Amrita discussed her ongoing research on the political ecological context of the Sundarbans, which has helped orient recent fieldwork within the Dried Fish Matters project. Her talk introduced the diverse economies of the Sundarbans – including forest fishing, honey collection, and prawn farming – and illustrated the inadequacies of attempts to govern the complex socio-political and inter-species realities of this region. Discussion after the talk focused on the complexity of the political ecological landscape of the Sundarbans, and in particular on the issue of defining rights for resource users who are positioned as “non-native”.
Amrita Sen is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and a Visiting Faculty with Azim Premji University. Her research interests include cultural and political ecology, politics of forest conservation, urban environmental conflicts and Anthropocene studies. In 2019, Amrita received the “Excellence in PhD Thesis award” from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, for her doctoral research on the conservation politics in Sundarbans.
Session 3 at the IMBeR West Pacific Symposium on “Dried Small Fish: Ecology, Value Chains, and Nutrition“, hosted by DFM, was held on November 25, 11:00-14:00 UTC.
The China-Japan-Korea (CJK) IMBeR Symposium on marine ecosystem has been held eight times over the period from 2002 to 2018 to review the achievements and to set the future directions of international ecosystem research in the western North Pacific as a part of the past GLOBEC and the IMBeR regional activities. Responding to the growing needs, the CJK IMBeR community changed its name to the West Pacific Symposium to better assume for the entire West Pacific Ocean, as outlined in the IMBeR Science Plan and Implementation Strategy 2016-2025. This kick-off symposium centers around the marine biosphere and its biogeochemistry in the West Pacific Ocean from the Subarctic in the North to the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean and its connectivity with the Arctic, Southern Ocean, and the Indian Ocean to deepen a holistic hemispheric view. All marine habitats including coastal areas (estuaries, saltmarshes, coral reefs, etc.), continental shelf to the deep ocean and their seafloors are of interests. Participants in the IMBeR Regional Programmes, Working Groups, Endorsed Projects, and others are welcome to the symposium.
About this session
Dried, salted, fermented, pickled small fish, and derivative products are an important and ancient category of processed aquatic foods. They supply a concentrated source of micro-nutrients to diets of large populations in Asia, provide livelihoods to millions of small-scale fishers, processors and traders, and are a culturally significant component of Asian cuisines. The availability of small pelagic fish, such as anchovy and sardine, to producers, traders and consumers is linked with the ecology of these species. The patterns of movement of these fish species in the West Pacific and Indian oceans are increasingly shaped by human impacts (stressors) on the ocean, such as climate change. This session seeks to engage in a multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary dialogue on the links among ecology, value chains and nutrition related to small fish, used for drying and other forms of processing, in rapidly changing environmental and economic contexts. Expressions of interest are invited from natural scientists working on ecology and nutrition of small fish (e.g. anchovy, sardine) in the West Pacific and Indian oceans, as well as social scientists working on dried/processed small fish value chains in East, Southeast and South Asia. Abstract selection will be guided by the openness to present within multi-disciplinary, sub-regional groups.
Keynote title: Aquatic Foods for Nourishing the West Pacific
Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted is the Global Lead for Nutrition and Public Health at WorldFish, a One CGIAR entity. She was awarded the 2021 World Food Prize for her ground-breaking research, critical insights, and landmark innovations in developing holistic, nutrition-sensitive approaches to aquatic food systems, including aquaculture and capture fisheries. She was awarded the 2021 Arrell Global Food Innovation Award for research innovation. She played a key role in the development of the WorldFish 2030 research and innovation strategy: Aquatic Foods for Healthy People and Planet. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) of the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and Vice Chair of the UN Food Systems Summit 2021: Action Track 4 – Advance Equitable Livelihoods, and also a Food Systems Champion. She plays a pivotal role in promoting aquatic food systems for nourishing nations and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Shakuntala holds a PhD from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (presently: Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen), Denmark. She also holds an Honorary Doctorate from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
Co-moderators
Nireka Weeratunge, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Sri Lanka
Nireka Weeratunge is a Research Fellow at the International Centre of Ethnic Studies (ICES) in Colombo, Sri Lanka and a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR). She collaborates on the research project ‘Dried Fish Matters: Mapping the Social Economy of Dried Fish in South and Southeast Asia for Enhanced Wellbeing and Nutrition’ with the University of Manitoba, Canada and University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka, supporting gender analysis and qualitative methods. She is also the qualitative lead of the ‘Social-ecological Dynamics in Rapid Economic Development: Infrastructure and Coastal Change in Southeastern Sri Lanka’ (SEDRIC) project at ICES, led by the French Institute of Pondicherry, India. She has a PhD in anthropology from the University of Toronto, Canada with over 25 years of research and practice in the interface of gender, environment and development issues in the Asia-Pacific region. Her main areas of work are the social and cultural aspects of natural resource use, focusing on livelihood strategies in relation to poverty, vulnerability, resilience and wellbeing in fishing and farming communities. She has worked in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China (Yunan), Laos, Myanmar, Solomon Islands, Philippines and Vietnam.
