‘Small is Bountiful’ panels: June 8

Moderator

Ratana Chuenpagdee
TBTI/OFI, Canada

Ratana Chuenpagdee is a university researcher professor at Memorial University in St. John’s. She leads the global partnership for small-scale fisheries, Too Big To Ignore (TBTI), which aims at elevating the profile of small-scale fisheries and rectifying their marginalization in national and international policies. Some of the current activities are ‘Blue Justice’ for small-scale fisheries, transdisciplinary capacity training to support the implementation of the SSF Guidelines, and innovative fisheries governance. Ratana also co-leads a research module on informing governance responses in a changing ocean for the Ocean Frontier Institute, another major collaborative research between universities, governments, private sectors and communities.

Kate Barclay
University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Kate Barclay is Professor of Global Studies at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She uses qualitative social science methods to explore the human dimensions of fisheries, aquaculture and marine conservation. Since 2014 she has been using a wellbeing approach to evaluate the social and economic contributions seafood industries make to their communities in projects in Australia, Indonesia and Solomon Islands. She has undertaken governance analyses of tuna and beche de mer fisheries and been a key contributor to the Pacific Handbook for Gender Equity and Social Inclusion for Coastal Fisheries and Aquaculture.

Andrew Song
University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Andrew Song is Lecturer and Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney. His research interests are in the area of governance and geography of coastal and inland fisheries, with particular reference to a small-scale sector. He has worked in various locales including Malawi, South Korea, Canada, and the Pacific Islands. His recent work is focusing on the transboundary and multiscalar governance of small-scale fisheries as it relates to the issues of illegal fishing and maritime security.

Senoveva Mauli
University of Wollongong, Australia

Senoveva is a Solomon Islander pursing a PhD in Law at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), at the University of Wollongong Australia. In the past decade, she has worked community-based resource management efforts and fisheries management at three levels of governance (community, provincial and national). In her PhD study titled “Seeking Impact and Sustainability through the alignment of community based fisheries management and rural development initiatives in Solomon Islands”. She will be using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse the development of national policies/strategies and actors and networks involved in CBFM and rural development work and provide an empirical understanding on how or why CBFM projects are not fulfilling their promises in rural communities.

Sangeeta Mangubhai
Wildlife Conservation Society, Fiji

Dr. Sangeeta Mangubhai is the Director the Wildlife Conservation Society’s program in Fiji. She works on policies, governance, and management of small-scale fisheries in Fiji. She has designed applied research to look at locally-managed marine areas, fisheries value chains, gender and fisheries, and impacts of cyclones and COVID-19 on small-scale fisheries players. Sangeeta is currently an editor for the Pacific Community’s Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin, and was awarded a 2018 Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation to work on mainstreaming gender and human rights-based approaches into coastal fisheries management in Melanesia.

Mariëlle Klein Lankhorst
University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Moderator

Ratana Chuenpagdee
TBTI/OFI, Canada

Ratana Chuenpagdee is a university researcher professor at Memorial University in St. John’s. She leads the global partnership for small-scale fisheries, Too Big To Ignore (TBTI), which aims at elevating the profile of small-scale fisheries and rectifying their marginalization in national and international policies. Some of the current activities are ‘Blue Justice’ for small-scale fisheries, transdisciplinary capacity training to support the implementation of the SSF Guidelines, and innovative fisheries governance. Ratana also co-leads a research module on informing governance responses in a changing ocean for the Ocean Frontier Institute, another major collaborative research between universities, governments, private sectors and communities.

Panellists

John Kurien
Azim Premji University, India

John Kurien, development practitioner, worked on SSF issues since 1973. Lived and worked with SSF communities in India, Cambodia, Indonesia. Founder Member of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) and currently Visiting Professor, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India.

