The Honiara Summit, scheduled from February 24 to February 27, 2025, focused on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, specifically targeting the conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas, and marine resources.
This summit is a collaborative effort between the Government of the Solomon Islands and the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), in partnership with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, Ambassador Peter Thompson.
The WFFP participation was funded by The Sasakawa Peace Foundation.
WFFP comments on a side event panel were:
In the context of the blue or ocean economy, fisher organisations are politically marginalised. The powerful actors (different business sectors and conservation groups) sets the agenda and decides. Where are fisher organisations in this?
The autonomy, experience and knowledge of fisher organisations (also SIDS) is largely ignored. While there is a lot of rhetoric around traditional/Indigenous knowledge, this remains marginalised. How will government departments ensure a bottom up approach in the engagement with fishing communities and organisations?, as opposed to the top down approach that is dominating?
In conclusion, to make fisheries and fishing communities contribute to social and local economic development AND to protect nature and fish stocks, it is necessary to ensure the building of partnerships starts with fisher organisations (and not with foreign agencies or top-down government approaches).