The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020

particular SDG Target 14.b on providing access 
for small-scale artisanal fishers to marine 
resources and markets. 
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THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE 
2020
What are the hidden harvests of
small-scale fisheries?
The 2012 Hidden Harvest study was a first 
attempt to synthesize information on the 
diverse and misreported contributions of 
capture fisheries globally (World Bank, 2012). 
It produced detailed case studies from countries 
with important inland and marine small-scale 
fisheries, and used these to estimate global 
contributions. This synthesis produced some 
valuable estimates of the relative importance of 
large-scale and small-scale fisheries, including:
„
Millions of tonnes of fish from the small-scale 
fisheries are “hidden” – in the sense of being 
invisible and unreported – with the inland 
fisheries catch estimated to be underreported 
by about 70 percent.
„
Of the 120 million people who depend on 
capture fisheries, 116 million work in developing 
countries. Of these, more than 90 percent work 
in small-scale fisheries, and women make up 
almost 50 percent of the workforce.
„
In developing countries, small-scale fisheries 
produce more than half the fish catch, and 
90–95 percent of this is consumed locally in 
rural settings where poverty rates are high and 
good-quality nutrition is sorely needed.
„
Employment in small-scale fisheries is several 
times higher per tonne of harvest than in 
large-scale fisheries.
Shedding new light on hidden harvests
To support the growing momentum in 
implementing the SSF Guidelines – and in 
response to the SDGs – FAO, WorldFish and Duke 
University have been working in partnership 
with experts globally to revisit and build on the 
initial Hidden Harvest study. Encompassing the 
harvesting and post-harvesting sectors of inland 
and marine fisheries, the IHH study aims to 
address the following questions:
„
What are the social, environmental, economic 
and governance contributions and impacts of 
small-scale fisheries at the global and local 
scales (
Table 19
)?
„
What are the key drivers of change in 
these sectors, including both threats 
and opportunities?
Case study approach
The IHH study is using a case study approach to 
engage with local expertise in priority countries 
that have substantial small-scale fisheries 
sectors or notable nutritional dependence on 
small-scale fisheries, both from marine and 
inland systems. A global synthesis will be built 
from country case study data, available global 
and regional datasets and responses to an FAO 
ad hoc questionnaire to all countries. 
The IHH study seeks to reflect the need for 
more comprehensive approaches to sustainable 
development by expanding the scope of analysis 
compared with the 2012 Hidden Harvest 
study by also providing new synthesis on 
social and nutritional benefits, governance 
characteristics, and social differentiation in the 
flow of benefits from different fisheries sectors. 
A series of thematic studies will highlight 
available information on important themes, 
for example: gender, indigenous peoples and 
cultural identity. 
The methodology for the study has been 
informed by consultations with experts, and a 
technical advisory group is supporting the IHH 
core team. 
Country case studies
The IHH study includes about 50 country 
case studies. The countries were chosen 
for the absolute importance (global level) 
and/or relative importance (country level) 
of their small-scale fisheries, considering 
fisheries production, estimated small-scale 
fisheries production, employment in 
fisheries, role of fish for food security, and 
geographical representation.
The case-study countries represent 76 percent of 
the global marine catch, 83 percent of the global 
small-scale fisheries catch, and 86 percent 
of marine fishers. For inland fisheries, the 
countries account for 89 percent of global 
inland catch and 96 percent of inland fishers 
and post-harvest workers. By continent, the 
breakdown of the case-study countries is: 
Africa, 26; Asia-Pacific, 18; America, 10; and 
Europe, 5.
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PART 3 
OUTLOOK AND EMERGING ISSUES
Key audiences and engagement
National governments and fisheries institutions: 
With 
primary responsibility for policy and as central 
actors in fisheries management, government 
institutions are an important target group 
as well as collaborators in the IHH study. 
For case-study countries, the study is expected 
to offer expert synthesis of existing survey 
and research data that can provide new, 
policy-relevant understandings of the diverse 
contributions and impacts of the national inland 
and marine small-scale fisheries sectors.
Fisheries administrations actively contribute 
to the IHH study by completing an FAO ad 
hoc survey on small-scale fisheries that will 
feed into both national case studies and 
global synthesis. This survey includes specific 
questions about the small-scale fisheries sector 
and the availability of data. It also complements 
the existing section on small-scale fisheries of 
the FAO questionnaire on the implementation of 
the Code (see the section Progress on the road 
to sustainability, p. 96) and related instruments. 