Yin Nyein
Centre for Good Governance, Myanmar

Yin Nyein has over 11 years of working experience in community development, participatory planning, program development, program management, capacity building program and policy analysis. He has got the “Master of Public Policy” in The Australian National University, “Executive Master of Development Policies and Practices” in Graduate Institute GENEVA and achieved a certificate course in “Integrated Sustainable Coastal Development” from University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is currently working as a Small-Scale Fishery Expert for FAO and Local Governance Expert in Centre for Good Governance. His main area of interest is to promote and protect small-scale producers through good governance practices.

Mahmudul Islam
Sylhet Agricultural University, Bangladesh

Mahmudul Islam is an assistant professor at Sylhet Agricultural University in Bangladesh. He received his PhD from the University of Bremen in Germany. His PhD research contextualized poverty and vulnerability in the livelihoods of coastal fishing communities in Bangladesh. His recent research interests include livelihoods and well-being analysis of small-scale fishers, climate change impacts and disaster risk in coastal Bangladesh. Recently he led a research project on implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines) in Bangladesh small-scale fisheries.

Susana V. Siar
FAO, Thailand

Susana V. Siar is a Fishery and Aquaculture Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand. She is a social scientist and started working in the fisheries and aquaculture sector in 1989. Her area of work includes small-scale fisheries, particularly on the human dimension and stakeholder participation. Prior to joining FAO in 2005, she worked at the Aquaculture Department of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) in the Philippines and briefly at the WorldFish Center in Malaysia.

Julius Guirjen
RARE, Philippines

Julius Guirjen has been working on the field of Marine Sciences and Coastal Resources Management for over 20 years now together with different academic institutions, local government units, NGOs and government agencies in in the Philippines. He is with Rare for six years now as Senior Manager for Program Implementation for its Fish Forever program. Fish Forever is Rare’s innovative coastal fisheries program that pairs community-based conservation approach with spatial management to restore and protect small-scale fisheries in the Philippines. The program solution is built on principles of behavior change and combines managed access with marine sanctuaries.

Moderator

Moenieba Isaacs
PLAAS, South Africa

Dr. Moenieba Isaacs is a Professor at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, at the University of Western Cape, South Africa. Her research is on understanding the social and political processes of fisheries reform in South Africa and southern Africa, mainly through the lens of SSF policy processes and implementation. She has worked extensively with communities to find policy solutions to their problems, highlighting the need to deal with social differentiation, poverty inequalities and gender dynamics in fishing communities. Isaacs is a “Blue Justice” activist for SSF and works on finding creative and appropriate ways to engage in social processes, decision-making and policymaking in the context of diverse civil society interests.

Editrudith Lukanga
EMEDO, Tanzania

Editrudith Lukanga is the Secretary General of AWFISHNET since its founding in April 2017. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Environmental Management and economic Development Organization (EMEDO); a not for profit development organization committed to support small-scale fishers and fish workers in Tanzania in building their capacity and support network. Editrudith is passionate about women in fisheries and believes that women’s rights, gender equality and women empowerment that are important pillars for fisheries governance and natural resources management may not be realized without equal and full participation of women. She has actively engaged in the process of establishing Tanzania Women Fish workers Association (TAWFA).

Kafayat Fakoya
Lagos State University, Nigeria

Dr. Kafayat Fakoya holds the position of Senior Lecturer in the Department of Fisheries, Lagos State University, Nigeria. She is the Executive Secretary, Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Section of the Asian Fisheries Society. Her works include social and ecological issues affecting Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF) and Aquaculture. Dr. Fakoya is a Researcher and National Gender Advisor in the Illuminating Hidden Harvests Nigeria SSF. She has participated in validation workshops on Aquaculture and Fisheries, contributed to position statements on Committee on World Food Security (CFS) Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition, and monitoring implementation efforts of the SSF Guidelines.

