1st January 1999
Fish for Thought: Fisheries, International Trade and Sustainable Development
The Fisheries, International Trade, and Sustainable Development programme aims to inject both the sustainable development and natural resource management perspectives into the debate on trade and fisheries. The ultimate objective of the programme is to make international trade in fisheries supportive of sustainable development.
The programme’s main activity will be to convene a series of policy dialogues on fisheries, international trade, and sustainable development which will link processes and actors, and bring together all the different stakeholders’ perspectives. Initially the programme aims to facilitate a process in which each stakeholder can move beyond the constraints inherent in his or her position, to enable all participants to step back from particular debates and stand-offs regarding fisheries, trade, and sustainable development related issues such as subsidies, ecolabelling, or conservation measures. The dialogues, research, and information exchange process will seek to build common understanding and a baseline of shared information, and pave the way for participating stakeholders to seek solutions compatible with the aims of sustainable development by exploring ways to improve resource management while safeguarding the livelihoods of those who depend on fisheries, and ensuring economic growth for developing countries.
In order to support its policy dialogue process, the Fisheries, International Trade, and Sustainable Development programme will commission and publish a series of background and discussion papers which will flag issues at the intersection of fisheries, international trade, and sustainable development. These publications will be issued from time to time to present illustrative case studies, to highlight key issues for discussion, or to make available relevant empirical evidence.
As the first publication in this series, Fish for Thought sets out the context in which ICTSD and IUCN have conceived and launched the Fisheries, International Trade, and Sustainable Development dialogues process. Fish for Thought should also serve as a map, albeit a “map-in progress” to help focus thinking on some initial key questions at the intersection of fisheries, international trade, and sustainable development. It does not aim to be exhaustive, or to suggest policy options – that is the role of the stakeholders and the policy dialogues process – but rather aims to identify some initial key sustainable development concerns in fisheries trade.