5th World Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF) Congress: Highlights on the discussions and contributions from FAO
Written by Julia Nakamura, Lena Westlund, Ana Suarez Dussan and Rishi Sharma, FAO
The World Small-Scale Fisheries Congresses (WSSF) set out a transdisciplinary forum to discuss and share knowledge, research, and views in support of small-scale fisheries around the world. The first congress was launched in Bangkok in 2010, by when the Too Big To Ignore (TBTI), a global partnership for small-scale fisheries research, was created. Since then, every four years, TBTI organizes the WSSF congresses. The second one took place in Merida (2014), the third in Chiang Mai (2018), and the fourth was fragmented and held in various locations through a series of five regional congresses in Shizuoka, Merida, Saint John’s, Malta, Cape Town (2022).
The 5th WSSF Congress was held in Hua Hin, from 27 April to 1 May (2026), themed on ‘small-scale fisheries for advancing just harmony, young futures and regenerative wisdom’. It gathered about 300 participants from over 50 countries, comprising a rich, multidisciplinary and diverse community of researchers, representatives from fishing communities, governments, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, and intergovernmental organizations, like FAO. The congress program included plenary sessions, 36 parallel sessions, a policy forum, a science café with 13 tables promoting each different initiatives, a field trip to Bang Saphan, TBTI Hubs presentations (Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Peru and Philippines), regional roundtable, synthesis and key messages.
The 5th WSSF Congress was well-timed, about five months ahead of the Small-Scale Fisheries Summit 2026, which will take place from 4 to 6 September, at the FAO Headquarters in Rome, immediately before the 37th session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI37). The 5th WSSF Congress thus contributes to building the momentum for recalling and introducing a number of key messages that support sustainable small-scale fisheries and the implementation of the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines).
FAO was well represented in the 5th WSSF Congress, through the organization of a special session on National Plans of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries (NPOAs-SSF), presentation of a paper on small-scale fisheries sustainability challenges and solutions, and participation in the science café with two tables: one in collaboration with St Mary’s University, Canada, on small-scale fisheries access and stewardship and one on the launch of the new 2nd edition of the Policy and Legal Diagnostic Toolbox for Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (Read here). This toolbox helps users understand how a national policy and legal framework address small-scale fisheries and provides the enabling framework for its sustainable development. In addition, a pre-congress workshop was held by the GoTFish and BOBLME projects on the implementation of the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) in the Gulf of Thailand and Bay of Bengal. Considering the wealth and wide range of diverse topics covered in the presentations and discussions during the Congress, all of which relevant to small-scale fisheries, we synthesize our reflections on some key points.
First, an insightful discussion on ‘regenerative wisdom’ underscored the importance of traditional and local knowledge, community live, and regenerative experiences, values, practices, which strengthen their resilience and capacity to adapt and evolve, particularly in the face of a constantly changing environment. In the plenary session on ‘young futures’, young participants shared their views on how they can – and should – contribute to the future of small-scale fisheries. More inter-generational collaboration is needed and young people can bring new perspectives and ideas, seeing possibilities also where there are challenges. On the ‘just harmony’ concept, the debate was around equity, gender transformative approaches through dialogue-based discussions, the importance of relationship-building between small-scale fishers and other fishers, institutions and stakeholders, tensions between blue economy and blue justice, the need for underlying principles which could include social innovation, legal processes to secure compliance and enforcement.
Countries’ case studies showcased the continued importance and contributions of small-scale fisheries for national economies, livelihoods, and environments. Specifically, for instance:
• in Japan, where most fishing communities (about 6 300 in total) are small-scale, fisheries policies have changed from production-oriented to a more integrated regional revitalization approach. “Umi-gyo” is a new policy framework that refers to a set of community-based economic activities centered on fishers, integrating fisheries with tourism, processing, and local resource utilization to meet diverse coastal needs. There remains need to ensure participation of women and youth, which is constrained by rigid rules.
• in Nigeria, small-scale fisheries governance is multi-level (federal, state and local), and research is being carried out in a coastal locality where there is no legislation in place, investigating how governance can be relational, actively produced through everyday interactions, negotiated and reconfigured.
• in the Philippines, projects are addressing community-based coastal law enforcement, based on local knowledge and mechanisms that facilitate the involvement of community members and fisherfolks in law enforcement, through detection and reporting.