Moderators

Niaz Dorry
NAMA, USA 

Niaz has been a community organizer for over 30 years. The life changing moment came in 1994 when as a Greenpeace campaigner she switched from organizing in communities fighting for environmental justice to organizing fishing communities. From the start she recognized the similarities between family farmers’ fight for a more just and ecologically responsible land-based food system and that of community-based fishermen fighting to fix the broken sea-based food system. She has been serving as the coordinating director of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance since 2008. One of the first things NAMA did after Niaz took the helm was to join the National Family Farm Coalition as its first non-farming member. The two organizations entered into an innovative shared-leadership model on May 1, 2018, putting Niaz in the new role of serving the work of both organizations and further cementing the relationship and interdependence between land and sea.

Ratana Chuenpagdee
TBTI/OFI, Canada

Ratana Chuenpagdee is a university researcher professor at Memorial University in St. John’s. She leads the global partnership for small-scale fisheries, Too Big To Ignore (TBTI), which aims at elevating the profile of small-scale fisheries and rectifying their marginalization in national and international policies. Some of the current activities are ‘Blue Justice’ for small-scale fisheries, transdisciplinary capacity training to support the implementation of the SSF Guidelines, and innovative fisheries governance. Ratana also co-leads a research module on informing governance responses in a changing ocean for the Ocean Frontier Institute, another major collaborative research between universities, governments, private sectors and communities.

Panellists

Vatosoa Rakotondrazafy
Mihari, Madagascar

Vatosoa Rakotondrazafy has a particular interest in ocean governance, indigenous communities and human rights defense. In 2014, she was awarded the United Nations-Nippon Foundation fellowship program with the United Nations. She did her research at the University of British Columbia – Vancouver that focused on strategies to be implemented to insure the sustainable management of the coastal and marine resources of Madagascar. She currently coordinates Madagascar’s LMMAs (Locally Managed Marine Areas) Network called: MIHARI Network. This network enables LMMAs communities to exchange experiences, enhances capacity building in terms of management, represents their voices and evaluates the options to ensure their financial security. 

Gayathri Lokuge
CEPA, Sri Lanka

Jason Jarvis
NAMA, USA

Jason is a commercial fishermen from Rhode Island, and has been fishing pretty much his entire life. He brings to us his unique perspective on the fishing industry from 30+ years experience on the water fishing on all kinds of boats – gillnetting, hooking, trawling, clamming… you name it… both in charter and commercial fisheries. And, he’s the lead singer of Hope Road,  a Bob Marley tribute band. 

Courtenay  Parlee
OFI, Canada

Dr. Courtenay E. Parlee is an Ocean Frontier Institute postdoctoral fellow at the Grenfell Campus Environmental Policy Institute, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and an Honourary Research Associate at the University of New Brunswick. She has conducted research in Canadian Atlantic Provinces and has focused on the socio-economic impacts of small-scale fisheries on coastal communities, comprehensive approaches to assessing sustainable fisheries management, and resolving conflict involving small-scale fish harvesters. Currently she is working under the supervision of Dr. Paul Foley and her research examines access to fisheries resources and markets in Newfoundland and Labrador, and governance entanglements in the certification and traceability of fisheries. 

Martin Purves
IPNLF, UK 

Moderators

Pip Cohen
WorldFish, Malaysia

Dr. Philippa (Pip) Cohen is a persistent island-dweller; born and raised in the fishing state of Tasmania in Australia, she has wandered and lived on small islands across the Pacific and Asia. Pip is the leader of the Small-scale Fisheries Research Program with WorldFish and an adjunct Research Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. Pip leads a team of researchers working on fisheries and with fishers in the island nations of the Pacific, in the deltas of Asia and in the Great Lakes and coasts of Africa. The research Pip leads and supports is interdisciplinary and applied, focusing on improving food and nutrition security, and human well-being outcomes, through good governance of fisheries and natural resources.

