Small-scale fisheries (SSF) are vital to food security globally but face multiple threats due to climate change, human population increase, shifting human and marine populations, overfishing, and habitat degradation. Solutions aimed at improving the resilience of SSF tend to be one-off due to the diversity and variability of both the fisheries and the primary threats and/or stressors facing them. In order to better address the ecological and economic sustainability of SSF, it is necessary to develop scalable solutions that can be applied despite this variability. Is it possible to develop a typology of small-scale fisheries, based on characteristics such as fishery size, current governance, targeted species type, and stressors, in order to determine which technological, governance, or market-based solutions may be effectively used across fisheries? In order to develop and test a typology of small-scale fisheries, it is necessary to categorize essential characteristics, identifiable and attributable across regions, which can be used to clearly identify common SSF ‘types.’ This typology can then be validated against a variety of governance, technological and market-based applications, to determine whether or not identifying types of SSF makes it possible to develop scalable solutions despite differences in the specific fisheries.
Results/Conclusions
Drawing from the literature on small-scale fisheries, we have developed a ‘Meyers-Briggs’ format typology to describe key characteristics found across most small-scale fisheries. These include governance, threats, market, target species, and fishery size, although the framework is adaptable and could be used for additional characteristics as well. This typology was examined during a workshop in Palau on fisheries and food security to determine its applicability when identifying scalable solutions to addressing multiple stressors in SSF. Small-scale fisheries vary tremendously, with dramatic differences in governance and management rules, fishery targets, geography, fishery size, gear use, market characteristics, and a number of other defining variables. In order to develop scalable solutions across a range of small-scale fisheries, it is necessary to better define both differences and similarities across fisheries. A typology of small-scale fisheries can be used to identify commonalities amongst these fisheries, and to create scalable technologies and solutions to address food security and other threats currently facing SSF globally.