• in Canada, it was noted the issue of consultation fatigue, particularly in cases where, despite the great efforts made in consulting Indigenous Peoples, their inputs remain not adequately integrated into decision-making processes. One case study on the Tla’amin People First Nation noted the importance of culture as the centre of fishing and the foundation of small-scale Indigenous fisheries, because it is a practice, protecting cultural survival, defines the purpose of the fishing, maintaining identity, ancestral responsibility, holds social-ecological traditional knowledge, self-determination shaping how biodiversity conservation decisions are made.
• in Madagascar, collaborative research is being carried out through social learning, capacity building, trust, and social interaction, to achieve inclusive decision-making and large-scale transformation. In a case study on crab fishery, where consultations were carried out with different stakeholders in process for determining fisheries management measures, limited input was reflected in the final decisions.
• in China, the definition of small-scale fisheries is vessel-based, and category covers a large share of coastal craft. After 2017, a large institutional reform in China resulted in more visibility to small-scale vessels in relation to licensing, zoning and vessel control rules. This was needed because of being the largest subsector in fisheries, and the priority given by China to social stability.
• in Ghana, the new Fisheries and Aquaculture Act adopted in 2025 expanded the inshore exclusive fisheries zone from six to 12 nautical miles to reduce industrial trawler encroachment and protect artisanal fisheries. This expansion was achieved, in part, through the collaboration between the fisheries Minister and small-scale fishing communities, demonstrating that small-scale fishing communities can be effective catalysers of policy reform when given the space to engage.
• in the Netherlands, the ongoing processes to operationalize the green transition (through e.g., creation of marine protected areas, offshore wind development) do not include, and rather challenge, small-scale fisheries. With space competition, small-scale fishers are pushed more offshore, creating more pressures to the environment while hindering livelihoods.
• in Bangladesh, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka, Member States of the Bay of Bengal Program Intergovernmental Organization (BOBP-IGO), the NPOAs-SSF are under development confirming an increased political recognition of the importance of small-scale fisheries.
• in Ecuador, research by the Charles Darwin Foundation documented the expansion of ilicit economies into coastal fishing territories. Homicidal rates rose dramatically between 2017 and 2023 largely due to criminal groups controlling fishing grounds, boats and navigation routes. This phenomenon, which was framed as ‘ocean grabbing’ by criminal actors represent a governance failure where the State failed to protect access rights and criminal organizations imposed their own parallel form of governance.
Urban fishing communities – the link between blue justice and housing justice
A powerful discussion focused on urban fishing communities and the connection between blue justice and housing justice. Small-scale fisheries representatives from Freetown (Sierra Leone), Lagos (Nigeria) and Salvador (Brazil) shared their experiences of environmental justice, forced eviction, and the link between small-scale fishers and urban contexts where they are often marginalized.
In Lagos where around 40 percent of the territory is water and fishing communities have been part of the city for centuries, thousands of people from waterfront fishing communities have been displaced through state demolitions. In Freetown fishing communities build their houses on landfill and waste areas in the absence of any housing alternative, often without access to sanitation, clean water or fishing processing infrastructure. In Salvador, a historic fishing community in the historic center faces real state speculation and spatial segregation resisting through cultural mobilization and political organizing.
The concluding message was that there can be no blue justice without housing justice, the land where fishers live, and where fish is cleaned, smoked and sold is as much part of the fishery as the water, however legal and policy frameworks stop at the waterline leaving small-scale fishing communities without protection against urban planning or forced evictions.
Across all sessions, a common thread emerged: the importance of alliances and cross-sectoral collaboration between researchers, policymakers, NGOs, conservation actors, and small-scale fishers themselves. Research matters, but so does the political will to act on it. Legal and policy frameworks matter, but only if they are grounded in the realities and rights of fishing communities. And the voices of those communities whether fisher representatives from urban Lagos, Indigenous leaders from Canada, or young fishers imagining different futures are the foundation of the the policy conversation.
Small-Scale Fisheries and Sustainability
The importance of evidence-based approaches for the assessment and management of small-scale fisheries was emphasized. Findings from the FAO’s Review of the State of Marine Fisheries 2025 indicate that, in regions where sufficient comparative data are available, both small-scale and commercial fisheries demonstrate similar sustainability outcomes, with approximately 60 percent assessed as biologically sustainable.
Ensuring the long-term sustainability of the small-scale fisheries sector therefore remains a critical priority. In this context, community-based management approaches and locally driven governance mechanisms are essential tools for empowering fishing communities and strengthening stewardship of marine resources.
FAO will propose innovative, context-specific solutions for the management of these micro-, small-, and medium-scale fisheries, with the objective of developing scalable approaches that can be adapted and expanded in the future.