Search

This paper addresses why food security implications of projected losses to inland capture fisheries due to hydropower development have been neglected in policy arenas. Drawing on the case of the Lower Mekong Basin, this paper applies a conceptual framework for analyzing this question as a case of fundamental food system change. Four inter-related axes of change – narratives, actors, institutions and resources – constitute the framework for analyzing and challenging the dynamics and values of food systems change. Despite substantial scientific evidence on the nutritional and food security significance of the fisheries, and the magnitude of negative impacts of planned hydropower development, there has been no discernible shift in hydropower investment and related policy. The lack of attention to this food production loss is due to a broader transformation in food systems, itself shaped by powerful interests and values. Addressing the neglect of fisheries requires challenging this trajectory of food system change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relying on experience from West Africa and the Mekong Basin, we contend that small-scale inland fisheries are a critical element in the livelihoods of many farming households who live near water bodies in developing countries. Empirical evidence suggests that the relation between poverty and small-scale fisheries cannot be reduced to a simple correlation with income. A more thorough analysis is required. Using vulnerability and exclusions as two dimensions of poverty, we show that poverty in fishing communities includes a wide range of variables: income but also land ownership, debt, access to health, education and financial capital, and political and geographical marginalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]