Costa Rica: first country to protect sustainable fisheries of large pelagics species

Large Pelagic National Action Plan Launching – Costa Rica

According to data estimated by the Costa Rican Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INCOPESCA), the country’s fishing sector is made up of around 400 boats with each boat carrying between five and eight people, forming a working population of around 2,000 to 3,200 directly linked to the sector. 

Twelve years ago, in a restaurant in Puntarenas on the pacific coast of Costa Rica, a group of long line fishermen met with three UNDP conservation specialists.

The conservationists wanted to understand how best to avoid illegal fishing inside Cocos Island Marine Protected Area, located off the shore of Costa Rica and now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

As part of their stakeholder engagement strategy, they decided to meet longline fishermen for dinner. It didn’t turn out quite as they had hoped – not many hands were shaken after dessert.

There was one table but two very different perspectives. The UNDP personnel were working on a project which saw illegal fishing on Cocos Island as a conservation issue. On the other hand, the group of local entrepreneurs from Puntarenas were challenged by depleted resources and closed markets. Though some of them were indeed responsible for illegal fishing, none were big businessmen with major ambitions, but rather owners of a couple of long line vessels trying to make a living — with little access to credit and paying the highest social security costs in the region for every member of their expeditions.

The prospect of UNDP supporting the government to further restrictions on their livelihoods, was not taken lightly. A lot of mistrust turned the food, and the mood, sour.

Large Pelagic Fisheries Costa Rica

Together with the families that depend on this activity, the affected population reaches between 10 to 16 million people and this is without including those indirectly linked through the thousands of other indirect jobs which ensure fishing activity such as transportation, fishing supplies, food, mechanics, and others.

Fast forward to the present day and twelve years later, the perspectives of both the conservationists and the fishermen have changed. Last November, not far from that restaurant in Puntarenas, Costa Rica was the first country in the world to launch a National Action Plan for sustainable fisheries of large pelagic species, using UNDP’s methodology.

Through the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), the Costa Rican Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INCOPESCA) and the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the country officially presented a plan with three main areas of work: improving the fisheries of large pelagic species in Costa Rica such as tuna, swordfish and mahi mahi; increasing the supply of seafood from sustainable sources and ensuring the social welfare of the people linked to the fishing activity.

During the presentation of the plan, one of those same sector leaders from the restaurant took the opportunity to approach the same UNDP staff member he met all those years ago and said to him, “I wanted to thank UNDP for the trust it has given us and for helping us build a formal plan with institutions”.

A clear victory for UNDP’s firm confidence and strong commitment to multi-stakeholder dialogue as the key element to achieve systemic change for sustainable commodity production.

A model case study of successful convening and collaboration between different stakeholders, it is the result of a process of dialogue lasting twelve months and involving more than one hundred representatives of government, academia, civil society, international cooperation, fishermen, exporters, restaurants and supermarkets.

A group of people who were not likely to be happy in same room a few years ago but are now committed to working together towards a more sustainable, inclusive and promising future for Costa Rican fisheries.

Through 2019, we celebrate ten years of UNDP supporting multi-stakeholder approaches to the sustainability challenges of highly-traded commodities around the world.

Through the Green Commodities Programme, UNDP’s approach has been to build trust among stakeholders by facilitating neutral spaces where they can collaborate on a shared vision and agenda for action, coming to a collective agreement on the root of the sustainability problems of key commodities and on how they will work together to resolve them.

Through its multi-stakeholder National Commodity Platforms, the programme is currently working on palm oil, cocoa, coffee, beef, soy, pineapple and fisheries in Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Liberia, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

From fishing lines to computer networks

"This is new for me, I never imagined being here in front of the computer, managing a computer program like this and I thank God for that"

Just two years ago, Rafael Acuña was a typical longline fishing captain. His life was spent most of the time at sea, dealing with fishing lines, hooks, storms and long days of work. This was almost his whole life, until for family reasons he had to consider the need to leave the trade and stay on land.

