Engendering Facts

Do you know that globalization and the effects of development policies on women in canneries and processing plants in the tuna industry in the Pacific Island Countries (PIC) raise serious concerns with respect to labour rights and health?

Fishing fleets from around the world seek access to Western and Central Pacific Ocean, the site of the world's largest and most valuable tuna resource. The exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of Pacific Island countries support the world's largest tuna resources, which are worth over a billion dollars. The Pacific Islands Region[1] has a population of 5.2 million and except for Papua New Guinea, which accounts for 83% of the region's total land area, all the other islands are small, with land accounting for only about 2% of the total area. In order to earn revenues from their fisheries resources (a right enshrined to coastal states through the United Nations Law of the Seas), PICs engage in a very specific form of trade: they sell the rights to fish in their waters to foreign vessels through foreign access agreements and various mechanisms of domestic registration.

The fisheries sector in most PIC is divided in two main types: coastal (characterized by artisanal technology, community-based systems, inshore or nearshore areas, formal and informal production systems) and offshore (characterized by capital intensive, export-orientated, industrial) activities. As many as 83% of the coastal households of the Solomon Islands, 35% of the rural households of Vanuatu, 99% of the rural households of Kiribati, 87% of the households in the Marshall Islands, and half of the rural households in Upolu, Samoa fish primarily for local consumption (World Bank 1995; Dalzell et al 1996). Further evidence of Pacific Island dependence on subsistence fisheries for food security indicates that seafood comprises 28%, 33%, 67%, and 77% of all animal protein consumed in Fiji, Vanuatu, Kiribati and Solomon Islands, respectively (World Bank 2000; Dalzell and Schug 2002). Indeed, subsistence and artisanal fisheries provide a crucial source of food and nutritional security for the majority of PICs, where per capita consumption of fish and fisheries products is amongst the highest in the world.

Artisanal fisheries provide a critical source of income, employment, and food and nutrition to millions of people all over the world, and the Pacific is no exception. Indeed, subsistence and artisanal fisheries provide a crucial source of food and nutritional security for the majority of PICs, where per capita consumption of fish and fisheries products is amongst the highest in the world. Consequently, PICs and other coastal small vulnerable economies (SVEs) are rightfully concerned that the current push for expanded rules on fisheries subsidies has the potential to harm the artisanal and small-scale sectors, or to impede their development.

The most important aspect in the large-scale industrial processing of tuna in PICs was the duty-free access to EU markets (or 'trade preference') under the Lomé Conventions and under the current Cotonou Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific states (ACP) and the EU. One of the most important condition of the Lomé Conventions (1975-1999) was the non-reciprocal (i.e. one-way) trade preference offered to ACP by the EU. The rationale for this duty free access to EU markets for ACP products was that it would give a boost to ACP economies against lower cost competition in the world economy. The EU's projected outcome was that the ACP would develop internationally competitive industries that would eventually be able to survive without a trade preference. In 2000, the Lomé Conventions were replaced with the Cotonou Agreement in order to comply with the trade laws of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). However, providing access to EU vessels which use local ports to transship their catches to be processed in EU member countries or their own territories, further, strict Rules of Origin (RoO) requirements for originating fish also limit the use of third country vessels to land catch for domestic processing that could qualify for preferential access to the EU markets. EU canneries such as those in Spain and France are protected through tariffs applied to imports from third countries. This protection under the RoO is applicable to the EU tuna fleets, which indirectly prevents the Pacific ACP states from using fish caught by foreign non-EU vessels to produce originating fish. In practice, this means that ACP states have to grant EU vessels preferential access to their EEZs as against those from third countries in order to gain preferential access by duty concessions to the EU market. This has the potential to reduce shore based development activities and therefore reduce employment and other benefits, from-value adding in the region where women have been the major players. The EU's stringent quality-control requirements also limit processing and exports from the Pacific Islands to the EU. In order to access the EU preferential market for processed fish, one Pacific Island country has licensed domestic based foreign vessels to fish within its territorial seas in order to qualify for originating fish. This is a rather worrying trend as most of the subsistence and artisanal fisheries also exist within territorial seas. Having foreign vessels fish close to coastal areas for industrial processing is likely to create conflicts with artisanal fishers. The fishing grounds used by women in particular may be particularly vulnerable.

Studies also indicate that benefits of the tuna industry are numerous ranging from licensing and access fees, transshipment fees, employment opportunities for both men and women in on-shore based activities (processing), indirect benefits through entertainment and the service industry in countries, national income through customs and other related fees, fuel and other necessary costs paid by vessels and the positive multiplier effects on the local economy. The off-shore tuna fishery provides three types of employment; jobs for fishermen on vessels and or workers in processing plants; employment linked to the tuna industry; and indirect spin-off employment in other sectors of the economy.

