The CFI Talks were designed as a global forum in early 2022 to: i) share and discuss experiences, good practices and lessons learned; and ii) engage other projects/initiatives and fisheries stakeholders to capture new information, share knowledge and identify possible synergies and cross-collaboration opportunities. Its target audience includes technical partners and stakeholders, the public and the media in CFI countries, regionally and globally as well as decision-makers in fisheries ministries, regional and international bodies, national governments and local administrations. The CFI Talks also seek to reach out to civil society, in particular women’s groups, youth, fisherfolk and environmental organizations, educators, financial partners and the private sector. 

The CFI Talks serve as a cross-cutting analytical platform examining how different approaches work in different situations and how impact is generated on the ground through the CFI Child Projects. This impact is brought to the international arena to be examined, shared, understood, and replicated, as appropriate. Panels of experts have in-depth discussions on what different approaches and concepts in coastal fisheries mean and can do to promote a more holistic process for integrated perspectives on sustainable management of fisheries. During the Talks, the CFI Child Projects and their partners learn from each other’s unique experiences as well as draw lessons from common elements so that each project can benefit from and contribute to the others. 

Five CFI Talks have been held since June 2022, gathering a total of around 350 participants. Each was led by a different CFI Child Project and gathered an average of 70 participants. The topics were:

More CFI Talks have been planned over the course of 2024. 

CFI Talks 1: 10 June 2022 / Sustainable mangrove management

The first CFI Talk highlighted the importance of mangrove ecosystems as carbon sinks, which has been widely recognized. But these ecosystems are still being degraded worldwide due to direct and indirect impacts. The protection of mangroves is made more complicated by the fact that they cut across sectors, jurisdictions, and governance regimes. As a result, very few countries have specific laws on mangroves. Rather, they are governed by a mixture of laws relating to forestry, fisheries, coastal areas, land use and freshwater resources.

The legal and institutional frameworks around mangroves are often subject to pluralistic legal and administrative systems with overlaps between local, regional and national government, between traditional or customary and formal systems, and between different sectors. While international conventions and agreements exist to encourage the conservation and sustainable use of mangrove forests, ultimately their application depends on the extent to which the rule of law is respected and on the political will of governments to ensure that these conventions are applied. For example:

• in Peru, the successful co-management of the Tumbes National Mangrove Sanctuary, which extends over 2 972 hectares, is rooted in a political commitment to link nature conservation with the needs of local communities. Thus, the Sanctuary is under co-management by the state, local government, and the Northeast Peru Mangrove Consortium, which is made up of six local associations of crab and shellfish harvesters and fishers. The Consortium is responsible for maintaining forest cover and environmental monitoring and surveillance, among other duties. It also runs an eco-tourism business, a fish processing plant, and a sustainable seafood restaurant; it educates and raises awareness among local communities, and participates in efforts to repopulate black ark clams, a key species for local livelihoods, in conjunction with Incabiotec, a biotechnology lab for sustainable development. This has required significant capacity building, carried out with the technical support of CFI Latin America, to ensure that all stakeholders are able to contribute to the decision-making and management process; 
• in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, the key ecosystem services provided by mangrove forests including: their provisioning role (providing food, fibres, wood and medicinal plants); their regulatory function (acting as carbon sinks, water filters and storm buffers, preventing coastal erosion and maintaining soil fertility); their cultural services (leisure and mental well-being, ecotourism, their cultural role and their contribution to science and education); and, critically, their role in the protection of biodiversity in coastal areas, providing nursery grounds for fish and shellfish and contributing to nutrients in estuarine and coastal areas. 
• Several studies conducted by CFI West Africa in both countries have shown that human activities such as logging and natural processes such as decreasing rainfall, have led to a continuing decline in mangrove cover. However in Senegal's Saloum Delta Biosphere Reserve, mangrove cover has increased by 2.72 percent over the last 20 years. This is attributable largely to effective management within the Biosphere Reserve. To sustain this effort, under UNEP/Abidjan Convention supervision, a total of 700 hectares of mangrove forest have been restored, protected, and/or regenerated in Sassandra (Côte d’Ivoire) and in Djirnda (Saloum Islands, Senegal). These activities were carried out in collaboration with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and communities. Studies of mangrove ecosystem functions, goods, and services in addition to the evolution of mangrove ecosystems were carried out and validated by National Technical Committees in both countries.

