Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 5 • Number 5 • 18th March 2005
NEW FAO REPORT INTRODUCES WEEK OF DEBATE ON FISHERIES
NEW FAO REPORT INTRODUCES WEEK OF DEBATE ON FISHERIES
The FAO report "The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture" (SOFIA 2004) released on 7 March confirms a continued decline in exploitable marine fish stocks, threatening food security and poverty alleviation efforts. In the week following the release, delegates met for the 26th session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) from 7-11 March in Rome to discuss challenges facing efforts to achieve sustainable fisheries with a particular focus on implications for livelihoods in developing countries.
Dwindling stocks affect economic development
According to SOFIA 2004, as much as 75 percent of global marine fish stocks are now fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted, confirming a consistent decrease since 1974 in marine fish stocks with potential for further exploitation. Currently only three percent of marine stocks are underexploited, while 21 percent could support modest increases in landings. The report highlights the “challenging necessity” of restoring depleted fish stocks, given that the decline has implications for food security, poverty alleviation and economic development, as well as for marine ecosystems.
Despite the strained marine stocks, global fish production reached a new high of 133 million tons in 2002. Whereas the global landings from capture fisheries have decreased since 2000, this decrease has been more than offset by an increase in aquaculture production. In 2002 aquaculture represented 29.9 percent of total production, and the FAO projects that this figure could reach 39 by 2015.
Moreover, total world trade of fish and fishery products increased to US$58.2 billion in export value in 2002, representing a 45 percent increase since 1992. For many economies, export of fish and fish products constitutes an important source of foreign currency earnings. The net foreign exchange income derived from fish in developing countries increased from US$11.6 billion in 1992 to US$17.4 billion in 2002. Low-income food deficit countries accounted for more than 20 percent of total export value.
As well as being important for government revenues, fisheries and aquaculture directly employ 38 million people worldwide, eighty-five percent of these in Asia. Furthermore, the report states that human consumption has increased and that fish provides 2.6 billion people with at least 20 percent of their animal protein supply.
FAO Committee focuses on developing country concerns
At the FAO COFI, the importance of the fisheries sector for developing countries was highlighted during the debate on fisheries and trade. In order for developing countries to benefit further from trade in fish and fish products, the FAO was urged to provide technical assistance to meet international regulatory standards. The FAO was also encouraged to consider ways for trade to enhance employment and income benefits for small-scale sustainable fisheries.
The development aspect was also raised in the discussions on eco-labelling of fish and fish products. In order to prevent eco-labelling from becoming a barrier to trade, it was noted that the system should be transparent, consistent with WTO rules and not out of reach for developing countries. The need for voluntary and internationally agreed guidelines for eco-labelling was widely acknowledged by delegates, who adopted the recently-developed FAO guidelines with some reservations calling for additional work and clarification.
In the debate on fisheries subsidies, it was underlined that the work of the FAO should complement and not overlap with the efforts made within the WTO where negotiations are currently underway on possible disciplines for fisheries subsidies (see Bridges Trade BioRes). Given the importance of the sector for food security and livelihoods, the Committee stressed the need to distinguish between different categories of subsidies depending on their effects on stocks, poverty alleviation and economic development. Based on the FAO work programme on fisheries subsidies adopted at the meeting, the FAO will in the short-term focus on the links between subsidies and development and the comparison of subsidy impacts on industrial and artisanal fisheries. In the longer term, the FAO aims to identify the impact of fisheries subsidies on various resource management regimes.
Delegates also discussed the concerns raised in SOFIA 2004, challenges facing efforts to achieve a sustainable level of fishery exploitation, and options for doing so. Among the issues debated were illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities, the establishment of marine protected areas, and the problems confronting small-scale fisheries. Participants addressed the effects of new technologies that had changed fishing practices, in particular by making it possible to commercially exploit bottom-dwelling stocks already vulnerable to overexploitation due to their low productivity.
Tsunami relief on the agenda for fisheries ministers
The rehabilitation of fisheries and aquaculture in countries hit by the 2004 tsunami occupied a central position in discussions at the COFI meeting. This was underlined by the joint statement adopted by fisheries ministers and senior officials during a ministerial meeting that followed the FAO session, in which governments called for sustainable reconstruction and emphasised the importance of fisheries for the livelihoods of tsunami-affected communities. A second declaration made by the ministers acknowledged the need to strengthen cooperation on high sea fisheries through the Regional Fisheries Management Organisations, and calls for large-scale vessels to be fitted with vessel monitoring systems by 2008. The ministers would also like to see a global record of fishing vessels to be established in an attempt to combat IUU fishing.
Additional Resources.
Documents of the COFI meeting.
Report of a FAO expert consultation on subsidies in the fisheries sector.
FAO work programme on fisheries subsidies.
FAO guidelines on eco-labelling.
ICTSD reporting.