SPAIN
FLAG Costa Sostible in Galicia boosts employment among shellfish gatherers
The hub of Spanish cockle production The fisheries sector in Europe, though relatively small in economic terms compared with other industrial sectors, plays a disproportionately large role in small coastal communities across Europe, where it is a source of livelihoods (sometimes the only one) and highly nutritious animal protein.
H
owever, areas where these communities are found, are facing several economic, social, demographic, and environmental challenges. To revive them, innovative responses must be devised that are both sustainable and inclusive. Among the solutions that have been implemented is Community-Led Local Development (CLLD), a bottomup approach to development that brings different stakeholders together, who propose and test ideas that benefit the community. CLLD is supported by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, the structural fund that aids the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy.
Development tailored precisely to local needs CCLD in areas where fisheries (or aquaculture) is an important economic activity takes the form of Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs). These bring together representatives from the private sector, public sector, and civil society organisations, for example, fishermen, processors, local administrations, and NGOs, who together identify the most pressing problems facing their community and develop a strategy for development that responds
to their specific requirements. Funding is available for projects that create employment, economic activity, or improve the quality of life. This approach to development has been popular with some 375 FLAGs spread over twenty Member States developing almost 4,500 projects. Spain has one of the biggest fisheries sectors in Europe by any measure — fleet size, landings, processing, aquaculture production, or consumption. The importance of the sector is also reflected in the number of FLAGs (over forty), the number of projects (700), and the average budget per FLAG (EUR 3.5m), all of which are at the very top end of the scale compared with other countries. The FLAGs are spread all along the country’s Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts. The Costa Sostible FLAG in Noia and Muros close to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia covers an area that includes two estuaries (rias) where rivers flow into the sea. Among the members of the FLAG are nine fishermen’s associations or guilds (cofradias). The members of one of these includes shellfish fishers who gather clams and cockles from the seabed. Although traditionally a woman’s activity, today of the 400 fishers who gather
Shellfish gatherers wait to have their cockles graded. They are paid based on the weight of each grade.
The system automatically grades and prints out a receipt with the name and number of the collector, the grades and the weights of each.
&VSPl TI Magazine 2 / 2020
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