Following Von Benda-Beckmann, we define legal pluralism as the ‘multiplicity of normative orders in a single social space and of not privileging state law over other normative orders Von Benda-Beckmann (2002).’
- 5.
We have calculated, based on the data gathered that small-scale fishers use an average of 30.8 nets per year.
- 6.
Information gathered from the fieldwork (Interview 10).
- 7.
- 8.
Involving the managers of CCNP, the small-scale fishers and the fisheries community organizations (the Confraries).
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Acknowledgements
We thank all artisanal fishermen who have participated in this study, as well as the director of the Natural Park of Cap de Creus, Victoria Riera, for their support and contribution to this research. We thank also the anonymous reviewers of this manuscript for their comments and suggestions than have helped to improve it.
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Gómez Mestres, S., Lloret, J. (2017). The Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines as a Tool for Marine Stewardship: The Case of Cap de Creus Marine Protected Area, Spain. In: Jentoft, S., Chuenpagdee, R., Barragán-Paladines, M., Franz, N. (eds) The Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines. MARE Publication Series, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55074-9_19
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