In Brasilia, marine coastal extractivists from 16 Brazilian states prepared a letter with proposals for the sustainability of their activities. They delivered the document to the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, on Thursday (25.5). The minister thanked the fishing communities and said that she feels part of the traditional peoples. “Sometimes we just need hope to stay alive. I recognize the work and ideas of fishing communities. Our identity is similar to that of indigenous peoples, who live in territories and use natural resources. Outside our space, we are like fish out of water” she said.
In the letter, the participants of the event, organized by the National Commission for Strengthening Coastal and Marine Extractive Reserves (Cofrem), claim democracy; the strengthening of environmental policies; the creation and land regularization of extractive reserves; the participation of coastal and marine extractive peoples in climate change policies; the revision of the Fishing Law (Federal Law 11.959/2009) and the maintenance of the ban on trawling in Rio Grande do Sul (State Law 15.223/2018). The latter is on trial at the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
“Revising the fishing law and banning industrial trawling in Rio Grande do Sul are legitimate agendas for artisanal fishing and the environment. Guardians of coastal and marine socio-biodiversity ask STF ministers to maintain the law in Rio Grande do Sul. They also ask the federal government and parliamentarians to change the federal fishing law, which does not guarantee sustainable fishing in Brazil,” says Oceana’s scientific director, oceanographer Martin Dias, who participated in the I Reponta das Marés.
The Minister of the Environment pledged with the participants to defend the Ministry of the Environment and the demands of extractive communities. Cofrem’s national coordinator, Flávio Diniz Gaspar Lontro, and Cofrem’s national secretary for Women, Marly Lúcia da Silva Sousa, handed her the document. “Supreme ministers must understand that industrial trawling is very harmful for species and for the ecological balance,” says Lontro.
AI Reponta das Marés was a Cofrem event to discuss policies and institutions in favor of protecting and strengthening territories/maretories and their ways of life.
On Wednesday, participants watched the documentary “12 Miles – A fight against trawling”, produced by Oceana. The film shows how the prohibition of this type of fishing benefited artisanal and industrial fishermen in Rio Grande do Sul, who once again had more fish of adequate size and quality, which were previously caught small and discarded by trawling.
