World Forum of Fishers People (WFFP)

Word Forum of Fisher Peoples - WFFP

World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP)

Forum Mondial des Populations de Pêcheurs

Foro Mundial Comunidades Pesqueras

Founded 21st November 1997 at New Delhi, India.

Aims: Protect, defend and strengthen the communities that depend on the fishery for their livelihood. Represent the small scale, artisanal fishers interest at the international level and play the role of global political organ of the same communities.OBJECTIVES The objectives of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) are

1. To protect, defend and strengthen the communities that depend on the fishery for their livelihood.
2. To assist member organizations to secure and improve upon the economic viability and quality of life of Fisher Peoples and their communities.
3. To recognize, support and enhance the role of women in the social, economic, political and cultural life of the fishing community.
4. To create an understanding of the resource as a common heritage of humanity and, through sustainable fishing practices, conservation, and regeneration of the marine and inland resources and ecosystems, to ensure that it is passed onto future generations.
5. To protect fishing communities, fish resources and fish habitats, such as coastal zones, watersheds and mangroves, from land-based, sea-based and air-based threats. These include displacement by tourism, pollution (including the use of the sea as a dumping ground for toxic waste), destructive industrial aquaculture, overfishing and destructive fishing practices.
6. To establish and assert the rights of fishing communities to their customary territories in the coastal zone under their national jurisdiction for fishing and habitation.
7. To promote a legal regime that will ensure the traditional and customary rights of fishing communities to the fishery under their national jurisdiction.
8. To promote the primary role of fisher-peoples’ organizations in managing fisheries and oceans, nationally and internationally.
9. To protect food security, both locally and worldwide, by sustaining fish stocks for the future, and by preserving fish for human consumption.
10. To promote equitable representation of fisher-peoples’ organizations in all relevant regional and international fora and advocate their recognition.
11. To play an active role to ensure that states and transnational corporations comply with relevant international agreements and to oppose any trade agreements that threaten the livelihood of fishers.
12. To prevent the export of resource collapse crises and of technologies and practices that lead to these crises.
13. To provide support for national and international struggles that are consistent with the objectives of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP).
14. To encourage, assist and support Fisher Peoples to organize themselves where they have not already done so.
15. To promote the right of Fisher Peoples to social security, safe working conditions, fair income and safety at sea, as well as their recognition as seafarers.
16. To improve the communication between Fisher Peoples and the scientific community through the exchange of knowledge and science.
17. To acknowledge and enhance the unique culture of fishing communities.
18. To restore our access to the rights and powers originally granted to us in the charter of the United Nations.