People learn best through meaningful and fun experiences linked to evidence-based information that supports them to take action on plastic waste beach management.

Life systems are connected across geo-political and social boundaries. The Beach Co-op works within a global understanding of environmental and social opportunities and challenges but acts at the local and national level to address them.

Fisheries are complex systems with ecological and social components in which different challenges have been identified. One of these is to visualize the work performed by women in the fishery, which usually goes unnoticed because it is related to post- and pre-capture activities, and the rest of the value chain.

In 2017, COBI identified that, in the clam fishery in a fishing community in Sonora, women's work was not recognized as part of the fishery or given the opportunity to be part of the family fishing business.
COBI developed strategies together with the fisherwomen and fishermen to recognize the work of women and formalize their participation as members of the fishery. To this end, workshops were given to both men and women in the community, focusing on leadership and gender equality, and training was provided to women on database management. This has brought results with economic, social and personal benefits for the fisherwomen and the fishing organizations, since it improved the organization and administration of the cooperatives.

By their nature, small-scale fisheries tend to have limited, poorly systematized data and short time scales. This scarcity of information represents a challenge for understanding, for example, the interaction of fishing gear with the ecosystem and its impact on the habitat; such information is fundamental in the implementation of a fishery improvement project. Around the world, different methodologies have been developed to generate information on the impacts of the fishery on the ecosystem; one of them is the modeling based on the Ecopath program with Ecosim.
COBI used this tool including information generated by fishermen and fisherwomen through fishing logs, as well as biological and ecological information for the species that inhabit the fishing zones. In addition, to strengthen the model, the traditional ecological knowledge of the fishing communities was integrated through the application of interviews, from which relevant information was obtained on the diet of the species, their geographic distribution, reproductive season, etc.

The collection of fisheries data is one of the commitments acquired when there is a right of access to the resource, as well as when working under a sustainable fisheries scheme. In order to demonstrate that the fishery is developing its activities under this scheme, data and information are obtained by implementing a fishery monitoring system.

The clam and tripe fishery had been characterized by a sustainable fishery, however, there was no data systematically captured to document the activities carried out in the long term. To address this need, COBI and community partners jointly implemented a fishery monitoring program. With the fishermen and fisherwomen, a logbook was designed with data such as date, time, boat, diver, target species, fishing site, number of organisms, size of organisms collected, income and expenditure. All the members of the cooperatives and fishing technicians were trained to fill out the fishing logs and one person per fishing cooperative was responsible for recording the data.

Clams and tripe consumption worldwide is growing. Their flavor and texture have attracted the attention of domestic and export markets. Buyers are looking for these products fresh and with good handling practices, so it is necessary to identify and document the route that takes the product from the sea to the consumer's table, which is known as traceability. These procedures make it possible to know the origin and history of a product throughout the supply chain, promoting transparency.

In Mexico, a fishing organization that carries out sustainable practices for tripe found the opportunity to trace the route of these products from the sea to the consumer's table. When the callus is caught, each organism is tagged with a tag and QR code. Afterwards, the end consumer scans it with his cell phone and obtains information about the fishing cooperative, place of cultivation and the sustainable fishing practices used since its cultivation and use. Thus, the effort of the fishing organization and its sustainable practices are recognized, the quality of the product, its legal origin and the health of the consumer are assured.

A harvest strategy is a set of formally or traditionally agreed tools used to ensure good resource utilization. In clam and tripe fisheries, harvest strategies are defined based on the best available information. However, sometimes the strategies and rules are not applicable with the same recipe throughout the country due to variations in the biological, environmental and social conditions of each region. This lack of information at the local level poses a challenge to define strategies according to the local characteristics of the fishery and to evaluate its performance. To address this need, we have worked together with all the stakeholders involved (fishing communities, government, academia and civil society organizations), generating information through fishing logs to ensure that fishing is carried out in accordance with the strategies implemented. By incorporating the knowledge of the communities to the information recorded, it is possible to generate new participatory strategies, better adapted to local conditions.

Integrated management zones (IMZ) are an innovative approach for the management and recovery of bivalves, applied in the clam and callus fisheries in Mexico. To implement this tool, the following was done: 1) the work area was defined and delimited; 2) areas with suitable characteristics for bivalve culture were identified with the communities; 3) biological (measurements and weight of the organisms) and ecological (abundance, diversity, richness and distribution of the species) information was generated for the proposed area, and it was submitted to a vote among the users for its establishment as IMZ; and, 5) systematic monitoring was implemented to identify long-term changes.

This story began with a cooperative that wanted to recover the populations of callo de hacha. It was later replicated by a cooperative of young commercial divers and later by a group of women who consolidated as a cooperative to recover the estuarine clam population. The results have been positive; e.g., the population of callo went from 0 to 13,000 individuals in five years in an area of 25 hectares, collecting seeds from the natural environment.

By their nature, small-scale fisheries tend to have limited, poorly systematized data and short time scales. This scarcity of information represents a challenge for understanding, for example, the interaction of fishing gear with the ecosystem and its impact on the habitat; such information is fundamental in the implementation of a fishery improvement project. Around the world, different methodologies have been developed to generate information on the impacts of the fishery on the ecosystem; one of them is the modeling based on the Ecopath program with Ecosim.
COBI used this tool including information generated by fishermen and fisherwomen through fishing logs, as well as biological and ecological information for the species that inhabit the fishing zones. In addition, to strengthen the model, the traditional ecological knowledge of the fishing communities was integrated through the application of interviews, from which relevant information was obtained on the diet of the species, their geographic distribution, reproductive season and sightings.

When we think of fishing, we imagine spaces where men predominate and the only activity is the extraction of resources. In order to have a complete picture of the fishery, it is important to include post-harvest, pre-harvest and complementary activities. This allows us to know the fishery in more detail and to identify and recognize the work carried out by fishermen and fisherwomen.

Since 2015, COBI has participated in implementing fishery improvement projects in collaboration with the productive sector. In addition to environmental improvements, these projects currently seek social improvements that include gender equality. At the beginning of these projects, it was identified that the work done by women, not being extractive work, was not recognized as part of the fishery, a paradigm that is being broken with years of work.