Manas Roshan
ICSF, India  

Manas Roshan is a programme officer with the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), based in Chennai, India. ICSF is an international non-governmental organization that works towards the establishment of equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector. ICSF strives to influence decision-making processes at international, regional and national levels in favour of these fisheries and fishing communities. Since the endorsement of the SSF Guidelines by the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) in 2014, ICSF has been engaged in their implementation in collaboration with fishworker organizations, civil society and governments. Manas contributes to ICSF’s international advocacy and communication, and helps coordinate its programmes on biodiversity and disaster risk management.

Jemimah Njuki
Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

Jemimah Njuki is a senior program specialist at the IDRC, where she oversees a portfolio of projects on gender and women’s empowerment in agriculture as well as supporting gender integration in other IDRC agriculture projects. She is an Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow and has published widely on gender and women’s economic empowerment, specifically in the areas of gender and technology, women and markets, and women and livestock.

Shakuntala Thilsted
WorldFish, Malaysia

Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted is the Research Program Leader for Value Chains and Nutrition at WorldFish, stationed in Penang, Malaysia. Her work focuses on nutrition-sensitive fish agri-food systems, in particular the potential of increased production and consumption of nutrient-rich small fish in combating and preventing vitamin and mineral deficiencies in low- and middle-income countries. She works with developing and testing fish-based products for women and children in the first 1,000 days of life.  She plays a pivotal role in promoting the agenda of fish for nourishing nations as well as the importance of the fisheries sector in contributing to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in many international, regional and national fora.

Christina Hicks
University of Lancaster, UK

Christina is an environmental social scientist interested in the relationships individuals and societies form with nature; how these relationships shape people’s social, environmental, and health outcomes; and how they create sustainable livelihood choices. Christina is a professor within the Political Ecology group at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre. She gained her PhD in 2013 from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University; after which she held an Early Career Social Science Fellowship at the Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University. Christina’s work is global with particular field sites on the east and west coasts of Africa and in the Pacific.

Mele Ikatonga Tauati
Pacific Islands small-scale fisheries professional

Mele Tauati has the sea in her veins. Mele is from the Kingdom of Tonga – a tiny island nation lying in the expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Mele presents today with the perspective of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and as a Pacific Islands small-scale fisheries professional. Mele has extensive experience working with the Pacific Islands nations, commencing in 2006 with the Fisheries Division in Tonga. In this role Mele was a key contributor to the implementation of new, transformative legislation that reestablished community rights to govern their own fishing grounds. Mele has since held roles as a Senior Fisheries Officer for Coastal Fisheries with Samoa’s Fisheries Division and, most recently, FAO’s Subregional Office as a Junior Professional Officer. Mele holds a Bachelor of Marine Science from the University of the South Pacific and a Masters of Science in Tropical Marine Ecology and Fisheries Biology from James Cook University.

Moderator

Nicole Franz
FAO, Italy  

Nicole Franz is an economist and joined the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as Fishery Planning Analyst in 2011. Her work focuses on small-scale fisheries policies and socio-economic issues, and more specifically on the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). Prior to joining FAO, Nicole worked in the OECD Fisheries Policies Division in Paris, focusing primarily on certification, aquaculture and OECD fisheries country profiles, and as consultant for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). She has field experience from Namibia and Indonesia.

Eddie Allison
University of Washington/WorldFish, USA/Malaysia

Professor Allison’s work spans research, policy and practice in both fisheries science and international development. He has worked on the coasts and inland waters of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Oceania, Latin America and Europe, principally on the contribution of fisheries and aquaculture to food and nutrition security and to coastal livelihoods, the governance of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture production, and people’s vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. He was Director of Policy, Economics and Social Science at the WorldFish Center, Malaysia in 2007-2010 and has recently returned to WorldFish as a principal scientist. He has authored or co-authored over 200 academic articles, agency reports and policy briefings and contributed to many others.

