From legal frameworks to practice: challenges for implementing the SSF Guidelines in Argentina

A. CINTI; M.E. GÓNGORA; N. SÁNCHEZ-CARNERO; L.A. VENERUS; M. PIÑEIRO; G. ANTÓN; M. VARISCO; A.M. PARMA

Mérida

Congreso; 4 th World Small-Scale Fisheries Congress. Latin America and The Caribbean: Stronger together.; 2022

TBTI Global

Argentinafish resources support several high-volume, export-oriented industrialfisheries with total landings close to 800,000 tons. Compared to the industrialsector, which expanded greatly over the last 40 years, artisanal marine fisherieshave remained insignificant in terms of landings and value, receiving littleattention from governments despite their local importance. Argentina is afederal country with five coastal provinces which have jurisdiction and ruleover the marine resources within 12 nautical miles from the shore and withingulfs. As each province manages artisanal fisheries within its territorialwaters, the importance assigned to them, the legal frameworks available andtheir degree of application vary greatly among provinces. In a few cases,municipal governments also become involved and have generated policies for thesector, adding to the complexity of the multilevel governance of small-scalefisheries. In this chapter we review the main national and provincial laws andpolicies relevant to marine artisanal fisheries, and a few cases that werelitigated in court, to evaluate the extent of adherence to the principles ofthe SSF Guidelines in the law and in practice. We complement this review withan analysis of fishers' knowledge about the legal instruments in use, and the perceptionsof key actors involved in judicialized cases from Buenos Aires and Chubut, twoprovinces with a long history and large development of small-scale fisheries.These cases illustrate the main limitations and challenges faced by theartisanal sector, and how far the country is from implementing the Guidelines.