Country: The United Kingdom and the Caribbean
Lisa K Soares is currently a third year PhD Candidate in Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom and also a Visiting Researcher with the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES), University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados. She is an interdisciplinary social scientist whose research expertise hones in on rights regimes, norms and power in Caribbean fisheries & marine governance and policy. She has a special interest in issues related to regional transboundary negotiations for migratory and straddling stocks, tourism and fisheries, as well as gender and fisheries. She has contributed to the TBTI Publication on the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication and is keen on expanding her connections with the TBTI network through the transdisciplinary fisheries cluster.
What are you currently working on within the context of SSF?
My most current work with small-scale fisheries (SSF) has focused on the importance of a sound enabling environment for policy and regulatory decisions to be crafted and implemented to support SSF. I am also involved in the Caribbean Gender in Fisheries Team (GIFT). GIFT is led by UWI-CERMES and comprises about a dozen members participating either as individuals or as organizational representatives. Aligned with the SSF guidelines, GIFT aims to promote both community and policy initiatives to raise the awareness of women’s contributions to Caribbean fisheries, as well as contextualizing the importance of rights and gender in the Caribbean.
If you could single out one or two most significant factors for securing sustainability of SSF, what would these factors be?
It is a well-known fact that around the world, SSF have received poor recognition for their contributions to the social, political, cultural and economic fabric of many coastal communities and countries. In the Caribbean, we need to advance our priorities to focus on sound governance structures that will promote the value of our SSF. Let the sea that binds us, also unite us to advocate for the political will needed to enhance the profile and sustainability of our SSF and our fisheries.
