Core Principles
Photo credit: Art Wolfe/www.artwolfe.com
The Alliance has defined core principles that underpin and define our vision of a world where inland fisheries are resilient, resourced, and equitably governed as part of sustainable food systems and healthy aquatic ecosystems.
These principles provide a set of key elements that the Alliance will promote to target audiences as we work to achieve our goal of effectively incorporating inland fisheries into global development and conservation agendas by 2030.
These principles build from existing fisheries guidance and tenets (Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries; Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security; Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries) and have been tailored specifically for inland fisheries.
From ancient times, fish in the world’s rivers, lakes, and wetlands have been a major source of food and nutrition for humanity and of livelihood benefits for those engaged in fishing. Today, in many parts of the world, inland fisheries are critical to the livelihoods, wellbeing, and cultures of some of the most marginalized in society, especially Indigenous, landless and smallholder rural households for whom poverty and malnutrition are most prevalent. Within communities, the cost of disrupted fisheries is borne disproportionately by households for whom fish and other aquatic organisms constitute the dominant livelihood, given the paucity of other options.
The widespread decline in the health of freshwater ecosystems, competing interests, sector priorities and/or conflicts among users of multi-functional landscapes and inland waters, and in some cases overfishing, threaten the long-term sustainability of fisheries and their contribution to food and nutrition security, livelihoods, and cultural values. The Inland Fisheries Alliance recognizes that inland fisheries sit at the intersection of development and conservation, with the health of people, fish, and freshwater ecosystems intertwined.
Core Principles
Equity
Rights and empowerment of fishers and fish workers. Governments, the private sector, development banks, and other actors whose decisions impact inland fisheries should recognize, respect, promote and protect the application of human rights principles to communities dependent on inland fisheries, especially but not only Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities. States and other relevant actors should appropriately protect the rights of local fishers and fish workers to inland fishery resources, including access to traditional fishing grounds. As part of inclusive and equitable governance of fishery resources, fishers or their representatives should be empowered and resourced to participate in and benefit from fishery as well as catchment-level development and conservation decisions (including intervention design and implementation).
Rights of fish consumers. Recognizing that the food and nutrition security of millions of people around the world is linked to wild freshwater capture fisheries, and that other foods may be inadequate substitutes, States should protect and promote access to freshwater fish for those people most dependent on them and should not incentivize the replacement of freshwater fish with other foods without a comprehensive understanding of trade-offs.
Inclusion, equality and equity. The equal rights and opportunities of women, men, and youth, irrespective of their social identities and positions to engage in and benefit from inland fisheries value chains, should be promoted to ensure that their needs, aspirations, views and knowledge systems inform decision making at all appropriate scales.
Governance
Policy frameworks and integration. Responsibility for sustaining inland fisheries must extend beyond local fishing communities and fishery managers to include catchment-scale decision-makers and actors. Policy, legal and institutional frameworks should ensure that inland fisheries and underlying freshwater biodiversity are equitably included in integrated water resources management as well as in landscape/catchment-level development planning and management. States should ensure the harmonization of policies affecting the health of freshwater ecosystems so that fisheries, agriculture, aquaculture, and other sectors dependent on those ecosystems collectively enhance interrelated livelihoods without compromising food security, native biodiversity, or ecosystem services.
Valuing fisheries. The diverse values of inland fisheries should be given full consideration in food-water-energy development decisions and should be built robustly into investment safeguards. Conventionally derived estimates of monetary values of inland fisheries, especially for poorly documented fisheries relied upon by marginalized communities, may not be comparable to the monetary value of development activities that could harm those fisheries and underlying biodiversity. However, the full value to local communities and to the world’s natural heritage can be substantial and irreplaceable.
Transboundary and migratory stocks. For transboundary or migratory fish stocks that are exploited or managed by two or more States or sub-national jurisdictions or agencies, the parties concerned should cooperate to ensure effective conservation and management of the resources (in alignment with UN Watercourses Convention Article 5). This should be achieved, where appropriate, through the establishment of bilateral, subregional, basin, or regional fisheries organizations or arrangements, including the protection of swimways. Where transboundary basin organizations already exist, fish targets and agreements should be embedded within or linked to them.
Management
Responsible use of fishery resources. The right to fish carries with it the obligation to do so in a responsible manner to ensure the quality, diversity and availability of fishery resources for present and future generations in the context of sustainable food systems and poverty alleviation. All fisheries should be guided and bounded by sustainability targets. Furthermore, States and users of living aquatic resources have an obligation to rehabilitate degraded aquatic ecosystems and conserve healthy aquatic ecosystems and species that underpin inland fisheries.
Essential fish habitat conservation. To sustain fishery populations, critical fish habitats in rivers, lakes, wetlands, mangroves, lagoons, and other nursery and spawning areas should be protected, rehabilitated, and connected as far as possible. The resilience of freshwater ecosystems should be restored or maintained, particularly in the face of climate change and other drivers that are specific to freshwater ecosystems. States should clearly assign accountability for fish habitat conservation, with coordination and collaboration between fishery and wildlife managers and sufficient resourcing to enable effective conservation. Local communities should be empowered and resourced to conserve fish habitats, and should benefit from doing so.
Ecosystem approach. An ecosystem approach -- which takes into account knowledge and uncertainties about biotic, abiotic and human components of ecosystems and their interactions -- is essential to sustain inland fisheries. An ecosystem approach to inland fisheries should maintain long‐term socioeconomic benefits without compromising ecosystem functioning and actively promote ecosystem functioning as necessary for fishery health. Local application of an ecosystem approach will generally be ineffective unless paired with a catchment-level application.
Adaptive and informed management. Information collection and analysis in the service of accurate fishery assessment and adaptive management must be adequately resourced. At the local level, fishers should be empowered to apply co-management using their own knowledge and experiences to establish management objectives and adapt management measures accordingly. The absence of adequate scientific information is not a reason for inaction or for uninformed decision-making. States should apply the precautionary principle when making large-scale development decisions with the potential to negatively affect inland fisheries.
Fish farming and stocking
Aquaculture. Small scale aquaculture and culture-based fisheries can and do play an important role in promoting security and diversification of income and diet. However, sustainable aquaculture practices must be socially responsible, economically viable and environmentally sustainable. Sustainable aquaculture ensures that resources are used responsibly and that adverse impacts on the environment, on native fish and on wild capture fisheries, and on local communities’ access to resources are minimized.
Stocking. Stocking of capture fisheries should only be employed after bottlenecks impeding recruitment have been identified and addressed to the greatest extent possible. Stocked fish should be of local genetic provenance, and short and long-term impacts of stocking and aquaculture to native species, wild fisheries, and ecosystem functions should be monitored. Invasive alien species should not be introduced, either accidentally or intentionally, via fish farming or stocking.