| The Impact of Fisheries Development and Globalization Processes on Women of Fishing Communities in the Asian Region |
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| Written by Chandrika Sharma, International Collective in Support of Fishworkers | ||||||||
| Wednesday, 18 June 2003 16:48 | ||||||||
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Introduction This paper looks at the impact of fisheries development and globalization processes on women of fishing communities in the Asian region and the responses of women of these communities to these developments as well as initiatives taken by them to deal with the situation in positive ways. Given the lack of information or statistics on the issues involved, the paper proposes areas for future research. It is divided into the following sections: (1) Fisheries in Asia (2) The role of women in fisheries in Asia, (3) Impact of fisheries development and globalization processes on women of fishing communities, (4) Women's participation in organizations, (5) A feminist perspective on fisheries: a need for clarity, and (6) Important research issues. Fisheries in Asia
Millions of people depend on fisheries for a living in the Asian region and undoubtedly, the sector is a major source, of employment, income and food security. According to the FAO (2002), in 2000 an estimated 35 million people worldwide were directly engaged in fishing and fish farming as a full time, or more frequently as a part time occupation, as compared with 28 million in 1990. In 1990, 84 per cent of the world's fishers were concentrated in Asia–9m in China, nearly 6m in India, and 4m in Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines taken together. In 2000, 85 per cent or 29.5 million fishers were estimated to be in Asia.
Majority of these are small-scale, artisanal fishers eking out a living from coastal and in-shore resources. It needs to be kept in mind that these figures are likely to be an underestimate. For example, a recent FAO study in Southeast Asia suggested that the figure reported to FAO for the number of inland capture fishers worldwide (4.5 million, full-time, part-time or occasional) is easily exceeded by those fishing in inland waters in just eight countries covered by the study, i.e. Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam (FAO Regional Office for Asia-Pacific, 2002). Further, these figure do not include those involved in other fisheries-related activities, such as marketing, processing, net-making, boat building etc. Significantly, women play an important role in several of these activities. A conservative estimate would, therefore, place the total number of people involved in fisheries-related activities in Asia at about 150m. It is significant that 90 per cent of the catch from small-scale fisheries worldwide goes to human consumption. In Asia artisanal fisheries are estimated to contribute at least 50 percent of total fisheries production, providing extensive rural employment (ADB, 1997). For artisanal fishing communities, fishing is a source of livelihood as well as a culture and way of life.
Important fish producing countries in the region include China, Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, India, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam. In 2001, nine Asian countries were among the top 20 countries in terms of production from marine capture fisheries. biologically the most productive aquatic environments. Shelf areas of southeast and South Asian countries are rich in demersal resources, including shrimp, and small pelagic resources while the oceanic waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans have rich tuna resources. The region has witnessed a rapid increase in fish production over the last few decades, as seen in the figure below:
This has been fuelled by technological developments in harvesting, refrigeration and transportation and growth of markets. The 1960s and 1970s, for example, saw the development of trawl fisheries for shrimp in the entire region. The focus of government fisheries development policies was on development and exploitation of fisheries resources, both for domestic consumption and export. These policies were pursued more aggressively in the post-1980 period, when countries in the region, to a greater or lesser extent, went in for liberalization, privatization and deregulation, with an emphasis on increasing trade and foreign exchange earnings. Policies to attract foreign investment, including in the fisheries sector, were adopted. The Indonesian government, for example, encouraged joint ventures in fisheries, especially for the exploitation of offshore resources. The consequences of these policies are clear and, in several countries like Thailand, Philippines and parts of India and Indonesia, there is strong evidence of over-fishing in coastal waters. For example, the abundance of demersal fish stocks in the Gulf of Thailand in the early 1990's was only one tenth of the level in the 1960s when the trawl fisheries started. Coastal tuna resources in the Philippines have continued to decline, encouraging an expansion of tuna fishing in Indonesian waters through bilateral arrangements. In the Philippines, some estimates suggest that as much as 65 percent of the original 450,000 hectares of mangrove area has been converted to other uses, primarily brackish-water fishponds. The decline in wild shrimp catch due to overfishing, and the resulting shortfall in the demand has resulted in the development of shrimp culture since mid-1980s, with its own set of negative environmental and social consequences. The emphasis has clearly been on economic growth, trade and revenue generation. While the importance of management was recognized to ensure sustainability of the fisheries resource, in practice, this was not a priority. In the latter half of the 1990s, in the aftermath of the economic crisis in East Asia, when the importance of the fisheries sector as a revenue earner increased, a recent World Bank report (March 2001) noted that "levels of environmental spending, which were relatively limited to begin with, declined in all East Asian economies aside from Malaysia." (iii) Aquaculture Attracted by the possibilities of higher foreign exchange earning, countries like Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia provided incentives