How do fishery resources enhance the development of coastal fishing communities: Lessons learned from a community-based sea farming project in Taiwan

Abstract

Taiwan government proposes a national level Coastal Blue Economy Growth (CBEG) program to promote ocean-linked industries based on the concept of sustainable development. Sea farming development is considered an important aspect that needs to be promoted for the CBEG program. Generally, sea farming relies on artificial technologies, environmental improvement and resource management to increase fishery resources and to enhance fisheries productivity. Developing sea farming could contribute to the transformation of capture fisheries; it integrates the concept of Blue Economy into sustainable economic development so as to improve economic activities in fishing communities. In line with this, the Taiwan government launched the Community-Based Sea Farming (CBSF) project in 2015. The CBSF project aims to establish sea farming zones to help fishing communities achieve sustainable development. In this paper, the development process of sea farming and site selection of the CBSF project were described and the needs of local people in fishing communities around sea-farming demonstration zones were also assessed. According to findings, a framework for sea farming development is proposed. In this framework, several new sea farming-based industries can serve as the driving force to accelerate the development of fishing communities. The driving forces include developing a community-based tourism recreational industry, strengthening localized marketing of featured seafood products, combining local ecological landscapes and cultures of the fishing village to develop recreational fishery activities, and integrating seafood products with recreational tourism activities. Overall, CBSF are important tasks that warrant continuous attention for enhancing the fishing community development. The experiences and framework of promoting the Taiwan CBSF project would provide beneficial information and foundation for decision makers and natural resources managers in other areas.