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Since January of this year, artisanal fishermen from Providencia, in the San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina archipelago in Colombia, have declared themselves in civil disobedience, going out to work even if they do not always have permission to set sail. Despite the fact that, since 2000, this area was declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, there are several inconsistencies in terms of fishing that they have seen. “Our customs and traditions are not being respected, nor are the regulations that warn that, here, we can only fish natives and permanent residents,” says Miguel Ángel Castell Cano, lawyer and advisor to the I-Fish association and the Federation of Artisanal Fishermen of Providencia, in a video call. “Despite the fact that it has decreased, what we are looking for is to eradicate the industrial commercial model because they have no business in a space that is a reserve,” he says.
Together with two other associations that are part of this Federation, the artisanal fishermen called on more than ten ministries and agencies of Gustavo Petro’s Government, including the Presidency, to sit at a dialogue and negotiation table on Wednesday and Thursday, September 18 and 19, to find a solution to what they call “a crisis of artisanal fishermen in Providencia.”
As Castell explains, by regulation, only native people or permanent residents can fish in Providencia. “This was even reaffirmed in resolution 1972 of 2023 of the National Fisheries and Agriculture Authority (Aunap), which we helped draft.” But what has happened since then is that commercial industrial fishing has found a way to circumvent this rule. These boats – of which only seven of the 62 that once existed remain – bring people who are not from the island to fish on their boats in jobs that last between two and three months.
“Since we locals don’t go there because these industrial fishing boats are basically floating prisons, they now have that strategy,” adds Edgar Jay Stephens, president of the Federation and delegate to the national fishing board.
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To be a permanent resident and therefore also be able to fish, the person must be granted this status by the archipelago’s Office of Control, Circulation and Residence (OCCRE), an entity that was created, among other things, to guarantee a population that is sustainable for the islands due to the limitations they have in terms of natural resources. However, says Castell, local authorities are giving these boats permission to set sail when their fishermen simply have a notification of residence at OCCR or because the Office, despite not being residents, gives them work permits.
“Another issue that worries us is that what we call our customs and habits are being ignored,” Stephens continues. The National Maritime Directorate (Dimar) has demanded rules that, from their point of view, put obstacles in the way of artisanal fishing. Among them, they say, is that every boat must set sail with two captains and that, to do so, they must carry a satellite phone. “It is a huge expense for us, because a 30-minute package for that costs about a million and a half pesos (340 dollars).” What the fishermen are demanding in response to this in one of the nine requests they will bring to the table is that, instead, the local government reinstall a radio antenna that once existed in Bella Vista and that would allow them to communicate with the authorities through a simple radio. “What we have here is abandonment, because that antenna was not maintained and the payment agreed between the contractor and the Mayor’s Office was not made, so they ended up taking it down.”
In response to these requests, Dimar, one of the entities convened by the fishermen, published a statement explaining that they were willing to “serve as facilitators in the process of assisting the guild” and invited the fishermen “to make proper use of the facilities and official communication channels enabled for this purpose,” referring to a peaceful protest that some of the Federation’s fishermen held in front of Dimar facilities in Providencia last month. The statement also states that it “has sent communications to the local and national authorities that have influence on the issue of fishing, in order to coordinate actions that tend to provide a timely solution to the problem raised.”
In addition to this, other requests that will be discussed over the next two days are that there be permanent patrolling by maritime authorities in the “no take” zones, which is how marine protected areas are known where no type of extractive activity can be carried out, including fishing, and that it be Aunap itself that inspects and records their activities, not local authorities, since artisanal fishermen distrust them. However, as Aunap explained to América Futura – an authority that confirmed that it will be at the table – there are a series of laws and regulations in force that do not allow this to happen. “There are provisions that currently do not allow access to the claims described in the petition, since the powers are described with total clarity and the ignorance of them would bring with it the nullity of the actions that are carried out,” it clarified.
He also reiterated that he maintains “his unwavering commitment to seek specific solutions to the different situations faced by the fishing sector of the archipelago department, combining the reality of its territory, its ancestral customs and the inviolable right to live and exploit its marine territory, understanding the need for economic and social development.”
“We have already seen how the island of San Andrés is overpopulated, saturated in many ways, so what we have to do is regulate it to reduce it,” says Castell. “Whereas here in Providencia, being a smaller island, we have to regulate it to avoid reaching that point: to avoid running out of marine resources.”
Meanwhile, Stephens recalls that, despite the fact that the abandonment of artisanal fishing in Providencia is something that they have been denouncing for 20 years, “we expected more attention from what is supposed to be an environmentalist government that talks about leaving extractive models behind.” With the roundtable that will be held these days, they hope to achieve, at least in the case of Providencia, this.
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