to export-oriented intensive shrimp culture. This was also the period when catches of wild shrimp in these countries were either stagnating or declining, as a result of over-fishing. Thus, while Thailand harvested as much as 90 percent of its shrimp from natural resources before 1984, mainly from the Gulf of Thailand, by 1987 cultured shrimp production had taken off focusing mainly on black tiger prawns. Government initiatives, along with higher earnings potential, prompted numerous coastal farmers to shift their production from rice to shrimp. Cultured shrimp made up 70 percent of the total yield produced in 1999. In the case of India, the share of aquaculture shrimp in the total shrimp exports from the country has grown in quantity terms from 33 per cent in 1988-89 to 59 per cent in 2001-02 and in value terms from 49 per cent to 86 per cent (MPEDA 2002) Enough has been written about the social and ecological impact of the rapid expansion of export-oriented shrimp aquaculture, particularly in Bangladesh, Thailand, Philippines and India. There is a recognition that it is essential to minimize ecological and social impact and to move towards more sustainable forms of shrimp culture, and reportedly some progress is being towards this. However, in many areas, problems continue to persist underlining the need for better management and enforcement. It is significant that according to FAO statistics, aquaculture's contribution to global supplies of fish, crustaceans and molluscs continues to grow, increasing from 3.9 percent of total production by weight in 1970 to 27.3 percent in 2000. Currently, two-thirds of the total food fish supply is obtained from fishing in marine and inland waters; the remaining one-third is derived from aquaculture. (iv) Degradation and depletion of coastal resources At the same time, the aggressive economic growth in other sectors being pursued over the last couple of decades has had consequences for the fisheries sector. For example, an Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) study in 1992 identified the following among the main marine environmental problems in the region: (i) pollution and/or siltation of coastal waters from industrial effluents, domestic sewage, and agricultural and surface runoff; (ii) pollution of some regional seas and straits from sea traffic operations, and from mining and oil exploration and exploitation; (iii) destruction of sensitive coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves and coral reefs, through cutting, reclamation, conversion, exploitation, and pollution. Despite the growing awareness and concern, coastal and other aquatic ecosystems continue to be degraded by pollution and unsound forms of utilization. These negatively impact on fisheries, as shallow-water fish habitats such as mangroves, sea grass beds, coral reefs, estuaries, bays, rivers, lakes, and swamp are important fish breeding and nursery grounds, where many species reproduce. The barriers on most major rivers in the region, such as dams, weirs, and hydropower structures, also have a major impact on migratory species that swim upriver to spawn. Increasing population, urbanization, intensive agriculture, industrialization, shipping traffic, coastal settlements, and a range of other human activities including offshore mining exploration and exploitation, tourism, coastal reclamation, and loss of mangroves and wetlands are all exerting increasing pressures on the marine and coastal environments. (v) Trade Fish and fish products are an important export commodity in the Asian region and, in 2000, seven Asian countries were among the top 20 exporters. Important exporting countries include Thailand, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Korea. Exports are mainly to markets in Japan, EU and the US. The figure below shows growth in exports from the Asian region, excluding China, both in quantity and value terms. Globally, in 2000, total trade of fish and fishery products increased to an export value of US$55.2 billion and fish imports reached a new record of US$60 billion (FAO 2002). Developed countries accounted for more than 80 percent of the value of total fishery product imports. The net receipts of foreign exchange by developing countries (i.e. deducting their imports from the total value of their exports) increased from US$3.7 billion in 1980 to
US$18.0 billion in 2000–a 2.5-fold increase in real (corrected for inflation) terms. For developing countries in Asia and elsewhere, fish trade is clearly a significant source of foreign exchange. Shrimp is the most traded seafood product internationally, and about 26 percent of total production of shrimp is now from aquaculture. In general, countries in Asia lay great emphasis on increasing trade and expanding exports of fish and fish products, and several initiatives have been undertaken towards this. In 1997, for example, the Asia Pacific Economic Community (APEC) leaders launched a comprehensive program to open markets in nine key industrial sectors, including fisheries. In 1998 APEC completed an agreement to "lower tariffs and other trade barriers" in these nine sectors. East Asian countries have created several sub-regional growth areas like IMT-GT (Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand), and SGT (Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia) and BIMP-EAGA (comprising Brunei Darussalam, the Indonesian provinces of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku, and Irian Jaya; Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory Labuan in Malaysia; and Mindanao and Palawan in the Philippines). The BIMP-EAGA, a region in which fisheries is important, for example, was envisaged as a "production bloc" within which labor, capital and technology move freely and there is harmonization and coordination of micro-economic and industrial policies. The Role of Women in Fisheries in Asia Women take on a range of work within the fisheries and within fishing communities, in Asia and elsewhere, including: It needs to be kept in mind, of course, that these categories are overlapping and dynamic. However, what is clear is that available data or information does not capture this multidimensional nature of work undertaken by women of fishing communities, and, not surprisingly, few policies are formulated taking into account these realities.
