Title
Quantifying and valuing the critical role women play in Fiji’s inshore fisheries sector
Author(s)
Thomas, Alyssa S.; Mangubhai, Sangeeta; Fox, Margaret; Meo, Iva; Miller, Katy; Veitayaki, Joeli
Published
2018
Publisher
SPC Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin
Abstract
Coastal fisheries contribute to household nutritional security and local livelihoods, particularly in developing countries. In the Pacific, fisheries contribute substantially to food and income, with women providing a disproportionate contribution to household and village protein requirements – around 80% (Chapman 1987; Kronen and Vunisea 2009). This is explained by two factors: (1) fisheries catches by women normally go to feeding their family, whereas catches by men go mostly to markets; and (2) contributions from women’s fishing activities are usually more regular and frequent than the irregular contributions from men. In terms of non-subsistence fishing, women contribute 25–50% of the small-scale fisheries catch globally (Harper et al. 2013; Kleiber et al. 2014). However, their contributions, to household food and income, are often overlooked, underestimated, and/ or undervalued (Chapman 1987; FAO 2017; Harper et al. 2017). This is largely because the majority of the seafood women catch is for food for their families, and therefore harder to track and quantify, especially where communities are widely dispersed and far from the market.

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PUB26975