Gender-focused development interventions in small-scale fisheries: lessons learnt from a past project in Isabela Galapagos in Ecuador

In 2001, one of the first initiatives in Galapagos promoting the sustainable use of marine resources with the participation of women in the fisheries sector was launched. This case study tells the story of Pescado Azul (‘Blue Fish’ in Spanish), an association formed by a group of women, mostly wives of fishers, from Isabela Island, Galapagos Archipelago. Pescado Azul was created as a development-focused intervention to market processed products such as smoked fish, croquettes and albacore pate from local small-scale, artisanal fisheries. This study illustrates the origin, development and management of the initiative within Isabela´s context, explores its achievements and limitations. Some of the lessons learned and pitfalls by individual members of the association and institutional actors linked to the initiative are presented and analysed. Main findings show four as key reasons for the discontinuity of Pescado Azul after some years of success: a) the different visions that were the driving forces of the initiative by both the members and supporting institutions, b) the potential negative consequences of an inadequate planning of welfare actions, c) the importance of promoting initiatives with bottom-up rather than top-down approaches, and d) the gender-based strategies, which were not adequately developed at the time the project was implemented. Our findings contribute to better understand gender-focused interventions within small-scale fisheries as a way to illustrate strengths and threats to these types of initiatives, including the need for improvement in the planning and execution of similar development projects in Galapagos or in other places with similar social contexts.