Support toward secure tenure and rights recognition; A report on the consultation phase of the Marine Tenure Initiative

Coastal, shoreline and riparian communities, small-scale fishers and fishworkers, and Indigenous Peoples are intrinsically connected to aquatic and shoreline spaces and resources through residence, culture, way of life, food and economy. Small-scale fishers and fishworkers represent the largest group of ocean users, coastal communities are at the front line of climate change, and Indigenous Peoples have enduring histories of custodianship of ocean, lakes, rivers, coasts and shorelines. These communities have traditionally held communal rights to access, use, manage and govern these spaces. However, whilst rights and tenure regimes are acknowledged in international conventions and broader human rights law, these rights and relationships are, in practice, frequently overlooked, undermined, and even, at times, abused.

Despite the critical and vast nature that these communities hold to marine and riparian environments there is a striking lack of funding that flows directly to locally-led efforts in ways that center local rights, agency and self-determination. The deficit in funds reaching local levels and under community control is a trend evident in overseas development assistance, climate funding and ocean conservation funding. The funding that does make it to frontline communities is laced with top-down influence and shaped by striking power imbalances, with most of the philanthropic and governmental aid funding flowing through international non-governmental organizations or other institutions based in the Global North. These patterns in the governance and distribution of
aid and philanthropy have sustained and exacerbated the marginalization and disenfranchisement of local communities, small-scale fishers and fish workers, and Indigenous Peoples. 

The Marine Tenure Initiative is a two year project (2022-2024) of four phases - scoping, consultation, design and piloting - aimed to determine the need for, and then (if need and broad approach is confirmed) the development of a dedicated Facility (with possible launch 2024). The proposition that we considered through consultation, was that this Facility could deliver grants and support more directly to the grassroots, to support local communities, small-scale fishers and fish workers and Indigenous Peoples - and their rights and tenure - so that these communities were genuinely centered in the management, conservation, development and governance of oceans and aquatic systems.

It is critical that the Marine Tenure Initiative, and a Facility that may emerge, be guided and governed by rights holders - local communities, small-scale fishers and fisher workers, and Indigenous Peoples - and the groups that work in direct service and solidarity with them. This requires careful and broad consultations in the formative stages (this is the process described in this
report). The Marine Tenure Initiative (including but not limited to this consultation phase) also benefited from guidance and direction from a Steering Committee (established in late 2022) composed of advisors to, and leaders of, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and small-scale fisheries groups and networks.

This report summarizes, synthesizes and provides initial interpretation of the listening and consultations undertaken since the commencement of the Marine Tenure Initiative in mid-2022 and through until late-2023. We acknowledge that consultations and learning with local communities, small-scale fishers and fish workers and Indigenous Peoples - and the groups that work in service them - is necessarily an ongoing, iterative process - to effectively guide institutional design, strategy, sense-checking, transparency, and problem resolution. And as such, this report represents initial learnings and directions from the end of our dedicated consultation phase - but is far from the end of our listening, learning and adjustment.

The objectives of the consultation phase were to (1) understand priorities, challenges and proposed actions associated with rights recognition and secure tenure associated with oceans, coasts, shorelines and other aquatic spaces, (2) share, sense check and adjust the proposition of a new, bespoke ‘Facility’ might do and how it might operate, (3) hear pragmatic insights on processes to
effectively and appropriately channel funds and distribute grant decisions, and (4) understand how to fit, respectfully and constructively, into the landscape of other organizations, funding mechanisms, networks and groups working toward tenure security, rights recognition, and grassroots grantmaking.