Griffith Asia Institute - Southeast Asia Studies Group
‘Livelihoods in small-scale fishing villages in Southeast Asia: Subsistence is not enough’
Presented by: Paul King, PhD Student, Centre of Excellence Sustainable Development Indonesia (CESDI), School of Environment
Sustainable Livelihoods in small-scale fishing villages throughout Southeast Asia is the region’s greatest poverty elevation problem. Coastal and marine social-ecological systems (CM-SES) are fragile and are vulnerable to political, social and environmental shocks. “Small-scale fisheries are frequently characterised as “the occupation of last resort” and fisher folk as “the poorest of the poor” (Allison 2001). Landlessness and a limited skills set for these folk gives little choice other than an aquatic livelihood strategy resulting in, at best, little more than subsistence living. However, to provide Food, Residence, Education, Social status and Health services so that the next generation has more livelihood choices than their parents, subsistence is not enough.
While governments and NGOs have spent many millions of dollars on poverty elevation projects, real progress is slow, too slow to prevent livelihood stagnation or slip-back by the next generation. A true bottom-up social impact assessment incorporating a needs assessment with a sustainable livelihoods approach is required to help empower local communities to develop achievable small scale projects that help to ease the burden of providing the next generation with a FRESH start.
By looking at this problem through a photographic collage of small fishing villages in 5 provinces in Indonesia, as well as examples from Malaysia and Vietnam, this seminar seeks to inform about the challenges for a sustainable livelihood in small-scale fishing villages and to promote an interdisciplinary discussion identifying causes and possible solutions.
- Friday 6 September 2013
- N16, Meeting Room 1.44
- Nathan campus
- 2:30 – 4.00pm
To RSVP, please contact Natasha Vary on (07) 3735 5322 or n.vary@griffith.edu.au by 5.00pm Wednesday 4 September, 2013.
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RSVP on or before Wednesday 4 September 2013 , by email n.vary@griffith.edu.au , or by phone 37355322