Small-scale fisheries advocates, in particular small-scale 
fisheries organizations:
 
Small-scale fisheries 
organizations and related civil society 
organizations and NGOs supporting 
small-scale fisheries actors at the national, 
regional and international level are important 
voices in advocating for a productive, equitable 
and sustainable future for small-scale 
fisheries grounded in the principles of the SSF 
TABLE 19
SNAPSHOT OF DATA THE ILLUMINATING HIDDEN HARVESTS STUDY IS EXPLORING
Social
Global to local
Data collected on cultural importance of small-scale fisheries, gender, and 
indigenous populations
Environmental – status and characterization of small-scale fisheries
Global
(small-scale fisheries and large-scale 
fisheries) 
Catch volume by taxonomic level, inland and marine
Catch value and utilization (for human consumption)
Effort and fuel efficiency 
Regional to local
Potential impacts – on vulnerable species, habitats and environment
Economic contributions of small-scale fisheries
Global
(small-scale fisheries and large-scale 
fisheries)
Employment – number of people, gender
Dependence on small-scale fisheries – number of people
Exports and food security
National investment in small-scale fisheries (management costs)
Regional to local
Value chains – post-harvest loss and waste and nutritional value of small-scale 
fisheries
Nutrition – contribution of small-scale fisheries to food security and nutrition
Global
Global nutrition potential of small-scale fisheries – micronutrients
(e.g. vitamin B12)
Fish supply from small-scale fisheries for human consumption 
Food safety issues in small-scale fisheries 
Regional to local
Socio-economic and food security benefits of small-scale fisheries livelihoods
Nutritional and health benefits of small-scale fisheries for women and young 
children
Governance
Global to local
Diversity of formal small-scale fisheries governance arrangements in place 
Data on fishers organizations and national representation 
Fishers’ participation in fisheries management decision-making 
SOURCE: FAO.
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THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE 
2020
Guidelines. The development of the IHH study 
includes engaging directly with these groups 
to understand information needs and the best 
approaches to presenting outcomes of the study 
in a way that more effectively supports the 
inclusion of small-scale fisheries in relevant 
processes within and beyond fisheries. 
Science and development communities: 
For both 
advocates and research partners in the sector, 
local contextual and high-level synthesized 
data and information on the contributions of 
small-scale fisheries are important in setting 
the priorities, direction and design of research. 
The IHH study engages local, national and 
international research centres, scientists 
and practitioners, as relevant, in case-study 
countries to help identify existing data and 
studies most relevant to the small-scale 
fisheries sector. It also encourages exploring 
available data that are usually not analysed 
from a small-scale fisheries perspective, for 
example, in relation to nutrition, but that can 
provide important insights on the contributions 
of the sector and, hence, help in directing 
policy and development attention. 
Study outputs
The IHH project will produce a major 
synthesis report that will be launched in 
late 2020. Thematic studies, and possibly a 
number of country case studies, will appear 
as separate reports and scientific journal 
articles where appropriate. A communications 
strategy supports the process, involving 
close engagement with key stakeholders to 
understand communication needs to support 
small-scale fisheries communities and the drive 
to implement the SSF Guidelines.
In addition, methods developed for the IHH 
study will be made available, including in the 
form of e-learning, to facilitate their uptake. 
This is expected to further support capacity 
development in relation to gathering and 
analysing information on small-scale fisheries. 
More information about the IHH study is 
available online (FAO, 2019n). 
n
IMPROVING THE 
ASSESSMENT OF GLOBAL 
INLAND FISHERIES
The lack of routine monitoring across a wide 
range of inland fisheries constrains the ability 
to provide an indication of the status or health 
of global inland fisheries (see the section Inland 
fisheries, p. 54). This limitation covers both the 
effect of fishing activity, as well as that arising 
from anthropogenic drivers (including climate 
variability).
With the exception of some notable large-scale 
fisheries, monitoring of individual fisheries 
does not adequately reflect the state of inland 
fisheries across river basins or within national 
boundaries. The current global level of 
information available for analysis is national 
catch data, which is an aggregate of all national 
production data reported by countries. 
Observing trends of increasing or decreasing 
national catch provides little insight into the 
state or sustainability of individual fisheries 
and their stocks within a country. Therefore, a 
meaningful assessment of inland fisheries must 
attempt to link the multiple environmental 
pressures acting on waterbodies across 
catchments and basins. This can indicate 
the extent to which these factors will exert 
influence on the degree to which a catchment 
can support inland fisheries activities (FAO, 
2018f). FAO is cooperating with the United 
States Geological Survey to develop a global 
threat map for inland fisheries. This work 
uses a nested modelling approach to combine 
global geographical information datasets of 
20 identified pressures (subindicators) that 
influence inland fisheries (
Table 20
).
The output is a composite map intended to 
provide a visual (and quantifiable) indication of 
the relative levels of threat to the potential of the 
waterbody to support inland fisheries or aquatic 
biodiversity within a basin and its sub-basins. 
The threat map can also be considered a proxy for 
the relative combined anthropogenic pressure on 
a specific basin or sub-basin supporting fisheries 
(
Figure 57
), noting that, up to a point, some of