CFI Talks 1 also highlighted the support of UNEP/Abidjan Convention to national and regional efforts in West Africa to address plastic pollution. Among the challenges faced regionally are the need to develop alternative economic activities among people who depend on mangrove forests for their livelihoods, the proper implementation of regulations, establishing both short, medium, and long-term mechanisms for monitoring rehabilitated mangrove sites, and engagement in international forums and initiatives to support mangrove conservation. It is crucial to get the next generation (schools and youth) involved as they are the ones who will suffer the future effects of mangrove degradation and have the flexibility to change their attitudes to the natural environment and to play an important role in influencing the behavior of adults, establishing new paradigms of conservation for the future. 

CFI Talks 2: 18 July 2022 / Marine Spatial Planning (MSP)

The second session on Marine Special Planning (MSP) stressed the critical role it plays in planning activities for coastal areas and fisheries in several of the countries where CFI is being implemented. Management efforts sometimes deliver suboptimal results because activities in other sectors (inland and coastal water management, agriculture, industrial development, power and energy, oil exploration and mining, urban development, waste management and pollution, marine transport, land reclamation, etc.) impinge on fisheries, undermining even the most carefully planned and implemented management activities. MSP was therefore developed and adopted by organizations such as UNEP and UNESCO as a tool to allow better harmonization between planning efforts in different sectors and different ecosystems. 

MSP has proved valuable in identifying options for coastal and marine management and development that accommodate the priorities of different sectors. For example: 

• in Indonesia, where the extensive areas of national waters are subject to a wide range of threats while also supporting the highest levels of marine biodiversity on the planet and the second largest fisheries worldwide, MSP has proved to be essential. The proliferation of multi-sectoral conflicts and inappropriate use of marine resources have led to the prioritization of its use as part of marine policy in the country.

The key elements included in the plans produced through MSP are: a statement of objectives, policies and strategies; a spatial structure plan and spatial pattern plan; a spatial utilization plan; and a spatial utilization control system. Stakeholders are involved in the preparation of these plans at various levels. Focus group discussions, public surveys, thematic data validation and public consultations are all key steps in the MSP process, and stakeholder agreement on strategic issues, objectives, policies and strategies, zoning arrangements and plans for use, is critical. Particular attention is paid to how ecosystem services that impact fisheries are affected by current or planned uses of different areas so that the impacts of coastal and marine activities on fisheries and their management can be fully incorporated into planning procedures. MSP has allowed planners in Indonesia to take far fuller account of the interactions between activities in different sectors and so improve their harmonization in coastal and marine areas; 

• in Peru, an Integrated Management Plan for the Coastal Marine Zone of Sechura Bay was developed and is being implemented. This plan was approved by the local municipality in early 2021 and was the fruit of an extended process of systematic engagement, analysis and discussion among stakeholders and local community members. A key element in this process was the gathering of data and information to identify Coastal Marine Ecological Units that would form the basis of management activities. In Sechura, this resulted in the identification of 16 Marine Ecological Units and 27 Coastal Ecological Units. An evaluation of the ways in which different Ecological Units were being used was also carried out to highlight compatibilities and conflicts between different activities. All of this was fed into the detailed marine coastal area plan that established zones for different activities, including productive activities and conservation;
• in Senegal, the coastline is characterized by a diversity of habitats, ecosystem services and use patterns, all of which play key roles in the economy and food security. The need to harmonize planning for this diversity of zones in the coastal area has encouraged the Government to adopt a range of tools for their planning processes. This has included Marine Spatial Planning, which helps to address the intensification and diversification of interactions between marine and terrestrial uses of the coast. MSP has been promoted since 2017 in Senegal following a series of capacity building activities that introduced staff at the Ministry of the Environment to the approach. This has led to the development of a road map to initiate the MSP process in the country and the establishment of a working group to promote MSP.

The second CFI Talk stressed that the realities of implementing MSP in a dynamic and complex environment must be taken into account. The process must engage with a wide range of stakeholders and institutions. The fact that coastal areas often represent an area of poorly defined or overlapping administrative and institutional responsibilities clearly adds to these difficulties. MSP therefore requires a significant, long-term engagement with resources and time dedicated to the involvement of both communities and user groups at the ground level as well as local, regional and national institutions. The lack of an institutional and regulatory framework for MSP in some countries has been identified as an obstacle. Getting institutions to collaborate and work together is often extremely challenging and can go against deeply ingrained institutional cultures.

