Implementing sustainable fisheries management

There are several tried and tested practices that can improve the sustainability of fishery management. These include actions that:

• Tackle overfishing and restore stocks:
  • Implement science-based harvest strategies and rebuilding plans at the provincial, national and regional level.
  • Support capacities to improve data collection and data use in fisheries management.
  • Support transparency in the fisheries sector, including data on beneficial ownership, flags of convenience, Joint Ventures and publicly accounting the use of revenues resulting from foreign fisheries access arrangements.
  • Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing including through effective monitoring, control and surveillance as well as the implementation of internationally binding agreements and voluntary guidelines.
  • National competent authorities can use Catch Documentation Schemes to validate documents and verify that products have been legally sourced. These accompany the harvested aquatic animals from fishing grounds to markets, allowing the catch to be fully traceable and verifiably compliant with all applicable requirements.
  • Regulate fishing equipment to ensure that it has minimal impact on natural habitats, biodiversity, the seabed or surrounding waters.
  • Establish and increase reserves and replenishment zones to provide fish with safe areas for growth and reproduction.
  • Introduce open-and-closed seasons where fishers can catch specific fish species, and mandate fishery closure periods to allow time for stock recovery.
  • Import states need to take responsibility: Support fisheries-specific due diligence regulations to effectively control and ensure the sustainability of seafood imports. Support technology improvements to guarantee sustainability along the fisheries value chains, e.g. blockchain methodology.
• Reduce and eliminate bycatch:
  • Bycatch poses a significant threat to the marine environment, causing dramatic declines in populations of many marine and inland species, thereby disturbing functional food web connectivity. Reducing bycatch can be achieved through both policy and technical measures, such as the introduction of innovative fishing equipment that reduces bycatch and negative habitat impacts. More detailed actions to reduce bycatch are outlined in the FAO International International Guidelines on Bycatch Management and Reduction of Discards.
• Promote implementation of responsible and sustainable fishing guidelines:
  • Encourage implementation of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.
  • Promote responsibly-caught seafood, such as that certified as sustainable by ISEAL– and GSSI-approved third-party certification schemes, e.g. the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), and/or ‘green’ rated according to WWF’s seafood guides.
  • At the same time, promote sustainable local and regional low-impact small-scale fisheries with a demonstrable lower environmental footprint, acknowledging that certification systems are not an economic option for many of these fisheries.
  • Promote the adoption and implementation of relevant international instruments by states:
    • Key agreements include the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the UN Fish Stocks Agreement, 1995, the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictions Agreement, 2023 (BBNJ Agreement), the FAO Compliance Agreement, 1993 and the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures, 2009, which aims to prevent vessels engaged in IUU fishing from using ports and landing their catches.
    • Labour laws based on the ILO Protocol of 2014 to the 1930 Forced Labour Convention, 1930 and the ILO Work in Fishing Convention, 2007 are crucial for the protection of migrant workers, temporary workers, and maritime workers from modern slavery and human rights abuses.
    • Through the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement, the WTO agreed to prohibit certain harmful fisheries subsidies in 2022, urging members to prohibit subsidies in unequivocally risky situations from a sustainability point of view, i.e. related to IUU fishing, fishing on stocks assessed as overfished if no rebuilding measures are implemented, and fishing on the unregulated high seas.
  • Important Voluntary Guidelines, e.g. the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Flag State Performance, the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Catch Documentation Schemes, and the FAO Checklists and Technical Guidelines to Combat IUU Fishing can support the implementation of these agreements.
• Promote sustainable, ecosystem-based small-scale fisheries and strengthen their role in environmental stewardship:
  • Support effective, equitable, and inclusive community-based fisheries management and support small-scale fisheries actors by implementing the FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Small Scale Fisheries.
  • Improve registration and information-reporting by fishers, in particular small-scale fishers and fisheries workers, through reporting systems to support data-driven, sustainable fisheries management, improve sectoral oversight, and enable informed policymaking.
  • In parallel, enhance access to social protection schemes by ensuring that registered fishers and fisheries workers are recognized within national social security systems.
  • Support transparency and political participation of small-scale fishers in policies that affect them.
  • Secure tenure rights against competition from more powerful blue economy actors (e.g., oil/gas, maritime transport, tourism) who often negatively impact marine ecosystems and coastal communities.
  • Enable more equal access to fisheries, while developing labour protection policies, strategies, and programs for fishery workers.
  • Increase financial support in the context of the sustainable blue economy and ocean management, e.g. promote business schools especially for women.
  • Support technical and infrastructure capacities, safety at sea, and post-harvest processing, e.g. support cooperatives, especially for women.
  • Utilize the Fisheries Management Assessment Tool (FISHMAT) which provides a platform to assess small-scale fisheries, visualize data and use adaptive management to achieve fishery goals.
• Reduce fossil fuel use and promote renewable energy in fishing, with the restriction that vessel modernization does not lead to increased fleet capacity:
  • Adopt and promote low-impact, fuel-efficient (LIFE) practices and gears that improve the efficiency of fishing techniques.
  • Promote efficient propulsion and onboard energy generation by reducing cruising speed, using hybrid propulsion systems (electric + diesel) and biofuels, and optimizing hull and propeller design. These have been shown to generate fuel reduction and cost savings.
  • Stimulate investment in the use of solar PV systems to charge motors of small fishing boats.
  • Develop dedicated policies and enabling frameworks to stimulate investment in technical solutions by value chain stages in the small-scale fisheries sector. Strengthen capacities of institutions and organizations to promote renewable energy-powered technologies and increase awareness of their utility among small-scale fishers.
• Prevent plastic waste from fishing. Minimize at-sea fishing gear losses to avoid “ghost fishing”, such as by engaging in the Global Ghost Gear Initiative. Specific measures can include:
  • Control measures for eliminating and reducing the production, use and trade of avoidable and high-risk plastic fishing gear.
  • Control measures on the safe circulation and environmentally sound management of fishing gear.
  • Environmentally sound waste management of fishing gear.

