Study: Small-scale fisheries essential to global food security, livelihoods

New research highlights small-scale fisheries’ critical role in global food security, nutrition and livelihoods, urging stronger policy support

Small-scale fisheries play a vital yet often overlooked role in global food production, helping to combat hunger, malnutrition and poverty worldwide, according to new research from an international team of scientists.

The study, published in Nature, is the first to rigorously quantify how marine and inland small-scale fisheries contribute to aquatic harvests and nutritional and socioeconomic security on a global scale.

“Our analysis shows that small-scale fisheries contribute almost half the catch across all fisheries,” said co-lead author Nicolas L. Gutierrez, senior fishery officer for the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). “They have a critical role to play in meeting the food security and nutritional needs of billions of people.”

Small-scale fisheries, typically found in lower- to middle-income countries, rely on low-tech, labor-intensive methods for food and income, distinguishing them from large-scale operations. Despite their importance, they have often been overlooked in resource management, food system studies and policy development. This marginalization stems from various factors, including the tendency to group small-scale fishers with agricultural workers in census data.

“Millions of people who fish marine and inland waters have essentially been flying under the radar of science and policy,” said lead author Xavier Basurto. “Ignoring their contributions and needs could be detrimental – not just to fisherfolk, but to the environment and society as a whole.”

In 2017, the FAO partnered with the Nicholas School and WorldFish to explore how small-scale fisheries align with the U.N.’s Agenda for Sustainable Development. Their collaboration, called the Illuminating Hidden Harvests Initiative (IHH), led to a 2023 report and culminated in the new study.

“Our driving question was simple: Who produces aquatic foods, how and for whom?” said Nicole Franz, co-author and leader of FAO’s Equitable Livelihoods Team. “Answering that question was more complicated, requiring a huge team of diverse experts in fields like fisheries science, nutrition, governance, gender and economics.”

Over 800 contributors gathered data from case studies, surveys and databases, revealing small-scale fisheries’ critical role in tackling hunger, poverty, climate impacts, gender equality and economic growth.

For example, small-scale fisheries provide 20 percent of key nutrients like vitamins, minerals and omega-3 fatty acids to 2.3 billion people living within 12 miles of a coastline or large inland water body – about 1 in 4 globally, who rely on these fisheries for essential nutrition.

Additionally, nearly 500 million people, or one in 12, depend on small-scale fishing for their livelihoods, with women making up nearly half of this often-overlooked group.

“Women participate in all aspects of fishing, from prep work, to catching fish, to processing activities such as cleaning fish,” said co-author John Virdin, director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Program at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability and a faculty member at the Nicholas School. “They’re essential to these production systems that put food on the table for millions.”

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The study found that small-scale fisheries account for at least 40 percent of global catch and 44 percent of the economic value generated by fisheries worldwide. African small-scale fisheries contribute the most to global catch and nutrition, while those in Oceania are crucial in sustaining regional livelihoods.

“Our findings from Oceania help show just how important small-scale fishing is in countries where opportunities to make a living are more limited,” said Gutierrez. “In these cases, additional efforts for achieving effective fisheries management and governance to ensure the sustainability of the sub-sector are needed.”

Despite their significant contributions, many small-scale fishers lack authority over their resources. The study found that two-thirds of the catch from small-scale fisheries in 51 surveyed countries comes from fishers with no formal resource management or decision-making rights. This leaves them vulnerable to external competition and policies that threaten the resources they depend on and their role in sustainable development.

“Often these fishers have been rooted in aquatic environments and communities for hundreds to thousands of years,” said Basurto, who is now on faculty at the Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University. “The lack of appropriate support from local or national authorities often undermines local efforts to avoid free-for-all scenarios that can easily lead to overfishing.”

The study paves the way for additional policy action by governments and policymakers to best support small-scale fisheries, and by extension, environmental and global health.

“This study has started to quantify the impact of small-scale fisheries across the world and how they relate to important policy agendas on climate change, natural-resource management, governance, conservation, gender equity, social inclusion, diets and nutrition,” said Edward H. Allison, co-author and WorldFish principal scientist. “By making those linkages explicit, I think our research has given policymakers a pathway to support small-scale fisheries.”

Read the full study.