CFI Talks 3: 28 September 2022 / The Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF)

The third CFI Talk underlined the different dimensions of the EAF and the need to engage with all of them when developing and implementing EAF-based management plans. The EAF has been at the centre of efforts to improve fisheries management worldwide for several decades. The CFI executing agencies are all champions of the EAF, playing a leading role in promoting and building capacity worldwide for its implementation in CFI geographies. For instance:

• CFI Indonesia has developed a compendium of policy, legal and regulatory instruments that helped set the scene for EAF implementation in the country. Achievements include the establishment of a firm legal basis for the approach, the development of 11 Fisheries Management Areas (FMAs), and the establishment of Fisheries Management Councils (FMCs) and EAFM Learning Centers to support fisheries management throughout the country. Some challenges include the need for appropriate data on fish stocks given the high diversity of species in the country’s seas, finding ways to minimize conflicts between different user groups, and establishing mechanisms for regular communication and coordination between stakeholders;
• in Ecuador and Peru, the interactions between different levels of activities in support of EAF implementation and the importance of EAF approaches are being properly contextualized within the legal, regulatory and policy frameworks and within ongoing development processes. The mainstreaming of participatory and collaborative approaches to decision-making on natural resource management has helped create an appropriate environment for effective EAF implementation that engages with communities on resource use;
• in some African countries, such as Senegal, the FAO EAF-Nansen Programme developed a set of tools to support EAF implementation: a guide on legislating for EAF, a diagnostic tool looking at the policy and legal frameworks for EAF, and the EAF Implementation Monitoring Tool (IMT). EAF-Nansen has applied these tools on two fisheries in West Africa: the beach seine fishery in four countries on the Gulf of Guinea and the sardinella fishery in Senegal. In the case of the beach seine fishery, the IMT helped determine the progress made in developing management plans and has contributed to a regularly updated EAF management plan. In the case of the sardinella fishery, EAF-Nansen helped build capacity on data collection on biological, social, economic, and environmental aspects. This capacity building process was supported by scientific studies and data collection exercises and contributed to the development of a national sardinella management plan in Senegal.

The speakers pointed to the need to consider different time frames in fisheries management, from the strategic long-term level to short-term localized interventions. The interplay between these nested management cycles is important when considering the investments required. Policymakers need to be convinced that investing in the proper management of small-scale coastal fisheries will generate concrete benefits. Marshalling the evidence to support this position can be challenging, but ensuring sustainable investment is key if the EAF is to realize the full potential of these fisheries to contribute to food security, livelihoods and economic development while also preserving coastal biodiversity and ecosystems.

The EAF requires engagement at multiple levels, including capacity building and participatory processes with local stakeholders. However, this needs to be supported by the collection and analysis of appropriate data, and by a national-level fisheries management committee that can make decisions based on scientific evidence.

CFI Talks 4: 21 November 2022 / Catalytic role of the private sector in sustainable fisheries

The fourth CFI Talk highlighted that coastal fisheries are affected by extremely complex interactions between actors driven by a multitude of interests and incentives, as well as the often invisible biological processes that determine their productivity. These complex interactions require multi-faceted approaches, which can best be delivered by engaging a wide range of stakeholder groups or coalitions. This vision was most explicitly carried out in a Global Knowledge Competition (GKP) that the CFI Challenge Fund (CFI-CF) launched in January 2022, and which concluded in September 2022. The four winners came up with original approaches to reduce overfishing, improve sustainable fishing practices, and increase the incomes of fishers and others along the value chain. They are listed as follows:

Spanning four countries and gathering 30 competitors, the GKC aimed to mobilize the collective power of stakeholders to design and implement innovative mechanisms and methods that promote the sustainable use and management of coastal fish stocks. Through this initiative, CFI-CF created a situation where the competitors had to come up with ways to work towards their goal together. The four solutions are summarized as follows:

