FAO FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE : AGENDA 2030

FAO FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE IN ACTION

The Sustainable Development Goals are a call for action by all countries to promote
prosperity while protecting the planet. The Strategies that build economic growth and
respond to a range of social needs including education, health, social protection and job
opportunities are adopted, while addressing climate change and environmental protection.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an action program for people, the planet and prosperity
signed in September 2015 by the governments of the 193 UN member countries.
The United Nations (UN) system affirmed its commitment to putting equality and non-discrimination at the
heart of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda (CEB, 2016).
The 2030 Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and related ongoing international and
national processes are highly relevant to the fisheries and aquaculture sector, including fish processing and
trade, and in particular to the sector’s governance, policy, investment and capacity development needs, to
stakeholder participation and collaboration and to international partnerships.
The 2030 Agenda and the SDGs present sustainable development as a universal challenge for all countries.
Numerous authors have explored the links between SDG 14 – Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas
and marine resources for sustainable development – and the other SDGs. Development Group (UNDG, 2017a,
2017b) and FAO (2017a) provide general guidance for mainstreaming of the 2030 Agenda and related integrated
programming at the country level.

FAO has elaborated a common vision for

sustainable food and agriculture (FAO,
2014a) as a framework for addressing
sustainable development in agriculture,
forestry, fisheries and aquaculture in a
more effective and integrated way. It sets
out five basic principles for the policy
dialogue and governance arrangements
needed to identify sustainable
development pathways across the SDGs,
across sectors and along related value
chains (Figure 33).
The common vision has been endorsed by the FAO Committees and the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI)
Sub-Committee on Aquaculture . Guidelines are being developed for policy-makers on how to engage
agriculture, forestry and fisheries in the 2030 Agenda (FAO, forthcoming).

In 2017, the COFI Sub-Committee on Fish Trade reviewed 2030 Agenda issues such as food loss and waste,
climate change, threatened species, marine protected areas and social sustainability in fish value chains (FAO,
2017b), while the COFI Sub-Committee on Aquaculture discussed the 2030 Agenda (FAO, 2017c; Hambrey, 2017),
recommending that FAO develop guidelines for sustainable aquaculture based on lessons learned from successful
aquaculture developments worldwide.
The expansion of protected areas for marine biodiversity, existing policies and treaties
are still insufficient to combat the negative effects of overfishing, the growing
acidification of the oceans and the worsening coastal eutrophication.
 The United Nations was convened in New York from 5 to 9 June 2017.
The Conference focused on solutions with the involvement of all stakeholders and aimed to:
 Identify ways and means to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14;
 Build on existing successful partnerships and stimulate innovative and concrete new partnerships to
advance the implementation of Goal 14;
 Share the experiences gained at the national, regional and international levels in the implementation of
Goal 14;
 Contribute to the follow-up and review process of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by
providing an input to the high-level political forum on sustainable development;
 Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable
development, is a major goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

 FAO pledged continued support to the implementation of components of SDG 14,

especially:

 strengthening of fisheries governance and reduce fishing excessive;

 upscaling of work to support small-scale fisheries;

 supporting fish trade so that it can contribute towards the achievement of the SDGs.
 UPDATE ON DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF
SDG 14 INDICATORS UNDER FAO’S CUSTODIANSHIP
Most pledges focused on actions to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal fishing through 2 main programs:

Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA)

• is the first binding international agreement to specifically target

illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. In this way, the
PSMA reduces the incentive of such vessels to continue to
operate.