However, although it is recognized that there are employment opportunities provided by the tuna industry, some studies caution against the positive effects and suggest reviewing employment data. It is said that during the first instance much of the local employment has only been achieved at the great cost of a loss-making and continually subsidized government owned and operated industry. This employment may not be sustained in the long term. The same government funds could also arguably have been used in other sectors such as public health, education, or public works to both employ local people and at the same time to improve public services. Secondly it is also important to note that much employment in the tuna industry is seasonal in nature and sustained employment is subject to successful international competition. Lastly, the question of who is employed must also be asked.

Various studies (Secretariat of the Pacific Community and Forum Fisheries Agency) on the Pacific Islands tuna industry show that men tend to be involved in all activities from harvesting through to support services. Women in most island countries are involved in all activities with only limited involvement in harvesting. Although the literature provides information on the roles of men and women in the tuna industry, there is limited sex disaggregated data quantifying the numbers of men and women in each area. Mainly due to culture and social customs, most Pacific Islands women do not participate in deep sea fishing. Hiring of local workers for the industry work also has an impact on the community. The subsistence fishing and agriculture work previously done by absent men now becomes the responsibility of the women.

There are women in parts of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia who fish for subsistence purposes. The area in which women play a prominent role is in processing. Women in many countries including Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Papua New Guinea are responsible for subsistence processing for the home or for sale at the local market - salting, drying and tuna jerky being the main activities used to preserve seafood. As soon as the men return home from fishing trips, the women take over the responsibility of cleaning, gutting and processing fish which include salting and drying and baking in earthen ovens. Commercial canneries employ mainly women but they work only in the unskilled positions in the fish processing. [i]

Women tend to be involved in the domestic market selling the tuna caught by men. In Fiji and Tonga women sell the tuna at the market place. In Tuvalu some women, using handcarts and large ice chests, sell their husbands catch. Women perform much of small scale marketing of fish in Colonia while in the villages they are mainly the ones who decide on the customary distribution of catch (Lambeth, Lyn and Estephan Santiago 2001. Field report No. 5: An assessment of the role of women in fisheries in Yap, Federated States of Micronesia, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, New Caledonia). Where there is no central fish market as in Palau, and in Fiji, the women have to travel by road and boat to reach the main market place. In Kiribati the selling of fish is an activity that is dominated by women. Distribution points include the roadside, fish market, mobile sales from moving cars, and retail outlets. Women also go out to the mother ships berthed out in Betio harbor and exchange coconuts and other food items for tuna discards from the ships that they then sell at a very low price (Aliti Vunisea, 2006- Kiribati National Tuna Development and Management Plan - Social and Gender considerations, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, New Caledonia). Yet, there are few women involved in export marketing and distribution.

In the processing sector (e.g. fish canneries), women make up the bulk of the labor force (90%) and in the fresh tuna processing establishments they comprise 30% to 80% of the workers (Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat 2000). The majority of these women continue to be involved in routine work along the processing lines that command the lowest wages. But women workers remain in "temporary" positions for several years, and as many such as 20 years, receiving very little (if any) pay increments. While some women have received on-the-job training, this has not been reflected in their wages. By keeping a large number of female employees as casual laborers, a company avoids paying any benefits that may otherwise accrue to staff. Performance standards are set at such high levels that women find it hard to achieve the targets to gain any promotion or pay increment. Because women's fishing activities are seen as marginal, women and children are rarely targeted as key players to implement resource management and conservation activities.

The role of women in tuna industry in the papers discussed in the preceding section also highlights the problems faced by the women linked directly or indirectly to the said industry. It has been pointed out that income for the fishermen in this industry is not regular and so women have to depend on alternative sources for sustaining the family. In many cases women are forced to take loans on high interest and thus enter the vivious circle of debt. As is discussed earlier women in this industry are always considered unskilled and so paid lower and being unskilled no on-job training or promotion is ever given. Poor legislation in terms of women's rights to labour and health also causes worry. There is no provision for full compensation even for maternity leave in the industry nor are there provisions for child care centres. Women engaged in the industry often work double shifts (at home and in the units) thus taking a toll on their health. Again, in the poor families, when both parents leave home for work it is usually the eldest female child who takes the role of looking after the chores at home at the cost of her schooling.