• PescaLocal (Local Catch), Cabo Verde’s winner, created a basket of seafood sourced from artisanal fishers and female fish buyers in Santiago Island for sale at a premium to a network of sustainability-conscious restaurants and hotels. It aimed to reduce pressure on overfished species in high demand locally by increasing consumer demand and sales of traditionally unpopular species to local restaurants and hotels. PescaLocal will create a more diverse and sustainable supply of fish species, with all fishers involved needing to comply with sustainable fishing rules and regulations (e.g., minimum catch size, closed seasons).
• Ecuador’s winning solution, led by the Small Pelagic Sustainability Coalition, brings small- and large-scale fishers and fishmeal companies to the same table. Together, they established a common responsible sourcing policy with standards where vessels supplying small pelagic product to the fishmeal industry in Ecuador must progressively comply with verifiable improvements in fishing practices, legal compliance, and transparency. The coalition includes 22 industry organizations that represent more than 80 percent of fishmeal production in Ecuador, including major marine ingredient producers and traders, aquaculture feed companies, and the National Chamber of Fisheries.
• Fishery Area Access Network, Indonesia’s winner, facilitates and empowers local community groups and governments to identify and map fishery resources and set up a collective management area starting in Muna District in Southeast Sulawesi and then replicating the process in other districts in the province. In the management area, community members work collaboratively with district and provincial governments to establish no-take zones to allow restoration of fish habitats, protect spawning grounds and manage and enforce exclusive access rights for local fishers. The coalition also works to formalize small and medium seafood enterprises, improve access to finance, build capacity to reduce post-catch losses and improve fish quality to increase incomes in the target communities.
• Direct Sales from Artisanal Fishers to Consumers in Lima, Peru’s winner, is a coalition led by a social enterprise that connects artisanal fishers and cooperatives to sell responsible seafood products directly to customers in restaurants, supermarkets, and online. By reducing the layers in the supply chain, artisanal fishers receive a higher price for their catch and a potential increase in income by 20-30 percent. The coalition seeks to increase market transparency through traceability systems, and to encourage sustainable fishing practices by training artisanal fishers in responsible techniques, including the use of selective gear, respecting closed seasons, and complying with minimum catch sizes. Consumer awareness campaigns aim to increase demand for responsible fish products and provide financial incentives for artisanal fishers to adopt legal and sustainable fishing practices.

Among its significant outcomes, the GKC revealed the value of coalitions in leveraging the strengths of different organizations to build a common voice and mission to promote sustainable fisheries and resilient communities. It helped to discover new opportunities to engage and strengthen coalitions to support sustainable coastal and marine management and highlighted key facilitating conditions to support more effective partnerships, including developing a common roadmap, coordinating with national and local governments, and identifying and mitigating the risks for investors to bring sustainable financing.

CFI Talks 5: 31 May 2023 / Empowering women in fisheries value chains

The fifth CFI Talk showcased the key role that women play in artisanal small-scale fisheries, sometimes as fishers and fishing vessel owners, but most often as shellfish harvesters, fishmongers and seafood processors. While  women plays crucial roles in fisheries value chains around the world, their contributions are often unrecognized and undervaluedand they are excluded from decision-making venues. The CFI therefore placed a special emphasis on empowering women in small-scale fisheries and building their capacity in order to improve their working conditions and livelihoods, strengthen their organizations, and take leadership roles.

In Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal, women seafood harvesters, vendors, and processors face many challenges, including a lack of modern working means and tools, insufficient access to credit and profitable markets, informal working conditions, lack of social protection and underpaid and dangerous work, among others,

• In Cabo Verde, fisheries are the most important economic sector, contributing 80 percent of national exports. The latest census indicates that it employs more than 70 000 people, with women making up 86 percent of fishmongers. Fish remains extremely important to food security and nutrition, with yearly consumption of an estimated 11.2 kilos per capita. Cabo Verde has understood the importance of gender equality as a crucial condition for the country's development and economic growth. With the support of CFI, and under the leadership of the Ministry of Sea, Cabo Verde has developed its first National Gender Strategy for Fisheries to ensure women’s effective and active participation in decision-making and to facilitate their access to and control of resources and benefits; 
• In Côte d’Ivoire there are five women’s cooperatives and five women’s associations with a total of 800 members who practice fish smoking at two CFI pilot sites. These cooperatives use a simplified organizational form. Among the challenges they faced are lack of knowledge of how to run a cooperative, lack of female leadership, poor knowledge of financial management, difficulties in accessing business loans, and a lack of proper equipment to preserve seafood products. To strengthen their capacities, CFI West Africa carried out training workshops on gender equality, fish smoking technology with FTT ovens, basic accounting, financial literacy and access to markets and credit. Following the workshops, the women’s cooperatives were able to join the National Union of Cooperative Societies in Côte d'Ivoire and the National Federation of Cooperative Societies, which includes 22 organizations of women in fisheries;
• In Senegal, 150 Economic Interest Groups (GIEs, in their French acronym) bring together 2 000 women in the Saloum Islands, a CFI West Africa pilot site. These GIEs operate at the level of the nine Local Artisanal Fishing Councils (CLPAs, in their French acronym), which have been set up by the Government as its counterparts in fisheries and resource management. The current trend is to form large organizations, such as unions and federations, to increase the possibilities of obtaining funding and forging partnerships. This flexible form of organization allows Senegalese women to participate in the economic development of seafood value chains and in environmental management. Thanks to this organizational dynamic, women also occupy an important place in the field of resource management and environmental preservation. For example, they took an active part in the reforestation of 300 hectares of mangroves which was initiated by CFI West Africa. This dynamic also allows them to set up community self-financing mechanisms such as solidarity funds.

