Overall, the participants agreed that the government should recognize the economic and social role of the post-harvest fisheries sector when formulating policies for the use of resources and the sustainable development of fisheries and the community.
Alicia Saldaña, Masters student
In May and July 2018, two focus groups were carried out in Sisal, a small fishing community on the coast of Yucatán, eastern Mexico. The focus group discussions aimed at addressing the meaning and sources of vulnerability as well as the opportunities for enhancing viability using a ‘participatory diagnostic’ approach. These discussions were part of the study titled: ‘Viability and vulnerability of the small-scale fisheries: A participative diagnostic approach’ conducted by Alicia Saldaña Millán, TBTI student based at the Department of Geography, at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. The focus group discussion was co-organized by the project ‘Characterization of the small-scale fisheries in the Yucatan Peninsula: Identifying management units’ led by Dr. Silvia Salas of Cinvestav-Mérida. Dr. Salas is one of the TBTI team leaders and has recently published a book, Viability and Sustainability of Small-scale Fisheries in Latin America and The Caribbean, Springer MARE Series 2018, with Dr. María José Barragán-Paladines and Dr. Ratana Chuenpagdee as co-editors for TBTI.
Small-scale fishers’ judgement about vulnerability and viability
The first focus group was organized on May 25 in Sisal with eleven small-scale fishers working as captains and crew members. This event sought to generate discussion around viability and vulnerability factors affecting the community, as well as validating and corroborating data gathered from the interviews conducted in the first phase of the project with fishers involved in harvest activities. The exercises conducted during this focus group included both individual weighting of factors and small group discussions.
Weighting the factors around viability and vulnerability in Sisal fishing community
For the individual level exercise, participants were asked to rate each of the top 15 most mentioned viability factors, based on their level of importance, ‘Very important’, ‘Moderately important’ and ‘Less important’. A similar exercise was performed for the rating of the top 15 vulnerability factors, from ‘Highly damaging’, ‘Moderately damaging’, to ‘Less damaging’. This exercise captured participants’ individual judgements about how important or damaging the factors were for the small-scale fisheries in Sisal.
Small group discussions around the selected viability and vulnerability factors
The small group discussions enabled further conversation about two viability and two vulnerability factors chosen by the participants. Guiding questions were the base to think more about severity of threats and feasibility to address problems that fishers face in their fishing community.
Obtaining women’s perspective about the chosen viability and vulnerability factors
In order to further understand viability and vulnerability in small-scale fisheries and address the question – viability and vulnerability according to whom?, a second focus group with people involved in post-harvest activities was held on July 19 also in Sisal. A total of eleven women, including fish gatherers and women who run home-based, fried-fish selling businesses participated in this discussion.
Women involved in the post-harvest activities discussed their own viability and vulnerability regarding issues that affect them during their activities. While many of these factors overlap with those mentioned by fishers involved in harvesting, women expressed different opinions about some issues. Particularly, women had a more proactive perspective about what role to take in confronting solvable problems. For instance, they demanded their inclusion and participation in Sisal fishing community sustainable development as well as the creation of women’s grassroots organizations for dealing with common issues found in Sisal as lack of alternative employment.
Also, women were more concerned about environmental issues. Unlike men who did not mention damaging practices in the rocky habitats, women said the damage that some fishers from neighbor fishing communities do in the fishing grounds created a bigger problem beyond overexploitation. On top of that, women were concerned about the garbage in the fishing harbor.
Main results and the way forward
Overall, the participants agreed that the government should recognize the economic and social role of the post-harvest fisheries sector when formulating policies for the use of resources and the sustainable development of fisheries and the community.
Results gathered from the participatory diagnostic approach are currently being evaluated in terms of the meaning of viability and vulnerability for fishing people as well as the factors that impact either positively or negatively in small-scale fisheries in Sisal. These results along with the comparisons of perspectives of fishermen involved in harvesting with women involved in post-harvest activities are further to be shared as form of thesis and publications.
Written by: Alicia Saldaña, Masters student, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s