In general, while the exact nature of the work of women differs by culture and region and between rural and urban areas, the common factor is that it is rarely seen as ¢â‚¬Ëœproductive'. It has low social value and is normally seen as an extension of the ¢â‚¬Ëœdomestic' space. Little value is attached to the domestic and community tasks performed by women. The impact of fisheries development and globalization processes on women of fishing communities
How do all these developments affect women of fishing communities and fishworkers and the multidimensional roles they play? There is little comprehensive information or research on this. What we do have are some reports and stories that give us some idea of overall trends. Based on these, the manner in which these developments are impacting on (1) women who engage in fisheries-related activities, (2) women of fishing communities and (3) women who are workers in fish processing plants, will be discussed.
Women engaged in pre-harvest work such as net-making: Traditionally, nets were woven locally using cotton yarn or other natural fibre. The introduction of synthetic yarns and net-making machines has led to the displacement of thousands of people traditionally involved in these activities, many of whom were women. In Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, India, for example, the introduction of these machines reportedly led to the displacement of 20,000 women employed in this work at one stroke. (ICSF, 1997). This has also been reported from Pakistan (Shah, 2002), and is likely to have been the case in other Asian countries as well. Women engaged in gleaning and collection activities in inshore areas and intertidal zones: Thousands of women are working in intertidal areas and inshore zones, collecting crabs, shellfish, seaweed etc. for income and domestic consumption. Their work and incomes are rendered highly vulnerable by increasing levels of pollution (especially near urban and industrial areas) and destruction of coastal habitats, such as mangroves (among other things due to shrimp aquaculture). It is also common that these lands are taken over by tourist and other interests, given the growing pressure on coastal resources and the fact that most fishing communities have no legally recognized rights to coastal and intertidal lands. Women engaged in fish processing and marketing activities: Traditionally, women of fishing communities in many Asian countries have been playing important roles in marketing fresh fish, and processing surplus catch for sale at a later date. In many ways fishing was often a family-based enterprise. However, with modernization of the sector, the growth of the industrial fleet and the expansion of domestic and export markets, the situation has fast changed. Bigger players with capital have entered the sector as financiers, export agents, etc. and it is this chain that controls the chain for fish, especially higher value fish, as seen in India (Salagrama 2002). Women of fishing communities, with meager access to capital, information and technology, tend to handle low-value fish, or trash fish, for the domestic market. They face increasing problems in getting access to fish catches. The fact that landing are more centralized and often at great distances from the fishing village, has not made the situation easier, as women are forced to travel longer distances, as in Sri Lanka (Amarasinghe and Kumara 2002). All this is not to deny that some women have managed to become successful entrepreneurs, taking advantage of the new opportunities offered by the lucrative domestic and export market for fish. Women are also feeling the impact of policies facilitating exports and trade pursued by States in the region. This is particularly the case when the species imported or exported are those that have a local market and provide local employment. In India, for example, the export of ribbonfish, a species that has a good local market, to China, has expanded with repercussions for the thousands of people in the chain employed in processing, transporting and selling the fish, often to distant markets. In the Philippines, imports that are entering the wet market through illegal channels, are depressing prices and thereby incomes of local producers and vendors of fish. In Sri Lanka, imports of dried tuna have reportedly depressed prices in the local market, reducing the income of local women processors. Women workers on aquaculture farms: It is known that the growth of aquaculture (marine and inland) is providing employments to thousands of people in the Asian region, including to women. However, there is little or no information about the conditions of work on these farms, the wages given etc. The little information available is anecdotal. For example, it is known that shrimp aquaculture units in Thailand employ migrant labour from neighbouring countries (to minimize labour costs), and this aspect needs to be better understood. Shrimp aquaculture in many cases has been extremely lucrative in the initial period, till hit by disease or other problems, forcing many farms to shut down. The impact on workers in these farms is not known.
