Paper short abstract:

I discuss how the historically defined ontological human-nature relationship of small-scale fishing is at stake in claiming the moral rights of access to resources in Cap de Creus MPA against other maritime activities. This requires anthropologists' firm activism with the help of FAO SSF Guidelines.

Paper long abstract:

The socio-ecological embeddedness in Cap de Creus establishes fishing rights considering human-nature interdependencies throughout the time that articulates claims of tenure rights of the fishing communities against other maritime activities and environmental degradation.

The nuances of artisanal SSF are not reflected in legal texts that collide with social conceptions. While the legal conception includes certain techniques, a specific length, a net limit and fishing rights in certain maritime zones, artisanal fishing condenses different social representations according to the place associated with an expertise that entails a relationship with the natural environment linked to a common cultural substratum and that has passed from generation to generation.

Legal standardization in fishing regulation at the national or European level does not consider spatial, ecological and cultural specificities, resulting in a gap between legal norms and social practices adapted to environmental reality and cultural knowledge. This legal pluralism in the regulation and access to resources, coexisting in the same maritime space, highlights the "complex normative orders" composed of state (and supra-state) law, on the one hand, and customary law, on the other. I discuss how socio-cultural values embedded in this complex socio-ecological feedback, underpinned by the historically defined ontological human-nature relationship, are at stake in claiming moral rights of access to resources. This requires anthropologists' firm commitment, engagement and activism with the help of The FAO Voluntary SSF Guidelines. Guidelines that recognise small-scale fisheries’ tenure rights as a way to promote small-scale fishers’ stewardship over resources.