Fisherwomen in Uganda are at the forefront of resisting military violence, state-imposed hunger, and abuse from foreign investors as they organize for their right to fish and farm. In South Africa, decades of anti-apartheid struggle have set the stage for traditional fishing communities to mobilize and advocate for legal recognition of fishers’ rights.
In South India, fishers are using community mapping to fight the erasure of their villages caused by the national government’s exclusionary coastal zoning policies, while on Canada’s west coast, Indigenous-led action to dismantle destructive commercial fish farms is helping to restore revered wild salmon stocks and support the return of orcas.
These stories from around the world reveal the powerful connections between fisher movements fighting for food sovereignty and livelihoods, resisting oil and gas exploration and extraction, exposing the impact of pesticides and agrochemicals on land and water, and protecting cultural fishing rights as essential to biodiversity.
Over the years, the Global Alliance for the Future of Food has been documenting Beacons of Hope—stories that highlight food systems transformation, with insights from frontline communities. From this work, we have learned that the people who live closest to the problems have the clearest understanding of the solutions.
This Beacons of Hope series—six stories released in pairs over the next four months—underscore the interconnectedness of aquatic and terrestrial food systems. Some of the issues raised include: How can we build a just interface between land and water with fishers' and farmers' human rights at the centre? What are the ground-truthed mechanisms to redistribute power and access to resources? Understanding how fisher peoples/fish workers/fishers experience the outcomes of industrial agriculture and aquaculture, and so-called ocean economy developments, is essential for food justice and the right to food and nutrition.
In the course of this work, we talked to fishers who are also farmers, academics, donors, and movement leaders. From our global search for inspiring examples, we focused on six stories, from South Africa, Uganda, Australia, Canada, India, and Colombia. Individually and together, they shine a light on what fisher peoples are up against, as well as their successes and strategies for survival. Drawing on their lived experiences, these stories highlight the local consequences of sometimes harmful global narratives and top-down policies from powerful actors such as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, World Bank, governments, wealthy elites, and corporations—bringing to the fore important insights and lessons for donors and investors aiming to strengthen local food systems.
Fisherman casting a net. Photo: Felix Clay, DuckRabbit, for WorldFish, 2014
Fisherman casting a net. Photo: Felix Clay, DuckRabbit, for WorldFish, 2014
Fishers sort and prepare their catch in a small processing hut. Photo: Barry Christianson.
Fishers sort and prepare their catch in a small processing hut. Photo: Barry Christianson.
"Fish swimming out; that is the test boat, they count fish and release them to go finish the journey and spawn in the river; there was a lot more sockeye this year." Chief Don Svanvik
"Fish swimming out; that is the test boat, they count fish and release them to go finish the journey and spawn in the river; there was a lot more sockeye this year." Chief Don Svanvik
The first two stories in this series—from Uganda and South Africa—show us that better worlds are not only possible, but are already being constructed by fisher communities.
The stories and key takeaways surface opportunities to build solidarity, listen to communities and organizations at the frontlines of the aquatic-terrestrial foods nexus, and directly fund their initiatives to strengthen food sovereignty on land and water.
By featuring these six Beacons of Hope, which demonstrate the power of community organizing and the unparalleled expertise of fishers, we invite funders and allies to reflect on and understand what solidarity requires and seek out ways to invest more directly in strategies that can drive the changes and transformations sought in the global food movement.
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