Victor Fernández Rojas
INCOPESCA, Costa Rica

Víctor Fernández is a graduate in International Relations with emphasis in management of International Cooperation. He currently works as Advisor to the Executive Presidency of the Costa Rican Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INCOPESCA). He has worked as a manager of the Office of International Affairs of INCOPESCA, Parliamentary Advisor to the Legislative Assembly, and the National Service of Animal Health. He works in coordination actions at the national and international level, such as the process of implementation of the Guidelines for Small-Scale Fisheries, and the evaluation of the Costa Rican fisheries and aquaculture sector as part of access to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Paul Onyango
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Paul Onyango is a passionate provider of research that illuminates the challenges of poverty alleviation, fisheries management and adaptation to climate change, drawing on perspectives and experiences of women and men living in agricultural and fishing communities. Paul teaches at the Department of Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Technology and the Centre for Climate Change Studies of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He has been investigating the dilemmas authorities face in confronting poverty and managing small-scale fisheries as well as adaptation to climate change and variability mechanisms of communities and pastoralism as a production system. Paul holds a PhD from the Artic University of Norway, formerly the University of TromsØ.

Megan Bailey
Dalhousie University, Canada

Megan Bailey is Associate Professor and SSHRC Canada Research Chair with the Marine Affairs Program at Dalhousie University. Megan’s research is motivated by notions of equity and fairness, and a belief that the way humans use the ocean, and the resources within, should be governed in ways that ensure ecological resilience and social wellbeing.  She has a background in fisheries economics and marine governance. 

Mitchell Lay
CFNO, Antigua and Barbuda

Mitchell Lay, born in Antigua and Barbuda, is a small-scale fisherfolk for over 30 years. He is involved in fisherfolk organisations in Antigua and Barbuda and is currently involved in regional fishers’ initiatives, including the Caribbean Network of Fisherfolk Organisations (CNFO) and the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI). Mitch is the Coordinator of the CNFO since 2007 and participates in fisheries-related meetings and workshops throughout the Caribbean region advocating for responsible utilization of the marine resources.

Moderators

Ratana Chuenpagdee
TBTI/OFI, Canada

Dr. Ainka Granderson is a Senior Technical Officer at Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI). She is a climate change adaptation specialist with expertise in community-based adaptation, vulnerability assessments and participatory development of adaptation plans and policies. She brings over seven years of experience working in climate change and environmental management in the Pacific and Caribbean islands. Ainka was also engaged as a Climate Adaptation Flagship Fellow at the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation, Australia where she conducted research on social barriers to climate change adaptation in small island developing states.

Moenieba Isaacs
PLAAS, South Africa

Dr. Moenieba Isaacs is a Professor at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, at the University of Western Cape, South Africa. Her research is on understanding the social and political processes of fisheries reform in South Africa and southern Africa, mainly through the lens of SSF policy processes and implementation. She has worked extensively with communities to find policy solutions to their problems, highlighting the need to deal with social differentiation, poverty inequalities and gender dynamics in fishing communities. Isaacs is a “Blue Justice” activist for SSF and works on finding creative and appropriate ways to engage in social processes, decision-making and policymaking in the context of diverse civil society interests.

Panellists

Naseegh Jaffer
Masifundise, South Africa

Naseegh Jafer is Director of Masifundise Development Trust, whose mission is to facilitate mobilization and organization of fishing communities at the grass roots level, in order for communities to become empowered and capable of taking part in political and economic decision making processes. He is General Secretary of WFFP, a mass-based social movement of small-scale fisher people that represents over 10 million fisher people from all over the world.

Beatriz Mesquita
Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Brazil

Beatriz is a Brazilian northeastern researcher at Joaquim Nabuco Foundation in Center for Culture, Identity and Memory Studies. Involved on artisanal fishing for 20 years. She is also a member of ICSF since 2011 in the beginning of the consultation process of the 2014 Fisheries Guidelines. She conducts research on environmental issues, governance, marine protected areas and artisanal fishing, is the editor of a Fundaj journal and an advisor to the MPA APACC council and member of the Artisanal Fisheries Committee of the State of Pernambuco. She has PhD in Fisheries Resources and Aquaculture.