In addition to those already outlined, the following steps can be taken to further ensure that management and governance arrangements provide for the sustainability of the fishery, including best science-based harvest control rules, facilitation of adequate reporting, monitoring and surveillance / compliance, high levels of transparency and regular assessment and adjustment:

• Ensure the application of a precautionary approach regarding ecological, social, and economic impacts of the fishery, including climate change impacts.
• Through national and international resource management strategies:
  • Integrate fisheries into broader planning and governance frameworks.
  • Work with Member States of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations to implement more equitable and sustainable resource harvest strategies in the High Seas – areas beyond national jurisdictions.
  • Establish large-scale marine protected areas through the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction treaty, agreed within the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
  • Include management measures to protect and conserve blue carbon ecosystems and the conservation and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass beds, to strengthen adaptation and resilience.
• Enhance fisheries management capacity:
  • Increase transparency in the sector under such mechanisms as the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI).
  • Improve the quality of fisheries data. This is key to implementing sustainable fishery practices, as an absence of robust data collection programs limits opportunities for responsive action. Support developing countries in their capacities to do so.
  • Ensure sufficient finance is allocated to fisheries management in countries, and that the source of financing is independent from access revenues from foreign fishing fleets to minimize conflicting interests and risk of corruption affecting fisheries sustainability.
  • Develop tools and train staff in data management, exploration and curation (i.e. quality control) and in the use of suitable assessment approaches (e.g. data-limited, simple indicator-based methods).
  • Promote and support collaboration with fishing communities in data gathering and interpretation and facilitate the use of technology and knowledge transfer in the collection of data and information.
• Strengthen enforcement capacities:
  • Assess and strengthen technical capacities for compliance and enforcement.
  • Develop and implement monitoring processes to understand the social and economic implications of management actions.
  • Develop safety-at-sea measures suited to a changing climate and shifting fish availability.
• Ensure inclusive fisheries policies:
  • Ensure fisheries policy and management decisions are inclusive and enable equal access (i.e., for impacted populations, including small-scale fishers, Indigenous Peoples, women, local communities, and other marginalized groups who need a voice and seat at the table) while promoting respectful recognition of both scientific evidence and local and traditional knowledge.
  • Publish all available information in local languages as a basis for greater knowledge access, education and participation of fishery stakeholders.
  • Explicitly consider gender differences in terms of vulnerability and build on the specific skills and the positive role women and youth can play.
  • Strengthen the tenure and rights of access to fisheries and fishery-related resources by fishing communities.
  • Promote the reduction of socioeconomic inequalities and implement measures to reduce poverty and increase food security, as these measures can increase resilience and sustainability in fishery resource use.
• Build partnerships:
  • Build partnerships with the fishing industry and work to influence seafood markets and supply chains, including the development of fishery improvement partnerships, certification, and business coalitions.
  • Build management partnerships with stakeholders through collaborative mechanisms for decision-making, with clear rules and processes for efficient management of fisheries which consider the interests of all stakeholders including small-scale fishing communities.
  • Establish inclusive and sustainable seafood producer organizations.
• Reduce harmful subsidies and encourage investment in sustainable practices:
  • Invest in and innovate around fishing and fish farming practices, modern insurance alternatives, early warning systems, communication and the use of industry real-time data.
  • Prohibit harmful fishery subsidies, which are a key factor in the widespread depletion of the world’s fish stocks, through effective implementation of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies and through supporting the conclusion of an extended WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.
  • Improve finance for sustainable small-scale fisheries, with possible measures including risk insurance, microcredit, cooperative building, and increased coherence in trade and development aid.