Derek Johnson is Professor of socio-cultural anthropology at the University of Manitoba and Head of the Department of Anthropology. He draws particularly on environmental and economic anthropology, political ecology, and social wellbeing in his research on small-scale fisheries in Asia and Canada. Dr. Johnson leads the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded International Partnership Dried Fish Matters (www.driedfishmatters.org). Dried Fish Matters is conducting research on the social economy of dried fish in six focus countries in South and Southeast Asia.
Join us Friday, July 2 for the closing keynote event of the MARE 2021 Conference.
Nourishing Minds: A Conversation with 2021 World Food Prize Laureate and Global Lead, Nutrition and Public Health, WorldFish, Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted
This event will be chaired by Dried Fish Matters Project Director Derek Johnson and Prof. Maarten Bavinck of the University of Amsterdam.
Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted is the Global Lead for Nutrition and Public Health at WorldFish, a One CGIAR entity. She was awarded the 2021 World Food Prize for her ground-breaking research, critical insights, and landmark innovations in developing holistic, nutrition-sensitive approaches to aquatic food systems, including aquaculture and capture fisheries. She played a key role in the development of the WorldFish 2030 research and innovation strategy: Aquatic Foods for Healthy People and Planet. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) of the United Nations Committee on World Food Security and Vice Chair of the UN Food Systems Summit 2021: Action Track 4 – Advance Equitable Livelihoods, and also a Food Systems Champion. She plays a pivotal role in promoting aquatic food systems for nourishing nations and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Shakuntala holds a PhD from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (presently: Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen), Denmark. She also holds an Honorary Doctorate from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
The Dried Fish Matters project will be hosting a series of linked roundtables at the MARE 2021 Conference, entitled Strengthening connections through research on dried fish social economies in Asia (June 29, June 30, and July 1), as well as joint panels with @V2VPartnership and with Fish4Food and @SmallFishFood.
Panel 3.239. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish – exploring interfaces in research on the contributions of small pelagics to food and nutrition security
As part of the Small-Scale Fisheries Open House organized by TBTI, the Dried Fish Matters partnership will be hosting an event on Wednesday, June 2 at 11:00 UTC, addressing the “value” in dried fish value chains. All are welcome to join!
Dried fish is an essential part of diets, livelihoods, and cultures across South and South-East Asia, but is nearly invisible in research and policy. This virtual panel will begin with a pre-recorded presentation of images and commentaries from partners in the multinational “Dried Fish Matters” project, illustrating the diverse forms of value associated with dried fish in South and Southeast Asia. The introductory presentation will be followed by a panel discussion involving researchers from four countries. Panelists will explore the question: how might we better describe, support, and promote diverse forms of “value” in dried fish value chains?
Chair: Derek Johnson
Panel moderator: Ben Belton
Panellists:
Tara Nair
Mostafa Hossain
Anupama Adikari and Shalika Wickrama
Sisir Pradhan
Gayathri Lokuge
Format: Pre-recorded presentation and a live panel discussion
Language: English
Duration: 60 minutes
About the SSF Open House
SSF Open House centers around the ‘Life and livelihoods’, the official theme of the 2021 World Oceans Week (WOW). Join us for a week long series of online events as we bring attention to the importance of small-scale fisheries, celebrate their contributions, and facilitate a dialogue about an inclusive, equitable and just development of the ocean. Add your voice to these discussions and help us shape the upcoming International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture and the 4th World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress.
In case you missed the Small Fish Seminar in February, the videos from most of the sessions are now available on our YouTube channel. Check out the description for each video for the full citation details and link to a downloadable version. Thanks to all our presenters and panel organizers!
Registration is now open for the two-day free online seminar “Small Low-cost Fish: From Bait to Plate” (Feb. 15 & 16). If you pre-registered, you should have received an email link inviting you to complete your registration on the Zoom Webinars platform. If not, there is still time to sign up!
