The work of a Saint Mary’s professor is reaching the global stage via two international United Nations symposiums.
Dr. Tony Charles, who teaches in both the School of the Environment and the Sobey School of Business, was recently invited to speak on the future of global and regional fisheries at the International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability. The event was held in Rome at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
The conference examined how decisions are made around all aspects of the fishery, with the aim to develop high-level policy on the role, value and sustainability of fisheries in the 21st century.
“My focus is on how fishing communities can do better in the future, how they can have healthier, better lives through conserving their local resources and environment,” says Dr. Charles.
“That’s been my interest for all my career here at Saint Mary’s, is how to make natural resources sustainable while providing livelihoods for people,” said Charles.
The topic is a timely one. Fisheries are linked with many of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals not just the health of the ocean, but ending poverty, food security, gender equality, climate change.
“There’s been a philosophy that government has to control fishing people or they will go crazy and catch too much fish. But what I and many others have been documenting over the years is that if you let the fishers operate as local communities, all around the world, what you see is that they actually conserve the fish.”
‘It turns out if you just let local communities take action themselves, and give them support for doing that, it’s very impressive what they can accomplish.”
Another project led by Charles is also being taken to the international stage. His publication Addressing the Climate Change and Poverty Nexus looks at the links between poverty reduction efforts and climate change action and will be presented by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization at COP 25 this week in Madrid. “It’s kind of a tool kit to the countries of the world on how to make poverty reduction come together with climate action, and vice versa,” says Charles.
Learn more: