The global information system on small-scale fisheries (ISSF): A crowdsourced knowledge platform

Abstract Information about small-scale fisheries (SSF) is often scarce and scattered. This is partly due to insufficient attention on this sector, whose contribution to society is often assumed to be negligible. It also results from SSF being highly diverse, with complex patterns of harvest and post-harvest activities taking place in a wide range of aquatic environments and often in remote areas. Existing fisheries information systems fail to fully capture the characteristics and essence of SSF, resulting in a lack of integrated and up-to-date data, which further marginalizes the sector in policymaking and governance. To help rectify the situation, the Too Big To Ignore project developed the Information System on Small-scale Fisheries (ISSF), a Web-based, open data portal to collect and disseminate knowledge on various aspects of SSF. This paper describes the conception of ISSF and its key features, and presents some results extracted from the analysis of ISSF data, illustrating the importance of such a global database on SSF.

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