7th General Assembly of World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP)

November 2017 marks the 20th year of the formation of World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP), the fisher’s movement representing some 10 million fisher people worldwide. The 7th General Assembly (GA-7) of the WFFP takes place in Delhi on 15-21 November 2017.

Main points of concern and debate will be:

• the struggle against ocean, land and water grabbing,
• the advance of food sovereignty in the context of fisheries,
• the role of inland fisheries,
• the implementation of the UN International Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines (SSF Guidelines), guarding their spirit and their human rights-based approach, and
• the importance of women in fishing.

One of the focus areas of WFFP GA-7 is climate justice in the context of global warming, fossil fuel exploitation, fish depletion and livelihood threat to the fishing community world over. WFFP holds the view that the fishing communities are the most vulnerable to the threat of climate change and hence must be included in the first layer of international climate refugees.

The WFFP GA-7 is expecting to be attended by 200 WFFP members and representatives, 40 representatives of the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF), India, and around 40 representatives from allied organizations and movements, including members from other fisher movements and La Via Campesina. The latter is of particular importance in order to strengthen solidarity and joining forces in political struggles of common interests.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation supports the WFFP GA-7 by providing travel support for a number of participants for the assembly. Male and female delegates representing the respective artisanal fisher’s organizations from all over the world will be involved in the proceedings, including the appointment of new coordination committee. The member country delegations will share the status of fisher people from their respective countries with regards to the issues which will be discussed during the main sessions as well as workshops on the themes of ocean grabbing, inland fisheries, agro-ecology, food sovereignty and on climate change impacts on fisheries.

Download Prog. Schedule, please click here