Attempts to reduce global fisheries subsidies are suffering from the slow, or non-existent, progress in world trade talks, environmentalists fear.
A study by the University of British Colombia three years ago found that global fisheries subsidies amount to $30-34 billion a year, some $20 billion of which increases the capacity of fleets to fish longer, harder and further away.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) had estimated that more than 80 percent of the world’s fisheries are overexploited, fully exploited, depleted or recovering. According to estimates by environmentalist organisations, more than one billion people over the world depend on fish as a key protein source.
An important means to attack overfishing is to reduce global subsidies to fishing fleets, and negotiations to that end are part of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha round towards a reform of global rules for commerce. Despite ambitious work schedules, the Doha round talks have shown very little sign of progress recently.
“We’re in a sense hostage to the broader negotiation,” Michael Hirshfield, chief scientist at the US-based Oceana organisation, said in an interview with the Reuters news agency.
“We’re very concerned”.
Hirshfield spoke with Reuters in Geneva, where several environmental lobby groups followed trade negotiations that focused on fishing subsidies the first week in November. He added that it is important to distinguish between fishing by huge industrial fleets, subsidised by cheap fuel, and small-scale un-motorised fisheries in local, coastal waters – the latter not contributing to overfishing at all.
Some nations with large industrial fleets – e.g. China, Japan and South Korea – are, not surprisingly, reluctant to cut such support.
Hirshfield said Doha negotiators had told him that the talks would not move until the United States showed more interest.
“The question is whether it’s sufficient for the United States to re-engage or whether other countries or other obstacles will magically appear once the U.S. is eliminated as an excuse,” he added. “We just think that it’s critical for the WTO to include real reductions in global fishery subsides in any deal that is reached”.