This workshop was the second of a series of regional workshops on fisheries tenure and user rights. It aimed to discover regional nuances and specificities of the Latin America and Caribbean area to develop how-to guidance on appropriate tenure systems and rights-based approaches for fisheries. Representatives from both government and non-government sectors attended this workshop. Participants at the workshop presented fisheries tenure and user rights of 11 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Jamaica, Grenada, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Uruguay. Participants discussed in plenary three topics: 1) Recognition and allocation of tenure rights and responsibilities; 2) Transfers and other changes to tenure rights; and 3) Administration of tenure. Participants made recommendations for future work, including (1) increasing efforts on securing small-scale fishers rights; and (2) finding solutions on how different sectors can coexist. To do so, participants requested more information and guidance on tenure and user rights in fisheries along with on-the-ground support.

The Friends of User Rights 2021 – Online Expert Meeting was organized by FAO to seek the participating experts’ inputs on the work done by the FAO Tenure Team since the last Friends of User Rights meeting in 2019 and guide the way forward on FAO’s fisheries tenure work. The expected inputs from the meeting included (1) review and comment on the draft policy brief of tenure and tenure-related definitions, (2) review and comment on the paper on inland fisheries, and (3) recommendations for the way forward, including next steps and additional activities for the development of guidance on how to design and implement appropriate tenure, access and user rights in fisheries. There was broad agreement among participants that FAO should explore different formats for the papers to contribute to and support technical guidance. Regarding the technical guidance, participants provided several outlines and content options that FAO could use in the future.