Bram Büscher
WUR, The Netherlands

Bram Büscher is Professor and Chair of the Sociology of Development and Change group at Wageningen University and holds visiting positions at the University of Johannesburg and Stellenbosch University. Bram has published over 85 articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes and is the author of ‘Transforming the Frontier. Peace Parks and the Politics of Neoliberal Conservation in Southern Africa’ (Duke University Press, 2013) and co-author, together with Robert Fletcher, of ‘The Conservation Revolution: Radical Ideas for Saving Nature Beyond the Anthropocene’ (Verso, 2020). Bram is one of the senior editors of Conservation & Society (www.conservationandsociety.org).

Tero Mustonen
Snowchange Cooperative, Finland

Tero Mustonen is a commercial fisherman and head of the Kesälahti fish base, North Karelia, Finland. Primary method of fishery is winter  seining and gill nets. He is working for the Snowchange Cooperative.

Rashid Sumaila
University of British Columbia, Canada

Dr. Ussif Rashid Sumaila is Professor and Director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. He specializes in bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing and the economics of high and deep seas fisheries. Sumaila has experience working in fisheries and natural resource projects in Norway, Canada and the North Atlantic region, Namibia and the Southern African region, Ghana and the West African region and Hong Kong and the South China Sea.

Moderators

Maria Jose Espinoza
COBI, Mexico

María José Espinosa Romero is a Conservation and Fisheries Program Director at Comunidad y Biodiversidad. Happily working in the field of fisheries in partnership with coastal communities, academia, governments over the last two decades. Graduate studies in resource management and environmental studies at University of British Columbia. Currently, undertaking research on the role of the state and fisheries governance as part of a PhD joint-programme on public policy and governance with the United Nations and Maastricht University.

Inés López
COBI, Mexico

Connectivity Catalyst of Change at Comunidad y Biodiversidad. Experience in marine conservation, community engagement and collective action, for the last 12 years; in the Mediterranean and Mexico. Biologist, with a MSc in protected areas’ management and ecoregional development; and a strong focus on how social innovation can be an important driver towards marine resilience. Committed to gender equality, she focuses on how to foster autonomy and shared responsibility with fishing communities.

Panellists

Marah Hardt
Future of Fish, USA

A scientist and storyteller, Dr. Marah J. Hardt works at the crossroads of research, strategy, and communication to build a sustainable future for people and the sea. She is currently Director of Discovery at Future of Fish, working with fishers, communities, entrepreneurs and innovators to ensure fishers can earn a fair living while leaving enough fish for future generations. She is an expert in analyzing complex human-ecological systems to identify solutions that foster economic, social, and environmental health of ocean and coastal communities. As founder of OceanInk LLC, Marah has worked with interdisciplinary teams investigating coral reef health, fishery impacts, ocean acidification, and sustainability of seafood supply chains. Throughout all her roles, Marah has sought to “turn science into stories that make a difference.”

Carlos Alberto Pinto dos Santos
National Commission, Brazil

Carlos Alberto Pinto dos Santos – Carlinhos, Coastal and Marine Fisherman. Resident of the Canavieiras Marine Extractive Reserve (RESEX), in Abrolhos region, Bahia, Brazil. Son of rafters and also one, has been fishing since he was a child. Activist and militant in defense of the RESEX in Brazil, a protected area category that aims to protect livelihoods and culture of traditional extractives communities. Founding member of the Mother Association of RESEX of Canavieiras and one of the founders of CONFREM BRASIL – Commission of Coastal and Marine Extractivists of Brazil – an organization of local, national and international action, which since its creation in 2007 has helped to create more than 16 Marine Extractive Reserves along the Brazilian coast.