They were moments of uncertainty and search for work options. And even in the best of his dreams he could have imagined the direction that life had for him. By chance, he was summoned to an interview to find the captain who would be in charge of managing the Oceanographic Information System for Fisheries, one of the projects of the Platform of Sustainable Fisheries of Large Pelagic of UNDP.

Rafael was selected for the job and his life changed. His role was to provide all the fishing experience he had accumulated over 30 years to make the system really useful for captains on the high seas.

“This is new for me. I never imagined being here in front of the computer, managing a computer program like this and I thank God for that, “she says with her eyes shining.

“It’s not easy to learn when you’re old. I am making a great effort to give my best. Even the captains who come to ask me for information are surprised that I am in this, “he says.

It took some training sessions with Spanish and French experts and quickly took off. From there everything is trial and error, and a huge desire to discover the potential that technology has available to fishermen.

“Once a” normal life “has been recovered, as it says, with a fixed schedule and lunch, your work hours are spent in front of a monitor with the sole purpose of getting the most out of this experience.

A few months after being involved in the initiative, Rafael already manages the system with great agility. He changed the rudder without problems by a mouse and from his right hand he controls precisely what appears on the screen. Now he offers talks and does a motivation work so that his former colleagues want to join the project and make it grow for the good of all.

The Oceanographic Information System for Fisheries (CATSAT) is a pilot project that is fed with the information that the captains provide of their fishing days and based on climatological, temperature and other similar data allows to identify better fishing areas for the capture of tuna, dorado and swordfish.

“Before leaving port, the captains pass by my office and we check together the best fishing conditions. We have seen good results because in this way fishing becomes more effective, the costs of alist of the boats are reduced and it even benefits the families of fishermen, because they will be able to get to the Port more frequently “, he tells us.

Rafael Acuña

Official start of the “Global Sustainable Supply Chain Marine Commodities” Project

The presentation was headed by the Minister of Aquaculture and Fisheries and the Deputy Representative of UNDP. Photo: Ministry of Aquaculture and Fisheries

Aiming to protect and preserve the sustainable productivity of the fishery sector, The Ministry of Aquaculture and Fisheries of Ecuador with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), held the global inception workshop of “Global Sustainable Supply Chain Marine Commodities” project. This inter-regional and multi-state project had the participation of Indonesia, Costa Rica, the Philippines and Ecuador.

The workshop, which finished on November 10th, had participation of fisheries authorities of the four governments members of the project.

This worldwide pioneering initiative, allows participant countries to take actions that guarantee sustainable fisheries by creating stakeholde´s dialogue spaces (at the national level) with the end goal to  improve the selected fisheries (in the case of Ecuador: industrial tuna purse seine, artisanal and industrial Mahi-Mahi, and Hake) by fostering market access for certified MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) fisheries or fisheries intervened by FIPs (Fisheries Improvement Projects) in international markets (Japan, United States and Europe).

The Ecuadorian Ministry of Aquaculture and Fisheries, Katuska Drouet, indicated that “it is of priority to encourage good governance by assimilating and implementing international tools and policies, in order to achieve a productive, inclusive and sustainable production along the region”.

UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Ecuador, Nuno Queiros, advised to workshop participants about anthropogenic pressure in marine and fishery resources, and the inappropriate practices as illegal, non-declared and non-regulated fishing that is generating overfishing and pollution. In his final remark, Nuno mentioned that “This overfishing situation is leading us to think about the increasing demand of seafood products”.

José Vicente Troya, Regional Technical Advisor for Water and Oceans at the UNDP Regional Center in Panama, reported that 90% of the world´s fisheries are either fully fished or overexploited, which is why it is important to promote markets that support responsible consumption, respect the environment, and use fishing gear that is not destructive.

 “It is important to identify common interests, in order to construct goals and endeavors that allow sustainable efforts”, emphasized Jose Troya.

Better practices generated among participant countries, will be shared and replicated by its members and disseminated to other stakeholders to improve the state of worldwide fisheries.