Women of fishing communities have crucial roles in the care and nurture of their families and communities. Women are responsible for many of the land-based roles, including handling and selling the fish, cooking and housework, care of the children and elderly, maintaining community and social networks etc. Developments at sea have had implications for all these roles of women. For example, the growth of trawling and the industrial fleet in Asian countries has been a constant source of conflict in the region. Small-scale and artisanal fishermen have had to face increasing competition for resources, often in the same fishing grounds. Many fishermen have lost their gears and nets, and even their lives, at sea as a result of indiscriminate trawling activities and conflict in inshore zones. Such conflicts have been witnessed in several Asian countries including Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia. Artisanal and small-scale fishermen allege that such forms of non-selective fishing deplete and degrade resources and that large catches by these fleets depress market prices. For women of fishing communities, this has often meant a decline in the income available to run the family and household. It has also, in extreme cases, meant having to cope with the loss of their men in conflicts with trawlers, as in Indonesia (Sharma 2000) It is also the case that as resources become scarce, the small-scale and artisanal fleet in the Asian region, for example in Sri Lanka, India, Philippines, is moving into deeper waters, often into international waters or into the Exclusive Economic Zones of neighbouring States. There are several cases where small-scale vessels have been confiscated and the crew arrested and even jailed, often for months and even years. The plight of the family of crew members back home is not difficult to imagine. The entire burden of keeping the family intact falls on women. (See for example, Kumara, 2000, for a report on arrests of Sri Lankan fishermen). Degradation and destruction of coastal habitats and pollution, overexploitation and salinization of groundwater, is increasing common in the coastal belt of Asian countries. Given that the burden of bringing water and fuelwood is often on the shoulders of women, the tasks of daily survival are becoming increasingly onerous and time consuming. As several coastal villages, especially in Asia, lack toilets and sanitation facilities, a little discussed impact is also the problems faced by women as a result of decline in tree cover (Salagrama 2002). All these aspects imply a clear decline in the quality of life as linked to environmental degradation, an aspect that is little reflected in data or statistics. In addition, given the growing trend of withdrawal of States from service delivery functions, the costs of education and healthcare are increasingly passed on to families and communities, who can ill afford to take on this burden. Women, as care givers and nurturers, take on a much greater burden. And finally, there are many cases where fishing communities have been uprooted and displaced, or face displacement, to make way for ¢â‚¬Ëœdevelopment' (industry, urban growth, tourism ¢â‚¬Â¦). Ironically, even as fishing communities are victims of environmental degradation, they are now increasingly victims of conservation efforts. Blind ill-conceived environmentalism is leading to the displacement of communities from their fishing grounds and coastal lands they have traditionally occupied. The growth and power of such environmentalism, with a middle-class, urban and Western understanding of environmental issues, is yet another disturbing manifestation of globalization. (3) Women as workers in processing plants Export of processed fish products is an important source of foreign exchange for countries in the Asian region, particularly for Thailand, China, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines. Exports markets are highly competitive and the Asian region, with cheap labour and relatively good access to resources, tends to enjoy a competitive edge. At one level, fish processing plants provide employment to thousands of workers, particularly women. However, reports indicate that women tend to be employed in low-paid jobs with low levels of job security, often under poor conditions of work with long-term implications for their health, as has been reported in India (Nishchith 2001). In several countries, including India, processing plants employ young women migrant workers (Yemaya, 2000), and there are reports of the difficult working and living conditions, low pay, and harassment of women workers. In India, sub-contracting is also common, and some tasks take place outside the plant premises, as in peeling sheds (Nayak 2001), where workers are employed on low wges and often paid on a piecemeal basis. While cost cutting, often at the expense of the labour employed, is one dimension, given the fiercely competitive nature of the sector there have also been cases where processing plants have been shut down, causing large-scale unemployment. In many Northern countries processing plants have either shifted to countries with cheaper labour and greater resource availability, or shifted to highly mechanized operations, causing large-scale displacement of labour. It is only a matter of time that countries in Asia also go in for such technology, perhaps in the name of complying with the high sanitary standards imposed by Northern countries, with severe implications for local employment. This is a trend that needs to be closely monitored. Women's participation in organizations At a recent meeting of fishworker organizations (FWOs) and NGOs in the Asian region held in Thailand (Sharma 2002), it was noted that in most countries of the region, efforts at developing fishworker organizations are relatively recent. It was further noted that even where fisherfolk have organized, women are often not part of such organizations. Organizations