Herman Kumara
NAFSO, Sri Lanka

Herman Kumara is a human rights defender who works primarily with food producers, specifically in small-scale, marginalized fishing communities. He provides policy analysis with rights-based and gender-sensitive approaches and measures the vulnerability of marginalized groups. He is a National Convener for National Fisheries Solidarity Organization (NAFSO), Chairperson for the Praja Abilasha Land Rights Network, Board Member of Right to Life’ human rights organization and a Member of the Savistri women Organization. He is also the Vice President of SSFSL, Executive Committee Member of SAAPE and a special Invitee for World Forum of Fisher Peoples.

Vera Agostini
FAO, Italy

Dr. Vera Agostini is the Deputy Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department at the United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); she provides oversight, strategic leadership and technical support to FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Division. From 2007-2017 Vera was with The Nature Conservancy, initially as Senior Scientist with the Global Oceans Team, and more recently as Director of Conservation and Director of Climate Adaptation. Dr. Agostini is a fisheries scientist by training, who has held positions across three sectors (non-governmental, government, and academia/educational) providing technical and strategic leadership across a range of multi-disciplinary efforts around the globe. Her experience ranges from comprehensive ecosystem research to broad policy and planning. 

Moderators

Ainka Granderson
CANARI

Dr. Ainka Granderson is a Senior Technical Officer at Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI). She is a climate change adaptation specialist with expertise in community-based adaptation, vulnerability assessments and participatory development of adaptation plans and policies. She brings over seven years of experience working in climate change and environmental management in the Pacific and Caribbean islands. Ainka was also engaged as a Climate Adaptation Flagship Fellow at the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation, Australia where she conducted research on social barriers to climate change adaptation in small island developing states.

Fadilah Adi
GCFI

Fadilah Ali is the Assistant Executive Director of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI). Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, she is an ecologist with a specialty in invasive species biology, control and management. She was previously involved in lionfish research and education for 8 years and developed a lionfish fishery in Anguilla by creating partnerships amongst fishers, restaurants and hotels. She is currently the Program Manager for the Caribbean Node of the Global Partnership on Marine Litter which GCFI is a co-host of together with UN Environment and also serves as a Communication Specialist.

Cecil Marquez
Guoyave Fishing Co-operative, Grenada

Mr. Cecil Marquez has been a leader in the fishing industry in Grenada for the past 30 years and has made a tremendous impact not only through his leadership but through his pioneering role in introducing locals to gears, safety and new improved vessels. Cecil was also instrumental in establishing a new marine protected area in Gouyave to be managed by the Gouyave Fishermen Cooperative. Within Gouyave, he is an inspirational leader and important source of guidance and direction for many young fishers and the local community. Cecil was the 2018 recipient of the Gladding Memorial Award which recognises fishers who demonstrate a significant commitment to the sustainable use and long-term conservation of marine resources in the Gulf and Caribbean region.

Patrick McConney
CERMES, Barbados

Dr. Patrick McConney is the Director and Senior Lecturer at Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. He is a former fisheries manager with an interdisciplinary PhD in resource management from the University of British Columbia, Canada. He teaches blended and online graduate courses in environmental and resource management. His current applied research, and that of his students, is mainly on small-scale fisheries and marine protected area social-ecological systems in the Wider Caribbean. This research includes ecosystem approaches, livelihoods, socio-economics, gender, adaptive capacity, resilience, management, planning, institutions, organisations and governance.

Maren Headley
CRFM, Barbados

Dr. Maren Headley works with the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism Secretariat (CRFM), an intergovernmental organization made up of 17 Member States. She has been working in the sector for over a decade and is involved in the provision of technical support to Member States for capacity building in climate-smart fisheries planning, disaster risk management in the fisheries sector, strengthening of fisherfolk organizations, and implementing the SSF Guidelines through the Caribbean Community Common Fisheries Policy and its Protocol on Securing Sustainable Small–Scale Fisheries for Caribbean Community Fisherfolk and Societies.