Key tools and guides to support the implementation of sustainable fisheries management can include:

Tools

Guides

Implementing sustainable ecosystem-based fisheries management can also help advance the targets of the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), as well as those of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Climate change mitigation benefits

The implementation of sustainable ecosystem-based fisheries management can specifically play a key role in mitigating climate change in the following ways:

• Sustainable, ecosystem-based fisheries management can significantly contribute to climate mitigation, notably through blue carbon sequestration by rebuilding fish stocks and supporting healthier marine food webs.
• Healthier and abundant stocks, in turn, can lead to a reduction in fossil fuel use as boats would need to spend less time at sea (effort) for the same amount of catch.
• Reducing fisheries subsidies to fuels disincentivizes economically unprofitable fishing behavior and reduces overall fishing effort for the benefit of fish stocks.
• Switching to low-fuel gears and efficient hybrid and renewable energy sources also reduces fishing efforts and/or emissions. Prioritization of low-fuel gears within each fishery alone could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4 -61 %, depending on the species being fished.

Climate change adaptation benefits

Among the seven key areas of adaptation put forward in the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience, implementing sustainable fisheries management can directly contribute to the following targets:

• Target 9a (Water & Sanitation): Healthy aquatic ecosystems maintained through sustainable fisheries management can support water quality and the resilience of water resources, especially in coastal and marine environments.
• Target 9b (Food & Agriculture): Sustainable fisheries management ensures the long-term availability of fish stocks, supporting food security and providing a reliable source of protein and nutrition for communities.
• Target 9d (Ecosystems): By protecting and rehabilitating marine habitats (such as coral reefs and coastal areas) and food webs, sustainable fisheries management helps conserve biodiversity and maintain healthy ecosystems.
• Target 9e (Infrastructure): Sustainable fisheries management can reduce pressure on coastal infrastructure by maintaining ecosystem services (such as natural coastal protection from reefs and mangroves) and supporting climate-resilient coastal development.
• Target 9f (Livelihoods): Fisheries are a critical source of income and employment for many communities. Sustainable management protects these jobs and supports economic stability in coastal regions.