present shared the problems they faced in organizing women. It was evident that women of fishing communities in the Asian region have a long way to go in terms of seeking better representation within organizations and within decision-making processes. Women tend to be more active with organizations at the community and local level. This has been the case in several countries and women have been active in various struggles, for example, against trawling activities in Indonesia and India, against the gas pipeline project in Thailand, against joint ventures in India, against arrest of Sri Lankan fishermen in third countries in Sri Lanka, and against activities that degrade the coastal environment in the Philippines and Sri Lanka. They have been very much a part of community initiative towards resource management, as in Thailand and the Philippines. In general, efforts towards increasing women's representation within FWOs and within decision-making processes have been made by various organizations, in various countries, at various levels, including in Asia. In some regions, women have also explored the opportunity of organizing autonomously. The experiences have varied. These experiences cannot also be seen apart from larger processes operating within organizations, societies and cultures. In some cases, where women have organized and have been given the space to represent their interests within FWOs, the participation of women has strengthened the larger organization and broadened its agenda. Women have been able to raise issues that concern women as fishworkers even as they have actively supported the struggles of the fishermen. Most significantly, they have raised issues that concern the quality of life within fishing communities–issues such as access to health, sanitation and education. They have brought in a community perspective to the fisheries debate. Their ability to do so stems from the fact of the multi-faceted roles they perform, roles that straddle the home, the family, the community and the workplace. Where this has not been possible, a complex of issues may have been involved. Women themselves tend to undervalue their own work and contribution, and are hesitant to take on more active roles within organizations. To help women recognize their own self-worth and their own identity as fishworkers and as important members of the family and community, is in itself a challenge. In some cases, even when the importance of women's participation is emphasized by the organization, little is in fact done to make this possible and women continue to be marginal players. In other cases, the attitude towards women's participation has been patronizing, and little space has been provided for women to bring forth issues that are of concern to them. At most, women are seen as actors supporting the agenda of their men. Where women have organized and have become a force, this has even been perceived as a threat, and has become a divisive issue. Patronizing attitudes or those that reduce the issue to one of men versus women, are unfortunate and self-defeating. If the aim is to valorize the artisanal fisheries sector, by the same logic we will have to work to valorize the role of women in the sector and the vital contribution of nature and its services to the life and livelihood of fishing communities. A feminist perspective on fisheries: a need for clarity While on the issue of women's participation in organizations, the most appropriate form for organization, in a given cultural and social context, needs to be explored. In some cases, it may be more appropriate for women to organize as part of an existing organization of fishworkers, especially where this presents an opportunity for their issues to be addressed collectively. In others, it may be appropriate for women to organize autonomously, and to participate in the larger organization as a group, rather than as individuals. Or, it may be more appropriate for women to organize separately, and work with other organizations as appropriate. A related issue is the need to develop a greater clarity on what could be the contours of a ¢â‚¬Ëœfeminist perspective' in fisheries. There is a danger otherwise of subscribing to agendas of organizations that, in the long term, facilitate the unsustainable use of resources and undermine the community basis of fisheries, or, for that matter, which do not pay due attention to the concerns and issues of women of fishing communities. The quest, therefore, must be to enhance women's participation in organizations, but on terms set by them. In this context, it would be vital to keep in mind that women of fishing communities take on multidimensional roles, roles that in mainstream terms straddle both production and reproduction. In other words, women play vital roles within the family and community, apart from being income earners in the fisheries and outside it. The issues that they raise, therefore, are necessarily multidimensional in nature, and would include issues such as health, education, and drinking water, apart from those that are fisheries-related aspects. It is clear that for this to happen, the concept of ¢â‚¬Ëœproduction' needs to be brought into clearer focus. This needs to be understood to refer to both the production of commodities and the production of life, generally called ¢â‚¬Ëœreproduction'. In mainstream terms, the production of life is considered something ¢â‚¬Ëœnatural' and is relegated to the private sphere and, therefore, is considered to have no real cost. It remains invisible. Bringing this vital aspect back into the reckoning will call for a recognition and valuation of the labour that goes towards the creation and sustenance of life, a large part of which is performed by women. This would also call for an appropriate valuation of, and respect towards, nature and its resources. A feminist perspective would then question mainstream thinking on production, and would raise vital questions