Country: Barbados
Patrick McConney is a Senior Lecturer in Marine Resource Management Planning at the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES), The University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus in Barbados.
What are you currently working on within the context of SSF?
PM: My current work covers many aspects of small-scale fisheries and marine protected areas, but especially governance, livelihoods, stewardship, socio-economics and developing adaptive capacity. I am especially keen on social networks and resilience thinking, but recently diversified into gender via the Gender In Fisheries Team (GIFT).
If you could single out one or two most significant factors for securing sustainability of SSF, what would these factors be?
PM: Securing the sustainability of SSF, especially in the Caribbean, requires strong fisherfolk leaders who are willing to be innovative policy entrepreneurs and strong advocates to catalyse collective action from the bottom-up. The other related factor is for fisherfolk to work together smarter, meaning more effective networking and use of information communication technologies and tools that level the playing field when co-governing with state fisheries authorities. It is all about the people.
