Outstanding IFOP Presentations at Latin American Sustainable Artisanal Fishing Congress
January 15th, 2024
The Latin American Sustainable Artisanal Fishing Congress, a commitment to the future, organized by CONAPACH, took place on December 12th and 13th, 2023 at Diego de Almagro Hotel, in Valparaíso city. On the occasion, it brought together more than 100 artisanal fishing leaders from Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, El Salvador and Costa Rica, NGOs and Foundations such as PEW and EDF. Also participating were Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture, INDESPA and SERNAPESCA main authorities, ECLAC and FAO national representatives, Defense Ministry, Foreign Affairs Ministry and MOP, Economy Minister Nicolás Grau, Antonia Orellana Guarello , Women and Gender Equality Ministry, as well as deputies and senators from fisheries commissions of both chambers. At the inauguration of this event, IFOP’s Director, Gonzalo Pereira, stressed the importance of considering climatic change in small-scale fishing and aquaculture d related decisions.
Among discussed topics, Fisheries Undersecretariat, Julio Salas announced that the new Fisheries Law will be presented to National Congress in the last week of December, where issues associated with Climatic Change and El Niño event investigation will be addressed. This instance will be the first step to begin talking about the improvements that said regulation will require.
Artisanal fishermen from the Caribbean showed the problem of Lionfish’s invasion in the Caribbean Sea, while national fishermen explained the complexity that the Sea Lion means to them. The need to raise local problems with national authorities through representative organizations, among which is the Latin American Union of Artisanal Fishermen.
In this context, Dr. Bryan Bularz Aguirre showed the conceptualization and a prototype experience of Ecosystemic’s approach implementation within “Security of Maritime Miles for protection of marine ecosystems and development of small-scale fisheries through a Ecosystemic Approach” presentation framework
Dr. Jaime Letelier, Oceanography and Environment Department ‘s head (DOMA), also shared with participants in “El Niño Phenomenon and its implications in coastal communities” Presentation where the problem of El Niño 2023 and climatic change and how these affect and will affect artisanal fishing. These themes were consistent with Minister Grau’s expressions, in which he calls for us to learn from this event and prepare for future environmental changes. This bidirectional knowledge instance transfer allowed actors to be shown Climatic Change Alert and Monitoring System developed by IFOP (S.A.P.O.) and that, coordinated by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), shares efforts with Instituto del Mar from Peru (IMARPE) and Public Aquaculture and Fisheries Research Institute (IPAP) from Ecuador.
The IFOP SAPO system is part of CORFO’s Sustainable Productive Development Line (DPS) program called Strengthening IFOP Integrated Climatic Change Monitoring System: “Ocean Prediction, Observation and Visualization System (S.A.P.O.Chile) for resilient fisheries, ecosystems where aquaculture is developed, Management Areas and Marine Protected Areas under the context of climatic change.” (https://www.ifop.cl/red-de-monitoreo-cambio-climático/).