KARACHI: The loss of livelihood and absence of life’s basic amenities have pushed fishermen communities along Sindh’s coast into extreme poverty. There is a dire need to build their capacity and offer them support for income generation.

This was stated by speakers at a workshop held at a local hotel to highlight the work done in the coastal areas of Ibrahim Hyderi and Rehri Goth under a project.

The project — Sustainable fishing entrepreneurship, a citizen-based approach to saving Pakistan’s unique marine environment (Phase II) —was implemented by World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) in collaboration with Engro Foundation.

It aimed at providing assets related to fishing and building the capacity of fisherfolk to decrease post-harvest losses, reduce by-catch and overfishing.

Sharing details of the activities carried out under the project, WWF-P regional head Dr Tahir Rasheed said tools were distributed to help fishermen decrease post-harvest losses. The project enabled fishermen to safely release threatened marine fauna that often get entangled in their net.

“For plantation and rehabilitation of forests, 20,000 hectares of mangrove plantation are under way with the support of Engro Foundation,” he said, adding that multiple factors were responsible for loss of livelihood of fishermen.

Fawad Soomro, Country Head of Engro Foundation, said uncontrolled increase in the size of fishing fleets had resulted in overfishing in the marine waters of Pakistan.

“It is also ironic that post-harvest losses are extremely high because of poor handling and storage on fishing vessels as well as at the landing centres and during transportation,” he said.

The project, he pointed out, contributed towards conservation of ecologically important marine species, developed partnerships and built capacity of fisher communities, the key to improve coastal resources and mitigate poverty of underprivileged communities.

Ali Muhammad Mastoi, the director general of the coastal fisheries appreciated the project’s interventions and said similar work was being carried out along the coast of Thatta and Badin.

He was of the view that to empower local fishermen and improve their livelihood, efforts should be taken to upgrade jetties that would help improve the landing process and reduce post-harvest losses at the Sindh coast.

Altaf Sheikh, manager conservation Sindh, WWF-Pakistan, gave an overview of the project, its key achievements as well as the challenges fishing communities were facing, which included degradation of coastal resources, loss of livelihoods, poverty and lack of freshwater.

To make the project’s interventions effective, he said, the project established male and female fisherfolk groups, which worked towards community mobilisation, networking and awareness on conservation of coastal resources.

Local fishermen from Ibrahim Hyderi and Rehri Goth participated in the session to share their voices on challenges confronting coastal communities.

They also talked about their experiences on awareness, capacity building and adaptation of alternative livelihood options.

The event was concluded with distribution of mobile phones with data application to ten fishers and souvenirs to the guests.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2022