Global overview of marine fisheries by S.M. Garcia and I. De Leiva Moreno (FAO Fisheries Department) Prepared for the Reykjavic Conference on Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem, 1-4 October 2001

Global overview of marine fisheries by S.M. Garcia and I. De Leiva Moreno (FAO Fisheries Department) Prepared for the Reykjavic Conference on Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem, 1-4 October 2001

Outline The State of the Resources: The Fishing Industry: The Governance Approaches: Conclusions

1. The State of the Resources Global Situation Global trends Regional perspective

0%10%20%30%40%50% Fully exploited Moderately exploited Overexploited Depleted Recovering Undeveloped

Production ( million tonnes) Year Upper limit (FAO, 1971) EEZs Claims

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Fully Fished Moderately fished: U+M Overfished: O+D+R

Phase I - Undeveloped Phase II - Developing Phase III - Mature Phase IV - Senescent 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Percentage of resources

IE PNW PSW PCW IW ANE AEC ASW PNE MBS PEC ACW ANW PSE ASE ANT 1.Antarctic 2.Atlantic, Southeast 3.Pacific, Southeast 4.Atlantic, Northwest 5.Atlantic, Western Central 6.Pacific, Eastern Central 7.Medit. & Black Sea 8.Pacific, Northeast 9.Atlantic Southwest 10.Atlantic Eastern Central 11.Atlantic Northeast 12.Indian Western 13.Pacific Central Western 14.Pacific Southwest 15.Pacific Northwest 16.Indian Eastern

0% 10% 20% 30% 50% % North PacificNorth Atlantic

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Antarctic Tropical Pacific Tropical Atlantic

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% %

2. The Fishing Industry The fishing fleet The fishers The technology Production and trade Contribution to food security

Gross Registered Tonnage ( 10 6 tons ) 1960 Non corrected Corrected

World fishers and fish farmers (in millions)

Fishing technology High technology adoption rate; Improved fishing range and capacity; Improved preservation and quality; Improved safety on board Reduced environmental impact; Improved MCS

Annual rate of increase

Imports Exports Developing countriesDeveloped countries US$ Billion dollars

Marine food / capita % used for human food

2. The Governance Approaches Performance Implementation problems Regional fishery bodies Improved frameworks Ecosystemic considerations The FAO Code of Conduct

Management approaches No global inventory; No universal approach; Mainly free and open access; Some limited-entry systems; Few rights-based systems; Abundance of “technical measures”; New global focus: capacity control, MCS, IUU, by-catch, vulnerable species, critical habitats, coral reefs, MPAs,.

Management performance There is room for improvement! overfishing, collapses, endangered species; overcapacity, subsidies, economic inefficiencies; environmental variability; Forecasting; environmental impact of fishing; habitat, discards; environmental impact on fishery resources; compliance (IUU); Ineffective regional fishery bodies. Integration into coastal areas management

Implementation problems There are enough principles and guidance, but: Equity problems: allocation lack of institutional capacity (e.g. decentralization) declining capacity in conventional research and statistics lack of capacity in the new research required less than effective regional fishery bodies impact of globalization Broadening requirements (ecosystems, integration) Mismatch between ecosystems and jurisdiction boundaries

Regional Fishery Bodies Not effective enough. Not enough power. failure to accept and implement international instruments; lack of willingness to delegate responsibility ineffective enforcement of management measures; lack of secretariat resources and capacity; weak decision-making processes; weak conflict-resolution mechanisms; inadequate scientific support; lax use of the scientific advice received.

Improved Frameworks Significant improvement in a decade! Formal recognition of the overfishing/overcapacity issue UNCED (1992) Compliance Agreement (1993) 1982 Convention intered into force (1994) UN Fish Stock Agreement (1995) FAO Code of Conduct (1995) and guidelines FAO IPOAs Formal recognition of the need for an ecosystem approach

Ecosystemic Considerations Significant changes occurred in the decade! Conventional management : weakly ecosystemic Awareness has raised since UNCED (1992) New instruments are available (CBD) New programmes are ongoing (ICRI, MPAs) New collaborations build up: e.g. FAO-CITES, FAO-UNEP Precautionary approach Sustainability indicators converging

FAO Code of Conduct  conservation of the aquatic ecosystems, monitoring & minimisation of environmental impacts of fishing and non- fishing activities;  protection and restoration of fishery resources, their environment, critical habitats, biodiversity, associated and dependent species, and endangered species;  prohibition of destructive fishing  the precautionary approach;  participatory management;  risks related to climate change Reflects consensus about :

Conclusions

The Resources Many resources require significant improvement in governance to recover or avoid being overfished The precautionary approach may help if fully applied, using MSY as a limit. Risk assessment and risk management need to become standard approaches; An ecosystem perspective is required

PSE AEC MBS ANT ANE ASW PNE PNW ACW PEC IE ANW PCW IW PSW 0%50%100 PEC PSW ANT PCW PNW IE ANW ASW MBS ANE ASE AEC PSE IW ACW 50%100 % “GOOD” “BAD” A: if fishing at MSY is “good” B: if fishing at MSY is “bad”

The Fishing Industry It achieved a lot in a difficult environment; It provides significant benefits; It benefited a lot from Governments; It is confronted with increasing societal requirements and a declining resource base; Its role is fundamental. It cannot afford not to face responsibilities.

The Governance Conventional governance has spread; It faces large scale social, economic and environmental problems; It has improved its framework;...but...needs much stronger political will; Its resources might be insufficient to face broadening societal requirements; More attention to small-scale fisheries is needed.

Fisheries have significantly contributed to human development and can still do so; There are problem areas and avenues for positive change; Change will never be at no cost; but

Global overview of marine fisheries