SCELG Member Julia Nakamura co-authors article published in July’s issue of Marine Policy Journal

May 2021 — A new article entitled Unpacking legal and policy frameworks: A step ahead for implementing the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines, co-authored by SCELG member Julia Nakamura, is published in July’s issue of Marine Policy Journal 

Since early 2020, Julia has been collaborating in various activities with Prof Ratana Chuenpagdee, principal investigator of the Too Big To Ignore (TBTI) Global Partnership for Small-Scale Fisheries, and Mostafa El Halimi, TBTI’s research assistant, both based at University of Newfoundland, Canada. Julia is a TBTI member and has co-led one of the teams of the TBTI Covid-19 Job Initiative, focused on legal and policy issues relevant for small-scale fisheries. She also presented on the Blue Justice panel for the Small is Bountiful Webinar; recorded an introductory video for the Transdisciplinary Training Program; and co-edited the e-book Unlocking Legal and Policy Frameworks for Small-Scale Fisheries: Global Illustrations. 

A recent outcome of this collaboration is the article Unpacking legal and policy frameworks: A step ahead for implementing the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines, which is published in July’s issue of Marine Policy and will be made available open-access. This article introduces a rapid appraisal approach to analyse existing laws and policies of 25 countries and its alignment with key issues relevant for small-scale fisheries, as enshrined in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)’s Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication. This article integrates Julia’s own research, which is focused on small-scale fisheries and international law. Also linked to this line of research is another article Julia co-authored with Prof Fábio Hazin (Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Brazil) entitled Assessing the Brazilian federal fisheries law and policy in light of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale fisheries in Marine Policy in 2020.