The particular nature of the industry exposes seafarers to extreme environments where in one instance they are out at sea, isolated, confined, and under strict rules, and the next, are in port bombarded with sex workers and alcohol, and pressured to indulge in both. A growth in transshipment activities leads to an increase in shore-based services. Contact with local people is based on the exchange of goods and services, with the sex trade being one service (Aliti Vunisea, 2006- Kiribati National Tuna Development and Management Plan - Social and Gender considerations, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, New Caledonia).

With few alternatives for employment and entertainment, young women from the Pacific Islands become victim of the sex trade - sometimes for money, and other times for goods, including tuna fish. In the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) there were very strong suggestions of organised sophisticated prostitution by foreigners with local girls being involved in small-scale drinking and prostitution with men. Abuse of women by men on vessels is not uncommon. A significant cost of the sex industry is the greater risk of HIV/AIDS which is a health, social and economic issue for Pacific Island countries. HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are high risks linked with overseas based employment for seafarers and also for local men and women in regular association with seafarers on board foreign ships that come into port for transhipment and other activities.

The economic underestimation of women's contribution to household food and nutrition leaves them without a voice in coastal development projects, and so consequently they receive little or no compensation. To deal with localized areas of overexploitation, women must sometimes travel farther away in search for more productive fishing grounds. This not only imposes additional fishing costs but also leaves women with less time to do household chores and attend to other social responsibilities. In addition, it extends women's working hours by further putting pressure on their physical health.

While increased transshipment activities and domestic basing of foreign vessels provide increased economic benefits, they also increase social problems and the risk of sex-related diseases for women. In all major ports throughout the Pacific Islands, where foreign fishing vessels berth, there is increased concern by health authorities because this is a growing problem affecting young women. The increased globalization of the fishing industry means the movement of fishing vessels from industrialized countries to developing and least developing countries will accelerate. There is therefore a need for a concerted and coordinated effort to design a regional and/or international action plan to deter and reduce the risks associated such activities because the victims are women in both developed and developing countries.

The study by the Forum Fisheries Agency 2007 indicate that there is an increased effort on reviving traditional customs, values and beliefs to guide resource use and management practices. In community hierarchical structures, elderly males such as village chiefs or headmen often make crucial decisions on behalf of their people with the view that the decisions are in the best interest of the community at large. However, these decisions may fall short of integrating factors that may affect women's fishing activities or their access to resources. It is important that community projects whether they are development or conservation focused, is thoroughly assessed and evaluated using a gender sensitive feasibility analysis to ensure that women's views are integrated into project formulation and implementation.

Pacific Islands societies are predominantly patrilineal, with males as heads of households. It is likely that despite women's active involvement in fishing activities, their entitlements to fishing rights and quotas will be limited, thus restricting their access to fully participate in fishing and aquaculture. The inclusion of women in determining the type and nature of fishing rights (such as in formulation of any allocation criteria) is important in order to integrate women's interest and their views. While women are the major labor force within shore-based industrial fish processing, they also play a crucial role in subsistence fisheries by facilitating household food and nutritional security in the Pacific Islands (Matthews E. (ed). 1995. Fishing for answers: Women and fisheries in the Pacific islands. The Women and Fisheries Network, Suva Fiji). Based on the level of household needs, women have carefully switched between formal and informal activities. However, the influence of market opportunities is now affecting this delicate balance between meeting subsistence needs and generating cash.

Training provided to those in the tuna industry tends to be for fishermen (different capture methods, boat skills etc.). Studies indicate that this may be due to the social set up where men are the head of the household and decision makers. Communications to the household are to men and although men obtain the training, the women take on the responsibilities of net making and fish processing.

In order to address some of the critical issues, studies highlight that it is important that women's groups active in these areas should join hands and move towards influencing higher policy initiatives within the fisheries sector. It also involves process in ensuring that women's interests (e.g. their access to fishing grounds and fish resources) are incorporated in any allocation of fishing rights or that they are adequately compensated for any losses related to other coastal activities. Specific intervention related to sex trade and workers rights need to be immediately addressed. The program should involve the foreign vessel crew and operators.

Education is critical to women's participation in the sector. Private companies and governments could do more to sponsor promising women in their education. Processing plants should promote more unskilled women through their ranks. The relatively few women who have done extremely well in the industry need to be given coverage in the media as role models to young women searching for careers.

Source: Compiled from:

• Pacific Island Countries, The global tuna industry and the international trade regime - A Guidebook, April 2007, FFA
• Development of tuna fisheries in the Pacific ACP countries (DEVFISH) Project, FFA, SPC
• Gender issues in the Pacific Islands Tuna Industry: A report by Patricia Tuara Demmke June, 2006
• Development of marine resources, fisheries policies and women's rights in the Pacific Islands by Vina Ram-Bidesi, SPC Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin #18 - March 2008