Biodiversity benefits

Action under this policy option can help to deliver on multiple KM-GBF targets, in particular:

• Target 1 (Plan and Manage all Areas To Reduce Biodiversity Loss): Ecosystem-based fishery management supports improved spatial planning for aquatic ecosystems. It considers various forms of fishery tenure and spatial governance approaches, such as Territorial User Rights for Fishing, which can contribute to the target’s goal of increasing the area of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems under spatial planning.
• Target 3 (Conserve 30% of Land, Waters and Seas): Ecosystem-based fishery management can help clarify the types and levels of fishing activities that are acceptable within marine protected areas (MPAs) and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). This approach supports the target’s aim of conserving at least 30% of land and sea areas through effective management while ensuring sustainable use where appropriate.
• Target 5 (Ensure Sustainable, Safe and Legal Harvesting and Trade of Wild Species): Ecosystem-based fishery management supports the sustainable use and trade of wild aquatic species by incorporating ecosystem variables into stock assessments. This approach helps prevent overexploitation and minimizes impacts on non-target species, directly contributing to the target’s goals of ensuring that the harvesting, trade, and use of wild species is sustainable, legal, and safe for human health.
• Target 7 (Reduce Pollution to Levels That Are Not Harmful to Biodiversity): This policy option promotes the use of sustainable fishing practices that can help reducing pollution in marine environments. For example, by regulating fishing gear and methods, policies centered in ecosystem-based fishing management can lead to a drastic reduction of the amount of discarded fishing equipment or “ghost gear” that contributes to marine pollution and to high rates of wildlife mortality, with animals the size of sperm whales found entangled in abandoned fishing equipment. See Reducing Plastic Pollution in Agriculture and Food Systems.
• Target 10 (Enhance Biodiversity and Sustainability in Agriculture, Aquaculture, Fisheries, and Forestry): Ecosystem-based fishery management ensures that areas under fisheries are managed sustainably, aligning with this target’s objective. By considering ecosystem factors like climate, oceanographic conditions, and predator-prey relationships, it promotes the sustainable use of biodiversity in fisheries. This approach contributes to the resilience and long-term efficiency of production systems while conserving biodiversity.

Other sustainable development benefits

This report provides an overview of how sustainable ecosystem-based fisheries can support delivery of multiple SDGs by:

• SDG 1 and 10 (No Poverty and Reduced Inequalities): providing fair and empowering livelihoods for coastal communities, including for small-scale fishers, and Indigenous peoples.
• SDG 2 and 3 (Zero Hunger and Good Health & Well-Being): securing food and healthy nutrition and enhancing marine ecosystem services necessary for human health.
• SDG 5 (Gender Equality): promoting access to resilient livelihood opportunities for women, especially in the small-scale sector.
• SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth): providing economic stability for present and future generations, improving the long-term profitability and stability of the fishing industry, and ensuring safe working conditions and labour right protections for marine and fish workers.
• SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production): embedding the principles of responsible and sustainable management in the provision of aquatic food.
• SDG 13 (Climate Action): increasing the resilience of fisheries and of coastal and marine ecosystems to climate change, reducing the sector’s impact on climate and marine ecosystems, and increasing blue carbon sequestration. 
• SDG 14 (Life Below Water): supporting healthy marine ecosystems, ensuring responsible fish stocks, and protecting biodiversity.

The success of implementing sustainable ecosystem-based fisheries management relies on well-executed interventions, but technical, non-technical challenges, and potential trade-offs including the following can hinder outcomes:

• Potential barriers: A lack of political will and commitment; geopolitical dynamics and conflicts that impede regional fisheries management; lack of finance for management structures; and global inequalities in the fisheries trade system.
• Challenges in ecosystem-based management include the need for additional data collection, development of new assessment models, and training of personnel in ecosystem-based approaches.
• Measures to reduce overfishing may adversely impact the livelihoods of some fishers and related businesses.
• Mechanisms are needed to avoid potential negative rebound effects (e.g., increased fishing pressure on wild fish stocks) from more efficient fisheries technologies.

Integrating the following measures into a comprehensive and cohesive framework can help address implementation challenges and minimise potential negative trade-offs:

• Foster international collaboration to reduce inequalities in global fisheries value chains.
• Adopt a holistic lens to address potential social and economic impacts of management measures, e.g. paying attention to food and nutritional insecurity, improve financing mechanisms for small-scale fishery actors, and investing in inclusive community-based alternative livelihood initiatives.
• Implementing co-management plans for marine governance and exploring other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) to support sustainable livelihoods, including local community-based and collaborative governance mechanisms.
• Research and technology development and investments into different food production systems and related land/water-use efficiencies.

