A/HRC/55/49 degradation have been politically driven by granting primacy to corporations and profit-generation, not holding businesses accountable and belying a holistic appreciation of aquatic life. 77. In fact, small-scale fishers self-governing through communal marine tenure systems often create broad-based benefits by governing certain spaces as a public good. For example, in Sri Lanka, the customary tenure system known as the padu system is managed by monthly meetings during which members decide the rotation of fishing sites among the particular families and villages. The system of shared ownership and rotating access through a lottery mechanism fosters impartial fisheries management. The system ensures a fair distribution of benefits and acts as a powerful deterrent against overfishing and the depletion of marine resources. Moreover, the approach guarantees secure and impartial access to fishing grounds, significantly diminishes conflicts and promotes sustainable coexistence among diverse groups of fishers.88 78. Over the past decades, some countries have developed “rights-based approaches” to fisheries that have privatized fishing and tenure rights through programmes such as individual transferable quotas, catch shares or transferable fishing concessions. This approach allocates access to a fishing area or a share of a fishery’s total allowable catch to a group or an individual, and allows for the transfer or selling of those rights. Rights-based approaches to fisheries are fundamentally different than a human-rights based approach. The rights in question are narrowly construed in economic terms, leaving out social, cultural and political concerns. It enables profound degrees of inequality, since those with the most purchasing power and capital can purchase fishing rights or exploit existing rights. In fact, rights-based approaches have squeezed out small-scale fishers, have not necessarily been economically efficient or sustainable and have increased the rates of human rights violations, 89 and many blue economy initiatives have devastated coastal communities and small-scale fishers. Blue transformation B. 79. FAO is trying to balance economic interests with human rights through its Blue Transformation programme. Blue Transformation is the FAO vision to expand aquatic food systems and increase their contribution to nutritious and affordable healthy diets, ensuring environmental stewardship and inclusive growth, especially for those communities that depend on fisheries and aquaculture, leaving no one behind.90 80. The Blue Transformation initiative is driven by a desire to increase production to meet rising demand. Global consumption of aquatic foods increased at an average annual rate of 3.0 per cent from 1961 to 2019, a rate almost twice that of annual world population growth (1.6 per cent) for the same period. The rise of per capita consumption of aquatic foods has been primarily influenced by increased supplies, changing consumer preferences, advancements in technology and income growth.91 81. The Blue Transformation initiative aligns with the growing popularity of proposing aquaculture as a way to adapt to the global decline of fish stocks and respond to growing food insecurity. 92 In the 1950s, 4 per cent of fish produced was from aquaculture. By 2020, 49 per cent (88 million tons) of fish produced was from aquaculture and 51 per cent (90 million tons) was from capture fisheries. Also by 2020, aquaculture accounted for 56 per cent of the amount of aquatic animal food available for human consumption. 93 88 89 90 91 92 93 16 International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty, People-Centred Assessment, pp. 18 and 19. See also submission from Ekologi Maritim Indonesia. Edward H. Allison and others, “Rights-based fisheries governance: from fishing rights to human rights”, Fish and Fisheries, vol. 13, No. 1 (March 2012); and World Forum of Fisher People, Afrika Kontakt and Transnational Institute, “Human rights vs. property rights: implementation and interpretation of the SSF Guidelines” (Amsterdam, 2016). FAO, Blue Transformation in Brief (2023). FAO, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022, p. 81. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2022, p. 779. FAO, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022, p. 1. GE.23-26071