In Latin America, existing stereotypes tend to exclude women from productive activities involving tools based on science and technology. CFI Latin America worked closely with two biotechnology companies for sustainable development: Concepto Azul in Ecuador and Incabiotec in Peru to transfer technology and build the capacity of small-scale fisherfolk, with a focus on women. In Ecuador, they were trained to run and manage sustainable shrimp farms with reduced environmental impact in a process that also generates compost and alternative foods, reducing the exploitation of marine species and empowering women to play a more active role in economic activities that involve technological innovation. Introducing fishing communities with little or no access to formal education to biotechnology can have a significant impact on their lives, thanks to a six-month training cycle that enables them to manage their resources in a sustainably and environmentally friendly way and which contributes to restore and preserve their ecosystems. This has contributed to strengthening women’s economic independence and their position in the community. 

In Eastern Indonesia, fisheries value chains and the business system have traditionally not involved women. Livelihoods in the coastal areas of central-eastern Indonesia in general are related to small-scale capture fisheries. Small-scale fishers and fish workers face challenges in running their businesses due to low skill sets and a lack of tools, which means almost no added value is created. These lacks are the biggest barriers for women. CFI Indonesia has assisted them by providing cooking and processing equipment as well as training sessions so they can learn about certification standards, how to brand their products and how to get their products to market. During the trainings, the project also set up a small competition between women’s groups to increase their motivation. Thanks to CFI support in generating sustainable livelihoods for women, they are no longer underestimated by men, because they have jobs and an important role in their communities as seafood processors.

To strengthen fisheries value chains and make them more sustainable, it is essential that women have a voice in decision-making processes, control over resources and access to benefits. This begins with recognition and enhancement of their skills, but also with sustained strengthening of their capacities. 

The CFI Talks gather CFI and partner experts within and outside CFI geographies to share experience and lessons learned on approaches and themes for sustainable coastal fisheries. The Talks last two hours (one hour for panel presentations and one hour for discussion), using the Zoom video-conferencing platform. The following methodological approach was used to organize, coordinate and plan the Talks:

• a concept note was developed which defined the context, the objectives, the methodology, the audiences, the coordination aspects, the key thematic areas, the chronogram and the agenda. The concept note was developed in close consultation with the CFI Child Projects and validated by them;
• the CFI Child projects discussed and agreed on specific topics and identified and provided international experts; 
• on a rotating basis, each Child Project co-led a session involving the three CFI geographies;
• a facilitator supported the discussion, helped capture experiences, and drew specific lessons from them,;
• interpretation was made available in English, French, Indonesian, Portuguese, and Spanish, to overcome language barriers;
• documents on the selected topics were shared with participants prior to the webinar; 
• the video recording, the presentations and a report were shared with participants after each webinar. 

The CFI Talks were designed and implemented in such a way that any initiatives whether local, regional, or global can replicate the format to foster cross-cutting exchange on sustainable development.

CFI Talks 1: 10 June 2022

https://www.fao.org/webcast/home/en/item/5831/icode/

CFI Talks 2: 18 July 2022

https://www.fao.org/webcast/home/en/item/5832/icode/

CFI Talks 3: 28 September 2022

https://www.fao.org/webcast/home/en/item/5956/icode/

CFI Talks 4: 21 November 2022

https://www.fao.org/webcast/home/en/item/6088/icode/

CFI Talks 5: 31 May 2023

https://www.fao.org/in-action/coastal-fisheries-initiative/events/detail/en/c/1638562/

The GEF mandate emphasizes the protection of Global Environment Benefits and the promotion of environmentally sustainable development. Under this framework, the CFI aims to contribute to the global objective of achieving coastal fisheries that deliver sustainable environmental, social and economic benefits by demonstrating holistic, ecosystem-based management and improved governance. 

The CFI was developed based on the recognition of the importance of coastal fisheries, the richness of initiatives and experiences in this domain and the lack of a globally agreed approach to make them environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable. Because many actors work independently from one another and because there is limited capacity in many countries to analyze, coordinate and effectively steer various initiatives towards a similar outcome, there is a great need to identify, refine and disseminate agreed good practices. 

As a GEF-funded programme, the CFI has played an important role in catalyzing greater collaboration and fostering knowledge sharing in coastal fisheries at all levels.