Sustainable fishing: Fairer Fisheries Partnership Agreements
What's the problem?
Many countries, mainly EU member states, the US, Korea, China, and Japan, sign deals with developing countries to access their fish resources. If properly designed, these Fisheries Partnership Agreements can be sustainable and provide much-needed revenue for cash-strapped countries. But more often than not, they result in overfishing and create substantial tension between governments, local fishers' organizations, and industrial groups.
Find out more...
Find out more...
More information
- Factsheet: Managing fishing fleets (pdf)
- Brochure: Fair fishing deals
- Factsheet: WWF's European Fisheries Initiative (pdf)
- Factsheet: WWF's ForTuna Initiative (pdf)
- News: New EU deals with Africa still fishy
We are working for fair Fisheries Partnership Agreements for fish resources in developing countries.
WWF's Global Marine Programme is promoting Fisheries Partnership Agreements that:- respect sustainable fishing levels
- account for environmental costs
- protect local fishers
- include compliance with flag state laws
- are based on best practice fisheries management
- include cooperation on research and monitoring
- ensure adequate monitoring and enforcement capacity
- ensure fairer sharing of economic benefits between producer and extractor nations
Our work includes:
- The development and promotion of a handbook for developing nations to use when negotiating agreements with the EU, the US, and Asian countries.
- Advocating for a new framework for negotiating fishing access agreements between the EU and other countries that better promotes sustainable development in developing countries. We will monitor the impacts of these new agreements on local economies and ecosystems, and seek coherence between the EU's development and fisheries policies, highlighting areas of weakness.
A better deal for Senegal
The fisheries agreement between the EU and Senegal was renewed in June 2002. Thanks in part to WWF’s efforts, the four-year deal, worth €64 million, took some significant steps towards achieving more sustainable fisheries and developing Senegal's fishing industry.
For example:- 18% of the EU's payments to Senegal are now dedicated to support conservation of fish stocks and strengthen the Senegalese fishing sector
- to protect the interests of local fishers, the areas where EU vessels can operate has been restricted and the overall EU fishing opportunity for certain stocks has been reduced
- the number of Senegalese fishers required to be employed on EU vessels has been increased from 33% to 50%
- EU landings of tuna in Dakar have increased, to support the local fish processing industry
- pelagic trawling (two trawlers dragging one net), which results in high bycatch levels, has been banned and an annual two-month fishing ban has been established to replenish help fish populations
- provisions have been made for observers on EU vessels to increase Senegal's ability to monitor the deal
Still room for improvement
According to WWF’s recent analysis of this agreement, the deal is a major step forward ... but there is still room for improvement for the renewal in 2006. The reduction of quota is inadequate and research must be further strengthened to identify sustainable fishing quota and closure periods. The provisions to protect the country's small-scale fishing community also need to be improved. Surveillance and enforcement must be increased for this sector and local fishers need to be more closely involved in forthcoming agreement negotiations.
WWF has also been invited by the Cape Verde, Mozambican, and other African governments to assist with Fisheries Partnership Agreement negotiations.
