From local hubs to regional impact: harnessing the social and solidarity economy in small-scale fisheries

Abstract The global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for more equitable and sustainable pathways by integrating traditional communities into development efforts. Despite these ambitions, challenges persist, as many initiatives, including Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) businesses, often operate in regional silos with broader transformative potential. Small-scale fisheries (SSF), particularly in the Global South, remain as one of the most affected sectors by economic imbalances and social injustices. Using Latin America fishery nations as a starting point and a particular focus on Brazil, which has the largest population of small-scale fishers in the Americas, we examine how SSE can be more effectively integrated into SSF stewardship by analyzing the quantitative and geographical landscape of SSF organizations and the broader SSE environment. We combine official data in a regional comparative perspective to assess how SSF organizations, fisher populations, labor pools, and cooperative density are configured across Latin America. Our results show that countries with larger SSF populations and related labor pools tend to sustain more numerous SSF organizations, while the broader cooperative environment is positively associated with, but does not fully determine, SSF organizational density. In Brazil, SSF organizations are widespread but remain only weakly integrated into SSE-oriented institutional frameworks, reflecting fragmented policies, limited legal support, and uneven territorial coverage of enabling programs. These findings reveal both opportunities and constraints: existing organizational networks provide a broad institutional base for SSE expansion, yet important territorial and institutional asymmetries persist. By highlighting “investment-need zones” and proposing policy and institutional recommendations, we argue that Brazil has a unique responsibility and opportunity to lead SSE–SSF integration in Latin America. Advancing this agenda could foster greater equity, strengthen social sustainability, and inspire broader transformations across the Global South toward solidarity-driven fisheries development.