Coastal Livelihood Foundation is a registered non-profit company (Reg. No. 2015/085686/08) concerned with the upliftment of small-scale fishing communities by promoting responsible and sustainable fisheries management systems that are community based and effective. Although it’s initial focus is on fishing and therefore coastal communities, the broader vision is to contribute towards the creation of a Sustainable Network Of Enterprising Communities [SNOEC]. 

Small-scale fishing communities face a number of challenges. 

1. Many fishing communities are very remote and have no access to any form of emergency response at sea. Those that do, have no reliable means to contact would-be rescuers and no means to direct them accurately to their location. 

2. Unsustainable resource harvesting, be it legally or illegally, has led to near-depletion of many fish stocks, and subsequent reduction in quotas. 

3. Reduced quota allocation and other factors have led to on-going poaching in many fisheries by members of the local fishing community thereby increasing pressure on the resource.

4. Large scale, often international poaching syndicates further deplete the resource.

5. The new DAFF policy will allocate quotas to community fishing entities, not to individuals.

6. Reduced quota allocations result in an economic shortfall in local fishing communities, for which alternative sustainable livelihoods have to be found.

Our vision is to promote a culture under which the citizens of a town will assume responsibility for the actions of its individual members, in order to ensure the continued existence of a prospering and peaceful community who depends mainly on fishing for its livelihood. This will also empower communities to obtain the maximum long-term benefit achievable with DAFF’s new community fishing policy. We believe this is possible because in our experience many community fishermen:

1. choose to live the life of fishing; often it is based on a proud family tradition of fishing,

2. are more innovative and adaptable to modern technology than they are given credit for,

3. will, if given the opportunity, take a long-term responsibility for their own actions on the water, including safety and the more economical and sustainable harvesting of the resource.

The Foundation’s entry point in a fishing community is to facilitate the installation of the proven vmsTRACK Fishermen Safety system. In order to effect the change of culture, we will train selected members of each community in the science and economics of sustainable fishing practices. The Foundation will provide resources and guide these and other community members through the actions needed to reach the stated vision, which will include but not be limited to: 

1. Reach a state of mind where community members take responsibility for self and each other.

2. Communicate effectively with each other, with government and with other role players.

3. Effectively organise a response to a vessel in distress.

4. Gather accurate catch and effort data from every fishing vessel for every voyage. The data is collected, analysed and made available to the community concerned, to be used jointly by government and the community to implement a system of iterative management that is constantly re-evaluated based on sound scientific evidence. It will also provide traceability.

5. Enable the community to develop a culture which considers poaching as socially unacceptable since it threatens the existence of the community.

6. Work with other institutions that share the same vision or offer applicable solutions.