TBTI GLOBAL
New book
This book provides a deep understanding of how small-scale fisheries contribute to the food, nutrition, and livelihoods of fishers in Malaysia. Through insights gained across its 17 chapters, the book enhances our understanding of the sector’s complexity by highlighting the interplay among socio-economic vulnerability, environmental degradation, governance and community resilience. Contributions from academics, researchers, NGO representatives, and practitioners help readers navigate the importance and challenges of protecting the valuable fisheries resources. This is particularly crucial as coastal fishers face constant livelihood struggles exacerbated by overfishing, local environmental changes, and Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, which also contributes to marine pollution. To cope with these pressures, small-scale fisher households rely heavily on income diversification, the entrepreneurial efforts of housewives, and government subsidies. Because sustainable small-scale fisheries are deeply shaped by equitable access to resources for income and food security, we hope this book will be a valuable tool for stakeholders and practitioners working to support sustainable fisheries management. Ultimately, this work aims to raise public awareness and inform policymakers of the urgent need to protect these valuable fisheries and the livelihood of the communities in Malaysia.
The e-book “Windows into the World of Malaysian Small-Scale Fisheries” does what windows are meant to do – they let us see through, inside and out, shedding light about what researchers might need to do as an initial attempt to better understand what is happening in small-scale fisheries. Small-scale fisheries are known to be highly diverse, but how and why so is not always obvious. They struggle and seem to be facing multiple challenges but they are also resourceful, and, to some extent, can be self-organized to deal with change and uncertainty. Given the right conditions, they can also contribute to addressing societal problems like poverty, food security, and sustainability...
Reading the book, one can’t help but think of the 1946 classic “Malay Fishermen” by Raymond Firth. Firth revealed how fishers drew on social relationships, mutual support, community ties and cultural values to cope with challenges they faced at that time, like income instability, debts, and lack of bargaining power. We see similar stories today in “Windows into the World of Malaysian Small-Scale Fisheries”, with essays that portray individual fishers, from different generations and various communities, their livelihood and way of life. These life history essays give us insights about why they fish, what they do to sustain their families, and what they see as their future...
The stories about small-scale fisheries of Malaysia may sound familiar, but they also bring new directions. Dealing with poverty in small-scale fisheries is not about securing jobs and providing alternative incomes for the communities alone, but also about addressing broader issues like subsidies, value chain and biodiversity. Forming partnership between researchers, practitioners, environmental groups, and community-based organizations to deepen our understanding about small-scale fisheries, while learning directly about them through their stories, is a logical way to go about it.
Ratana Chuenpagdee
TBTI Global
Table of Contents
About the editors
Gazi Md Nurul Islam
Gazi Nurul Islam is a Professor in Tun Razak Graduate School at the Universiti Tun Abdul Razak, Malaysia. He specializes in environmental and natural resource economics. He holds a PhD in natural resource economics (fisheries) from Universiti Putra Malaysia. His research focuses on livelihoods of rural communities, environmental impact on poverty, social equity, social capital, inland and marine fisheries, community-based fisheries management, fisheries policy analysis, and marine protected areas. Gazi is currently engaged in collaborative research projects on small scale fisheries in Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh. He is involved in the global fisheries network such as Vulnerability to Viability (V2V) Global Partnership and Too Big To Ignore (TBTI). Gazi worked as social scientist with WorldFish Center, Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) where he actively participated in rural development programme, natural resources management and environmental projects.
Hemavathi Gunasegaran
Dr. Hemavathi Gunasegaran is a Senior Lecturer in the department of Entrepreneurship at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), where she is dedicated to nurturing future entrepreneurs through innovative and transformative teaching approaches. She holds a PhD from Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UniRazak), with research focusing on empowering housewives through entrepreneurship by examining the roles of passion, support, and competence in shaping entrepreneurial intention. Her work contributes meaningfully to women’s empowerment and aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in advancing gender equality and economic participation. Throughout her academic career, she has been honoured with several gold medals and awards in recognition of her excellence in innovation, teaching, and transformative business initiatives.