Small and low-cost fish, like sardines and mackerel, are recognized as being rich in micronutrients. They play an important role in preventing malnutrition of poor and undernourished people in developing countries. In combination with researchers from four ongoing projects in Africa and Asia, FAO is organizing a virtual seminar on the contribution of small, low-cost fish to food security on February 15th and 16th, 2021.
In line with 2025 global nutrition targets The Global Nutrition Report 2020 calls on societal parties to “to step up efforts to address malnutrition in all its forms and tackle injustices in food and health systems” (2020:8). It points out that progress towards this end is slow as well as highly unfair, with developing countries bearing the brunt of the problem. Fish is noted as one of the most nutrient-dense foods, for which more public investment is required (ibid.:94). Small fish, particularly when consumed whole, are very rich in micronutrients and aid in the absorption of nutrients from plant-based foods with which they are eaten. Small fish are still a relatively ‘cheap’ food in most countries of the world when compared to other animal-sourced foods, and can be purchased in small quantities, making them more accessible to the poor (ibid.:85). The event is a follow-up on the theme of World Food Day 2020, ‘Grow, Nourish, Sustain. Together.’
Small fish, particularly when consumed whole, are very rich in micronutrients and aid in the absorption of nutrients from plant-based foods with which they are eaten.
Global Nutrition Report 2020
This 3-stage event focuses on the contribution of the class of what are commonly known as ‘small fish’ (mainly epipelagic forage fish) to the food and nutrition security of poor and undernourished populations of the developing world. Small fish species are numerous in oceans and freshwater environments, and often make up the less expensive varieties of products in aquatic food marketplaces. They frequently end up on the plates of low-income households.
We take a food system approach to examine the role of the various segments of the small fish value chain in meeting the four dimensions of food and nutrition security – availability, accessibility, quality (utilization) and stability (FAO 2006). We recognize the direct nutritional contributions of small fish, but also the indirect contributions, through employment, that participation in small fish value chains provide. While our ambition is global in scope, the evidence presented derives from a more limited set of country settings in South and Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Four ongoing international research projects on the role of small fish in providing food and nutrition security provide empirical inputs and analyses, as do a set of relevant FAO-led efforts.
Thanks to everyone who joined us on February 15 & 16!
Small Fish Around the World
Partners
The Dried Fish Matters partnership brings together experts on fisheries, food security, and livelihoods to generate the first detailed study of the dried fish economy in South and Southeast Asia.
This transdisciplinary effort will identify the overall contribution of dried fish to the food and nutrition security and livelihoods of the poor, and examine how production, exchange and consumption of dried fish may be improved to enhance the well-being of marginalized groups and actors.
The Fish for Food project aims to understand how low-price fish chains contribute to urban food security in India and Ghana and to identify policy and business interventions that have potential to improve them.
City regions in LMIC are expanding and so are the food security problems of their poorer inhabitants. The nutritional properties of seafood make it vital to the health and food security of millions of poor urban consumers. This project studies the food systems that service low-income consumers in selected city regions of South Asia (India) and West Africa (Ghana), with the aim of improving their quality and scope. These food systems – in which women entrepreneurs often play an important role – derive produce from small-scale as well as industrial (distant water) fisheries, which possess various degrees of environmental sustainability. The project gathers relevant fisheries and food security expertise, pilots new business approaches and investigates their relevant policy environments. The governance lessons gained from the two regions are generalized and fed into the international debate on fish-related food security.
‘Although poorer consumers can still get their hands on small fish, that may not be the case for much longer’, warns maritime geographer Maarten Bavinck
Small Fish and Food Security: Towards innovative integration of fish in African food systems to improve nutrition
The SmallFishFood consortium aims to shift small fish – including sardines and small indigenous species (SIS) – to the forefront of the global food security agenda.
SmallFishFood aims for transformation to ecological sustainability and food security by asking: How can socio-cultural, economic and institutional transformations of the fish value chain, as well as technical and infrastructural innovations, contribute to improved, sustainable utilization of small fish resources for Africa’s low-income population?
Small, low priced, fish – either dried, fresh or conserved – are vital for the nutritional security of poor people in rural areas in Indonesia and are an important source of livelihood for millions of coastal fishing families and – often female – processors and traders. Due to climatological changes and market challenges (i.e. increased catch fluctuations and processing of small fish for fish meal) the supply of affordable small fish is under threat. Meanwhile, changing diets and food programs affect the demand for small fish. Considering these fluctuations in supply and demand, IKAN–F3 aims to study the food system that services low-income consumers in three selected rural regions in Indonesia with the aim of improving their quality, resilience and scope. It builds on ongoing research on this topic in various parts of the world, and aims to develop innovative insights and lessons relevant to Indonesia.