Yvette Diei Ouadi
FAO, Barbados

Dr. Yvette Diei Ouadi is the Fishery and Aquaculture Officer of the United Nations Food and Agriculture (FAO) subregional office for the Caribbean, based in Barbados. She coordinates as well the Secretariat of the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission (WECAFC). Before joining the Caribbean office in July 2018, Dr Diei Ouadi worked in FAO Headquarters (Rome/Italy) as Fishery Industry Officer, mostly dealing with post-harvest fisheries improvements in the African and to a lesser extent, Asian regions. In this regard she developed and led several technical assistance frameworks essentially connected to small-scale fisheries.       

Moderators

Jorge Torre
COBI, Mexico

Jorge Torre is the General Director of Comunidad y Biodiversidad. His work has focused on the development of applied comprehensive research to solve problems in marine conservation and fishing. He has collaborated in more than 50 scientific and dissemination publications. Currently, his interest is to achieve gender equality in conservation and management decision-making, as well as identifying the best way to transfer conservation and management knowledge generated in the last two decades by science, to the new generation of fishers to achieve adaptation to the global changes that are impacting daily coastal communities.

Brenda Cárdenas
COBI, Mexico

Head of Management Affairs of Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI). Studies in Sociology from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolita. Since 2017 she works on legislative issues for the strengthening of public policies and sustainable fishing. Currently, she coordinates in COBI with other Mexican government institutions the National Prize for Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture; which recognizes the sustainable practices of fishing communities on the Mexican coasts. Since 2019, she is part of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management in order to promote and make visible the work of the youth in ecosystems and fisheries.

Luis Solís Plaza
Chile

Born in Santiago de Chile, he works tirelessly to support communities and sectors of SMEs and entrepreneurs in the country, collaborating with small producers and companies to improve food supply chains, and facilitate fair trade for nutritious and sustainable products. Throughout his career in the private and academic sectors, he has focused on improving cooperative work, coordinating among people in supply chains, incorporating a growing concern for the precarious nutrition, health, and well-being of many of his compatriots. Nowadays Luis is promoting commercialization, under e-commerce models in lines of agricultural and fishery products, responding with concrete measures to the challenges presented by the global pandemic.

Inés López Ercilla
COBI, Mexico

Connectivity Catalyst of Change at Comunidad y Biodiversidad. Experience in marine conservation, community engagement and collective action, for the last 12 years; in the Mediterranean and Mexico. Biologist, with a MSc in protected areas’ management and ecoregional development; and a strong focus on how social innovation can be an important driver towards marine resilience. Committed to gender equality, she focuses on how to foster autonomy and shared responsibility with fishing communities.

Josana Pinto da Costa
Brazil

Josana Pinto da Costa, born in São José Óbidos, daughter of farmers. In 1993, she started to live in the rural area of Amador, on the banks of the Amazon River, where she began to get involved as a small-scale fisher, professionally. Since then, she has been directly involved in the defending the territory and community rights. In 2011, he met and joined MPP, the Small-scale Fisher’s Movement of Brasil. She continued fighting even more tirelessly for the recognition and valuation of fishery production, health of women in the fishing world, healthy environment, food sovereignty in small-scale fishing and self-monitoring of production. She now represents MPP in Via Campesina Brasil. Today, as a member of the WFFP Fisher’s Forum, she feels even stronger working with the collective to keep pushing to defend nature and life in the midst of this pandemic.

Joel Verde
Belize

Joel was born and raised in Sarteneja, one of Belize’s largest fishing communities. As a son of a fisherman, he also followed in his father’s steps, but it wasn’t long before he got involved in tourism as a marine guide, drawing on his experience at sea. Eleven years ago, he was one of the founders of a non-governmental community initiative called the Sarteneja Alliance for Conservation and Development, where he now works as a director. His work focuses on the conservation of natural and fishing resources for the benefit of the user communities of the Corozal Bay Wildlife Sanctuary protected area. Through his work he has managed to establish and nourish various community initiatives in order to improve the lives of those who depend on fisheries resources.