CoopeSoliDar R.L has more than 20 years of work in Central America dealing with issues related to biodiversity conservation and human rights. The work of this cooperative related to the sea, has been based on supporting collective rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local communities (IPLC) to small scale fisheries. It has helped strengthen the capacities of community organizations to defend their rights to tenure and access to the seas. These actions are a challenge to the ideology of a ‘blue economy’ that most governments are supporting, which considers only economic benefits derived from the sea forgetting other social, cultural, and environmental values.

This webinar will share the experience of this association between CoopeSoliDar R.L and small scale fisher communities in Costa Rica in the defense of their rights to responsible, small-scale fisheries. In particular, the experience in the context of COVID 19 and how community resilience has been a result of collective action, community-based governance models, equity, and the innovation of a fair market. These aspects have guaranteed community livelihood security in a moment of great struggle, when traditional markets and tourism collapsed.

This experience shows the building of a just and equitable urban market, where little by little more people are recognizing the efforts of these communities, and the importance of a diversified productive activity, freshness, and quality of the nutritive characteristics of fish and a price that is well below the one offer by the supermarkets.

The future of the ocean is in the hands of the people of the sea, and in a change of attitude and policies from governments and society. IPLC caretakers have been developing important efforts for the sustainable use of their marine territories of life, and the recognition of these efforts is crucial in the context of the ongoing negotiations regarding a new Global Biodiversity framework that will guide the countries conservation future until 2030.

Is a Costa Rican biologist with a MSc. degree in Ecology from the University of Lawrence in Kansas. She has devoted her professional life to the support and recognition of the efforts of IPLC to conservation and sustainable use in the Central American region. She is the founder of CoopeSoliDar R.L.

Small-scale artisanal fisherwoman. President of the Barra del Colorado Shrimp Peelers and Processors Association, Barra del Colorado Responsible Fishing Marine Area, Caribbean of Costa Rica.

Is an activist, feminist and trade unionist based in Kerala, India. She has been involved with coastal communities and their issues for over three decades, associated with Protsahan Trivandrum, Mitraniketan Vagamon and the Self Employed Women's Association. From SEWA Kerala and International Collective in Support of Fishworkers, she will moderate the session.