Livelihoods and economies
This goal measures jobs and revenue from sustainable marine-related industries.
CORE DEFINITIONS
- Overall Goal: Measures jobs and revenue from sustainable marine-related industries
- Two Subgoals:
- Livelihoods: Quality and quantity of jobs
- Focus: Marine-related jobs
- Example Industries: Commercial fishing, mariculture, tourism and recreation, whale watching, etc
- Economies: Amount of revenue produced
- Focus: Revenue for all coastal regions from marine-related sectors
- Coverage: Both direct and indirect marine industry connections
- Livelihoods: Quality and quantity of jobs
Key Questions
Livelihoods
There is a quantity and quality aspect to this goal, typically. Is there anything important to analyze apart from the quantity and quality of marine jobs?
- How (ideally) do we measure the quantity and quality of people’s marine-related jobs?
- How do we define the reference point?
- How do we incorporate sustainability into the assessment?
Economies
What are some important marine-sector industries within the Gulf that come to mind?
- How (ideally) do we measure the revenue of these sectors?
- How do we define the reference point?
- How do we incorporate sustainability into the assessment?
Goalkeeper Meetings
Meeting Access
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/3255055973
Key Team Members
- Adrian Munguia
- Amy Hudson Weaver
- Fernando Aranceta
- Francisco Fernandez
- Geovanni Coredero Herrera
- Hem Nalini Morzaria-Luna
- Juan Carlos Villaseñor-Derbez
- Mar Mancha-Cisneros
- Marlu Robledo
- Micheline Cariño Olvera
- Michelle MarĂa Early Capistrán
- Miguel Betancourt
Meeting Schedule (Friday 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PDT)
| Meeting | Specific Date | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | August 8, 2025 | Group introductions, OHI platform overview, goal calculations |
| 2 | September 5, 2025 | Model and reference point discussion |
| 3 | October 3, 2025 | Model, reference point, and data sources |
| 4 | November 7, 2025 | Preliminary results and pressure/resilience |
| 5 | December 5, 2025 | Final analysis plan review |
Google Calendar
Add the shared calendar to your Google Calendar account using the provided link. It will appear under “Other calendars” and provide access to all scheduled meetings with updated Zoom links.
Please let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to working on this initiative with you!
- Meeting #1 Slides to revisit the main ideas.
- LE Goalkeeper Ideas, where you can add your thoughts, ideas, and potential data sources to the ongoing collaborative document.
Meeting Summaries
Thank you for joining our first Livelihoods & Economies Goalkeeper meeting!
It was a great start to our work together in defining coastal livelihoods and economies for the Gulf of California, and how it should be integrated into this assessment.
During our discussion, the group came to the conclusion that incorporating both Livelihoods and Economies as subgoals is very important for the Gulf of California. This agreement allowed us to move into defining important direct and indirect coastal and marine-related sectors in the Gulf, as well as beginning to consider how to measure, categorize, and assess them.
The group discussed experiences from previous work in Mexico, including the use of surveys and household-level data (e.g., from INEGI and other organizations) to quantify livelihoods and employment. It was noted that the diversity of jobs in the Gulf requires considering the different contexts across the states that compose the region.
Sectors mentioned included:
Commercial fishing
- Artisanal fishing
- Subsistence fishing (the portion that is also sold, providing a livelihood)
- Industrial fishing (e.g., shrimp, tuna)
- Recreational fishing (sport fishing, such as tour operators for visitors who fish; in some locations this may be more economically important than scuba diving)
- Artisanal fishing
Tourism/Recreation
- Jobs that provide activities and experiences in the Gulf
- Jobs and revenue produced due to people visiting the Gulf
- Debate on whether certain jobs, such as hotel work, should be considered under marine-related tourism, particularly when they may generate revenue but could also have negative effects on local access to resources
- Jobs that provide activities and experiences in the Gulf
Ecotourism
- e.g., tours, whale watching, scuba diving, etc.
Aquaculture/Mariculture
Other possible sectors
- Renewable/tidal energy
- Salt extraction (though data may be challenging to find, particularly for small-scale operations)
- Organized crime (noting its complex role in some coastal communities — employing individuals and generating revenue, but also deterring fishing activities)
- Renewable/tidal energy
Sectors to discuss:
- Shipping and/or ships
- Ports
Data and measurement considerations:
Participants agreed to focus on identifying relevant job sectors, finding data on the number of jobs, their quality, and revenue associated with them. This includes considering:
- Sustainability metrics — Where is the revenue coming from, and to whom/where is it going?
- Local vs. external investment
- Scale of business operations (small-scale, artisanal vs. industrial)
- Adaptive behavioral changes of fishermen as job availabilities shift due to climate change
- Defining job quality — Is it the number of workers with benefits? In fisheries, how many have legal permits to fish? How many dependents are in each household?
The group acknowledged the challenges of quantifying small-scale operations and the lack of contextualized data for certain sectors, and emphasized the importance of identifying these data gaps to integrate them into the ideal goal model.
More topics to think about before our next meeting:
- What is the ideal state of livelihoods and economies for the Gulf of California?
- What could be potential indicators for measuring job number, quality, and revenue?
- Should a potential reference point be a temporal baseline?
Thank you all, and see you next meeting (see the LE Goalkeeper Group Information: who, what, when, where, why! tab at the top of the page for more information)!
Additional Insights & Examples
These are some of the points discussed by the Expert Working Group (EWG).
- The group discussed how to measure jobs and revenue from sustainable, marine-related industries, focusing on both the number/quality of jobs (Livelihoods) and economic output (Economies).
- Main livelihoods sectors identified: fishing, mariculture, tourism/ecotourism, recreation, and more.
- Major challenges flagged:
- Organized crime in fisheries is a significant threat, affecting security, job numbers, and potentially forcing diversification.
- Job security issues: Workers face risks like bribes, possible forced relocation, and lack of long-term benefits, pushing some out of fishing for more secure jobs elsewhere.
- Debate over job quantity vs. quality: rise in fisher numbers may be positive for livelihoods but may not address poverty or job sustainability.
- Government subsidies play a big role; all fishers receive payments, with notable political dynamics (e.g., vote buying).
- Interest in adding gender equality as a key indicator.
- Need to make sustainability an explicit sub-goal.
- For the Economies subgoal:
- Emphasis on capturing both direct and indirect revenue from marine sectors.
- Identified a need to map and include research institutes, universities, and NGOs operating in the region.
- Proposed using improved data sources (e.g., business registries, household surveys) for more accurate measurement.
- Marine infrastructure projects (e.g., underwater gas lines) are seen as added pressures.
- Mexico’s broader economic context was noted: there is a current recession phase, yet it has a high ranking in the World Happiness Report.
Nearly all assessments include one or both of these subgoals.
Typically, a high score is obtained when livelihoods and economies remain constant or improve (a temporal reference point).
For livelihoods, there have been several approaches to measuring job quality.
Some assessments include industries that do not require a healthy ocean (e.g., wind energy, shipping, etc.), others have excluded these.
A constant challenge is determining how to count jobs that are indirectly supported by marine industries (e.g., manufacture of fishing gear, etc.)