Attendance at the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, Tenure and User Rights Conference in Yeosu, Korea 10 to 14 September 2018
People Development Program: FRDC indigenous development scholarship - Matthew Osborne
The indigenous development scholarship is part of the suite of professional development opportunities developed and managed through the FRDC people development program. This particular scholarship addresses the following objectives of the people development program 2008-2013:
Objective 1 Enhance industry leadership within all sectors
and; Objective 3 Provide opportunities for knowledge transfer and R&D adoption
The significant drivers identified in the FRDC people development program, addressed by this project
are:
- There is a shortage of industry leaders in all sectors of the fishing industry.
- There is an urgent need to develop people within all sectors who have the skills to effectively contribute to debate and policy development for significant challenges, including access to fish resources.
-Early career researchers and emerging industry leaders lack opportunities for formal mentoring and
professional development.
-There is a shortage of opportunities for people in industry to develop skills that are going to directly
improve business profitability and sustainability.
-The industry is geographically dispersed and fragmented, and needs opportunities to learn within and
across sectors.
Identifying opportunities for developing community supported fisheries in South Australia’s small scale, multi-species, multi-gear community based fisheries
The LCF and MSF have indicated that they want to reconnect consumers with local sources of seafood, for enhanced freshness, food safety and assurance of sustainable fishing methods, including creating new markets for independent fisher suppliers, while at the same time allowing consumers to invest in their community and nearby ecosystems. Overall the LCF and MSF want to convey the contribution they make to the local and regional economy, in particular supporting healthy communities and local fishers being environmental stewards of the resource. Having said this, the LCF and MSF have limited capacity, skills and tools to facilitate or build upon this reconnection. In addition to this, recently commissioned research by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture found the seafood industry is not front of mind for consumers.
Final report
PIRSA with the support of Dr Joshua Stoll held several workshops and meetings with commercial fishers in the South Australian Lakes and Coorong Fishery (LCF) and Marine Scalefish Fishery (MSF), members of Wildcatch Fisheries SA and fish markets to understand whether the concept of a Community Support Fishery (CSF) would be applicable in South Australia. These workshops and meetings provided insight into the challenges being faced by commercial fishers and the many opportunities that lay ahead.