70th Annual Conference of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI)
November 6-10, Merida, Mexico
Written by: Eva Coronado, TBTI PhD Student CINVESTAV, Mexico
The theme of the 70th annual GCFI conference was “Towards the sustainability of tropical fisheries strategies, models and tools”. The five-day program was focused on the ways stakeholder plan fisheries management strategies that can place fisheries on the path to sustainability. Presentations, plenaries, and poster sessions focused on issues of connectivity, assessment and management options for fisheries, given its socioeconomic and governance contexts, goal and needs within the Wider Caribbean Region, Gulf of Mexico and Latin-American.
During the Socio-economic and Governance session, I gave a presentation on ‘Towards the generation of a governability index for small-scale fisheries: The case study of Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico’. The presentation was prepared by Dr. Ratana Chuenpagdee (TBTI project director), Dr. Silvia Salas (professor at CINVESTAV, Merida and TBTI cluster coordinator) and myself. In the presentation, I spoke about how we can apply the interactive governance theory and governability assessment framework and build a quantitative methodological approach in order to develop indicators and a governability index, a new governance tool that is being developed by TBTI.
TBTI members from the Latina America and Caribbean organized several special sessions. In line with the main theme of the GCFI Conference, these sessions focused on sharing the lessons learned from the work done by the TBTI members in this region. The sessions focused on three big topics: a) sustainability and viability of small-scale fisheries: b) challenges for the implementation of the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines in Latin America and the Caribbean; and c) the transdisciplinary approach. The sessions were well attended and attracted multidisciplinary audience, including marine biologists, oceanographers, sociologists, independent consultants, NGOs, as well as undergraduate and graduate students. Through the engaging group activities and discussion period, panelists and audience provided varying perspectives and valuable input for the sustainability of small-scale fisheries in the region.
Overall, GCFI conference and TBTI sessions showed that the transdisciplinary work and innovative assessment tools that incorporate linkages between natural, social, and management systems are the way forward for achieving sustainability of fisheries.
For a more detailed summary of the TBTI session at GCFI conference, click here.