Global Record of Fishing Vessels, Refrigerated

Transport Vessels and Supply Vessels

• is a phased and collaborative global initiative to make available,

in a rapid way, certified data from State authorities about
vessels and vessel-related activities. The programme aims to
combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by
enhancing transparency, traceability and safety of fish products.
 FAO’S ROLE AS CUSTODIAN FOR SDG 14 INDICATORS
FAO monitoring, activities and instruments play an important role in achieving the objectives of SDG 14

Indicator
14.6.1 - Illegal,
Indicator 14.4.1 - unreported and
Proportion of fish SDG 14 unregulated
stocks within fishing
biologically INDICATORS
sustainable levels FOR WHICH
FAO IS
CUSTODIAN

Indicator
14.7.1 -
Indicator Value added
14.b.1 – of sustainable
Access right fishing
for small-scale
fisheries
 FAO’S ROLE AS CUSTODIAN FOR SDG 14 INDICATORS

Indicator 14.6.1 - Illegal,

Indicator 14.4.1 - Proportion unreported and unregulated
of fish stocks within fishing
biologically sustainable levels

Indicator 14.7.1 - Value added of Indicator 14.b.1 – Access right for

sustainable fishing small-scale fisheries

TOGETHER WITH THE OTHER INDICATORS UNDER SDG 14, IT WILL FORM A PICTURE OF MARINE ACTIVITY
GIVING COUNTRIES INTELLIGENCE ON OPTIMUM LEVELS OF FISHING, AQUACULTURE EXPANSION AND FAIR AND
SECURE ACCESS TO LIVING AQUATIC RESOURCES.
 UPDATE ON DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF SDG 14
INDICATORS UNDER FAO’S CUSTODIANSHIP

Target 14.4 The fraction of world marine fish

stocks that are within biologically sustainable
levels declined. Thus 33.1 percent of fish stocks
were estimated as fished at a biologically
unsustainable level.
Target 14.b. Some 70% of
the respondents to the
Target 14.6. Almost all
2015 Code of Conduct for
respondents to the 2015 REPORTING ON SDG Responsible Fisheries
CCRF survey reported TARGETS 14.4., 14.6
AND 14.b survey have introduced or
having taken measures
developed regulations,
to combat illegal,
policies, laws, plans or
unreported and
strategies specifically
unregulated (IUU) fishing
targeting small-scale
fisheries.
 The existing SDG indicator 14.4.1 (proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels) is
based on assessments by FAO of major fishing areas and needs to be adapted for country-level
assessment.
 Assessing the status of fish stocks within exclusive economic zones (EEZs) may present numerous
governance and reporting challenges to many developing countries. At the global level, a consistent
monitoring framework is needed to meet the requirements of transparency and comparability in
estimating the indicator across time and countries.
 FAO provides the SDG reporting framework with necessary technical support and capacity building.

 Indicators for targets 14.612 and 14.b rely on data generated through country responses to the biennial CCRF
questionnaire.

 FAO provides support on related data collection, analysis and reporting through e-learning courses, securing
sustainable small-scale fisheries.
 THE GAP BETWEEN DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES’
SUSTAINABILITY TRENDS IN RELATION TO MARINE CAPTURE FISHERIES.

DEVELOPED COUNTRIES’
•developed countries are significantly improving the way they manage
fishing

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES’
•the situation in the least developed countries is worsening in terms of fleet
overcapacity, production per unit of effort and stock status
 FISH PRODUCTION OR UNDERDEVELOPEMENT?
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES’

• Reduction in
national fish
production
HOW TO FIX IT?
Developed countries have increased
• Reduced self- their imports of fish and fish products
from developing countries or in some
sufficiency cases have entered into access
agreements to fishing with to allow
the fleets of developed countries to
fish their national waters.
 TOWARDS THE GOAL OF AGENDA 2030
To eliminate the current disparity between developed and developing countries
and make progress towards overfishing the target set by the 2030 Agenda
The solutions include:

• enhancing regional and global partnerships to share management knowledge and enhance the
institutional and governance capacity of developing countries;

• adjusting fishing capacity to sustainable levels through policy and regulations, including judicious
use of targeted incentives, while eradicating subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and
overfishing or support IUU fishing;

• establishing a trading system for fish and fish products that promotes resource sustainability;

• encouraging a global mechanism and financial support to accelerate parties’ fulfilment of legally
binding and voluntary instruments.
 FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
In light of the 14.7 focus on SIDS (Small Island Developing States) , FAO will consult with
SIDS regional stakeholders on the indicator methodology under particular development to
help describe the value of sustainable fishing.