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Building Resilience in Fiji's Fisheries Sector through Improved DRR and DRM - TCP/FIJ/3801

Year of publication 2024

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 8

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Project

Synopsis (short abstract) In 2017, Fiji's fisheries production, including both marine and inland, totaled 47 356 tonnes, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The country imported 53 075 tonnes and exported 80 951 tonnes of fish. With a population of 877 000, this equates to a per capita supply of 30.3 kg (FAO Statistical Yearbook 2020). Employment estimates in the fisheries sector are challenging due to the mix of subsistence, part-time and full-time commercial fishers. According to FAO reports there are approximately 9 000 artisanal coastal fishers and 3 000 coastal subsistence fishers. The fishing fleet, last estimated in 2010, consisted of 2 330 vessels. Fisheries are crucial to the local diet and are valued for recreational and social purposes. The sector is Fiji's third largest natural resource sector, following sugar and other crops, and has significant links to the tourism industry, while facing several constraints, including the following: (i) over-exploitation of inshore resources near urban markets; (ii) limited access for smal-scale fishers to offshore resources; (iii) marketing challenges from remote areas to urban markets; (iv) competition for infrastructure and services with offshore vessels; (v) rising fuel costs impacting small-scale motorized fisheries; (vi) slow development of aquaculture for domestic food supply; (vii) competition from more efficient foreign fishery and aquaculture producers; (viii) coastal community unawareness of overexploitation consequences; (ix) limited communication between the Fisheries Department and the tuna industry.

Language English

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