Tag Archives: WorldNews

Costa Rica: First Country to Protect Sustainable Fisheries of Large Pelagics Species

Credit: UNDP

By Kifah Sasa
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, Dec 13 2018 (IPS)

Twelve years ago, in a restaurant in Puntarenas on the pacific coast of Costa Rica, a group of long line fishermen met with three UNDP conservation specialists.

The conservationists wanted to understand how best to avoid illegal fishing inside Cocos Island Marine Protected Area, located off the shore of Costa Rica and now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

As part of their stakeholder engagement strategy, they decided to meet longline fishermen for dinner. It didn’t turn out quite as they had hoped – not many hands were shaken after dessert.

There was one table but two very different perspectives. The UNDP personnel were working on a project which saw illegal fishing on Cocos Island as a conservation issue.

On the other hand, the group of local entrepreneurs from Puntarenas were challenged by depleted resources and closed markets. Though some of them were indeed responsible for illegal fishing, none were big businessmen with major ambitions, but rather owners of a couple of long line vessels trying to make a living — with little access to credit and paying the highest social security costs in the region for every member of their expeditions.

The prospect of UNDP supporting the government to further restrictions on their livelihoods, was not taken lightly. A lot of mistrust turned the food, and the mood, sour.

According to data estimated by the Costa Rican Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INCOPESCA), the country’s fishing sector is made up of around 400 boats with each boat carrying between five and eight people, forming a working population of around 2,000 to 3,200 directly linked to the sector.

Together with the families that depend on this activity, the affected population reaches between 10 to 16 million people and this is without including those indirectly linked through the thousands of other indirect jobs which ensure fishing activity such as transportation, fishing supplies, food, mechanics, and others.

Credit: UNDP

Fast forward to the present day and twelve years later, the perspectives of both the conservationists and the fishermen have changed. Last November, not far from that restaurant in Puntarenas, Costa Rica was the first country in the world to launch a National Action Plan for sustainable fisheries of large pelagic species, using UNDP’s methodology.

Through the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), the Costa Rican Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INCOPESCA) and the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the country officially presented a plan with three main areas of work: improving the fisheries of large pelagic species in Costa Rica such as tuna, swordfish and mahi mahi; increasing the supply of seafood from sustainable sources and ensuring the social welfare of the people linked to the fishing activity.

During the presentation of the plan, one of those same sector leaders from the restaurant took the opportunity to approach the same UNDP staff member he met all those years ago and said to him, “I wanted to thank UNDP for the trust it has given us and for helping us build a formal plan with institutions”.

A clear victory for UNDP’s firm confidence and strong commitment to multi-stakeholder dialogue as the key element to achieve systemic change for sustainable commodity production.

The National Action Plan for Large Pelagic Fisheries will run for ten years and will directly contribute to the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Costa Rica.

Credit: UNDP

A model case study of successful convening and collaboration between different stakeholders, it is the result of a process of dialogue lasting twelve months and involving more than one hundred representatives of government, academia, civil society, international cooperation, fishermen, exporters, restaurants and supermarkets.

A group of people who were not likely to be happy in same room a few years ago but are now committed to working together towards a more sustainable, inclusive and promising future for Costa Rican fisheries.

Through 2019, we celebrate ten years of UNDP supporting multi-stakeholder approaches to the sustainability challenges of highly-traded commodities around the world.

Through the Green Commodities Programme, UNDP’s approach has been to build trust among stakeholders by facilitating neutral spaces where they can collaborate on a shared vision and agenda for action, coming to a collective agreement on the root of the sustainability problems of key commodities and on how they will work together to resolve them.

Through its multi-stakeholder National Commodity Platforms, the programme is currently working on palm oil, cocoa, coffee, beef, soy, pineapple and fisheries in Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Liberia, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

The post Costa Rica: First Country to Protect Sustainable Fisheries of Large Pelagics Species appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Kifah Sasa is Sustainable Development Officer at UNDP Costa Rica

The post Costa Rica: First Country to Protect Sustainable Fisheries of Large Pelagics Species appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Vegan diets are adding to malnutrition in wealthy countries

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Hidden hunger affects over two billion people, globally. The cause is a chronic lack of essential micronutrients in the diet, such as vitamins and minerals. The effects of these nutritional deficiencies may not be seen immediately, but the consequences can be severe. They include lower resistance to disease, mental impairment and even death.

Cybill Shepherd says Les Moonves thwarted her hit ’90s sitcom after she rejected his advances

Actress Cybill Shepherd said that her 1990s hit TV comedy “Cybill” was thwarted after she rejected inappropriate advances by CBS Chairman Les Moonves back then.

She’s now one of the highest-profile stars to denounce the disgraced mogul, who has been accused by multiple women of decades of sexual…

Senate votes to end US military support for Saudis in Yemen

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  • Resolution to curb military aid passes by 56 votes to 41
  • Measure reflects lack of confidence in Trump over Yemen

The Senate has passed a resolution calling for an end to US military support to the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemen war, and asserting Congress’s right to decide on matters of war and peace.

The measure, which passed by 56 votes to 41, marked the first time the Senate had invoked the 1973 War Powers Resolution to seek to curb the power of the president to take the US into an armed conflict. It marked a significant bipartisan rebuke to the Trump administration, which lobbied intensively against it.

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Legal Marijuana Or Not, Green Card Holders Caught With Pot Can Still Get Deported

Legal Marijuana Or Not, Green Card Holders Caught With Pot Can Still Get Deported

While state legislators throughout the country move to legalize marijuana and expunge marijuana convictions, the case of one New Jersey father now on a path to deportation points to a wrinkle in any state law involving legal weed: Old marijuana convictions will continue to get immigrants deported. [ more › ]

The French far right is hijacking the Strasbourg shooting to sow division | Cécile Guerin

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France needs unity more than ever – but those who seek to divide us are again harnessing a tragedy to propagate fake news

Terrorism struck France again on Tuesday evening, when a 29-year-old attacker, since identified as Chérif Chekatt, killed three people and injured a dozen at a busy Christmas market in Strasbourg. With ongoing social unrest and polarisation laid bare by the gilets jaunes movement, France is now facing a new potential source of division. The attack has already proved a boon to far-right groups and conspiracy theorists who have seized on the event to disseminate their ideas and sow division.

Related: Strasbourg attack: ‘It lasted for minutes, but felt like hours’

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ICE Tricks Sheriffs into Kidnapping U.S. Citizens, Bogus Immunity Claims

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Source of image 

Last week a U.S. citizen born in Philadelphia filed a lawsuit after a Florida sheriff took him into custody under immigration laws.  (No law enforcement entity in the country has jurisdication over U.S. citizens under immigration laws, a point that ICE itself has repeatedly avowed.)

The sheriff is claiming that the agreement he has with Immigration and Customs Enforcement