On May 13th Snowchange Co-op represented by Tero and Kaisu Mustonen participated in the 2nd Stakeholder Group meeting hosted by Riga Planning Region, in the Bay of Riga region in Latvia, featuring CHERISH and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Tero Mustonen presented TEK approach within the context of historical background and cultural heritage of Latvia coastal fishing.
The programme contained a keynote by Tero Mustonen on the context of TEK in Latvia over four key historical periods -1941, 1941-1991, 1991-2004 and 2004-2019.
The day also contained reflections from the Festival of Northern Fishing Traditions from Tornio, Finland in September 2019 and a review of the situation in Latvia. Snowchange premiered “Koitajoki” – a short documentary about the highly-endangered river seining on river Koitajoki in North Karelia.
Actions were a part of the on-going policy-relevant positioning of TEK under CHERISH in the partner regions. It was also assisting the upcoming TEK Workshops, including the one in Latvia.
Important achievement of the meeting is that TEK emphasizes the value of traditional ecological value – it empowers coastal fishermen to negotiate with policy makers and decision makers to fight for low scale fishing opportunities. TEK approach advocates for environmentally friendly coastal fishing activities as opposed to high volume, industrial fishing.
For more info on TEK also read the report on the 1st TEK workshop