such as: is the value of women's work less because it is not reflected in economic data and is not valued by mainstream society? Is the value of the services provided by nature less because it is not ¢â‚¬Ëœcounted' in mainstream economic analysis? Is the value of artisanal fisheries any lesser because its contribution is underrated? It is only by restoring the value, by bringing into the matrix the ¢â‚¬Ëœinvisibles', that development priorities can to be reshaped and women's priorities addressed. There needs to be a rethink on issues such as the use of technologies, which may bring in higher incomes for a few in the short run, but which, in the long-term, affect the quality of life of communities and the sustainability of resources. Restoring the value to certain types of work and roles, hitherto undervalued and taken for granted, should also lead to a redistribution and sharing of these roles, and a reshaping of gender relations. But this will also mean questioning the dominant discourse and those who set the terms for this discourse and define what is valuable. Redefining what is valuable will also mean redefining power relations that exist between the rich and poor, between men and women, between races and nationalities. Thus, while it is important to work towards valorizing the work and roles of women in fishing communities and in increasing their representation and role in decision-making bodies and processes, this must be within the context of strengthening the capacity of fishing communities and fishworker organizations to counter adverse forms of development and to work towards a sustainable, equitable and gender-just fisheries. Important research issues Given this background, future research, should, in the final analysis, lead to a better understanding of women in the fisheries sector and to policy outcomes that support not only women in the fisheries sector, but a form of fisheries development that is more sustainable and equitable. The following research areas are proposed: (1) Accurate data: The most glaring gap, even after the role of women in fisheries has been extensively highlighted for over two decades, is the lack of comprehensive and accurate statistics on women's roles in fisheries. Such statistics are not available in any developing country, despite the fact that there are several methodologies that can be used to capture such data effectively. The policy implications of such an absence of statistics are obvious. This gap must be filled. In this context, the starting point of any data collection exercise must change. Rather than asking ¢â‚¬Ëœdo women of fishing communities work?, the starting question has to be ¢â‚¬Ëœwhat work do women of fishing communities do?'. That fishing communities in the Asian region are economically vulnerable is well known. Anyone familiar with the reality of these communities would know that ¢â‚¬Ëœnot working' is a luxury not available to the men and women of small-scale and artisanal fishing communities. It is thus essential to document the work women do within the fisheries and within the fishing community and household. This can provide a holistic picture of their workday, the time they put in and the problems they face. It will also clearly indicate that, through their close interaction with the coastal ecosystem and through their work (in collecting water, firewood, fruits, in fishing etc.), women are likely to have a broader ¢â‚¬Ëœecosystem perspective'. This will also make it clear that women will have a lot to contribute in a context where the importance of bringing in ecosystem considerations into fisheries management is increasingly being recognized. (2) The landing centre is, in many ways, the hub of many fisheries-related activities. Research on the work women are doing in landing centres, the niches they occupy, the problems and competition they face, the organizations they are part of, and how things have changed over time, would be very revealing and useful, bringing out also the dynamism of women in coping with the massive changes they have had to deal with, particularly over the last couple of decades. It would provide useful information for policy initiatives. (3) The market is another area for further research, to understand the role women play in fish marketing and the problems they face (in transport, in accessing market facilities, in accessing credit, etc.). This will also help throw light on marketing chains for different kinds of fish, and the role that women play in these different chains. (4) Women within organizations: A better understanding of whether women are part of organizations within communities and at the regional and national levels, the constraints they face in participation, the different perspectives they have brought in, and ways in which their meaningful participation can be strengthened, would also be highly relevant. A better documentation of the responses of communities to adverse developments, and positive initiative taken by them, would be very meaningful. (5) Women in fish processing plants: Given the importance of the sector in the Asian region, it would also be useful to study the conditions of work in the sector, wages and gender-based differentials in wages, the changing nature of employment (increasing casualization for example), the impact of changes in technology and markets etc. (6) Women workers in aquaculture: As mentioned earlier there is no information about the level of employment and conditions of work in aquaculture units in the region. Given that aquaculture is growing at such a rapid pace, it is important to look at this dimension and to monitor trends. While all these remain important areas for research, the importance of process cannot be overemphasized. Any research should be undertaken in a participatory manner, in ways which clearly benefits and empowers those at the community level, particularly women. Bibliography
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