Tracking the implementation of ecosystem-based fisheries management calls for integrated monitoring systems, measurable indicators, and coherent frameworks that capture both implementation progress and related biodiversity and climate outcomes.

Indicators to monitor biodiversity outcomes

The Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to a comprehensive set of headline, component, and complementary indicators for tracking progress toward the targets of the KM-GBF. Some of the following indicators could also be functional for monitoring the implementation of this policy option: 

Tools to monitor biodiversity outcomes

Tools to monitor climate outcomes

Implementing ecosystem-based fisheries management can involve significant costs, but these are often balanced by long-term benefits. The initial implementation may require increased investment in research, monitoring, and management capacity. However, the specific costs can vary depending on the region and existing management structures. 

A few specific examples of successful sustainable fishery interventions are highlighted below. A full outline of what can be achieved can be seen in WWF’s Oceans Impact Report.

• Since 2015, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and FAO have been implementing the Project on the Sustainable Management of Bycatch in Latin America and Caribbean Trawl Fisheries. In countries across the region, including Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, the project joins with local partners in testing, adapting, supporting and disseminating technologies, best practices, and socioeconomic policies to reduce bycatch in bottom trawling fisheries. Project countries support the measures by establishing institutional structures for participatory management, engaging the fishing sector and increasing trust between governments and fishery actors. Several simple technological changes in gear (e.g., changing the net mesh size) have been widely accepted and reduced bycatch in industrial and semi-industrial fleets by 25 to 50 percent. Meanwhile, the project has assisted local communities and vulnerable women’s groups to participate in decision making processes for fisheries.
• In the Philippines, the national and local governments partnered with USAID to launch the five-year Ecosystems Improved for Sustainable Fisheries (ECOFISH) Project in 2012. Building upon previous national, USAID, and local initiatives in the country, the project aimed to conserve marine biodiversity and improve coastal and marine resource management in the local economies of eight Marine Key Biodiversity Areas. Based upon a participatory, decentralized, and multi-sectoral approach, ECOFISH promoted the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management and expanded its adoption among communities, while ensuring that fishery benefits would be shared by local resource users. The project resulted in a 24 percent increase of fishery biomass and 12 percent increases or improvement in employment, improving management for more than 1.8 million hectares of municipal marine waters.
• WWF and partners’ long-term investment to help secure the landmark and binding comprehensive World Trade Organization Fisheries Subsidies Agreement, and broader prohibitions on top of the 2022 Agreement, will fundamentally ensure that government financial interventions do not harm the sustainability of marine resources. For example, targeting fuel subsidies is a key requirement for a successful outcome, aiming to reduce overcapacity and overfishing and resulting in lower GHG emissions produced by the global fishing industry.
• In Indonesia, residents of the fishing village of Menarbu decided to implement ‘Sasi’, a local tradition to close the sea for an agreed period – similar to a periodic no-take zone. As Menarbu is located within the Teluk Cenderawasih National Park, WWF-Indonesia initially planned to collaborate with rangers to help manage these marine areas. But further consultations with local leaders showed that Sasi would not only be efficient, but also an inclusive, equitable and sustainable approach for marine and coastal resource management.
• The marine reserve Hermandad, established in 2022, expanded the protected waters of the Galápagos in Ecuador by 6 million hectares. Located at the confluence of three ocean currents, the Galápagos archipelago is one of the richest marine ecosystems in the world. Hermandad builds on the existing marine reserve, which protects about 13.3 million hectares from extractive activities. WWF Ecuador supported the establishment of the Hermandad Marine Reserve and development of its management plan – the result of three years of intense negotiation between the fishing sector and conservation organizations. Elsewhere in Latin America, WWF helped secure new marine protected areas (MPAs) in Argentina (11 million hectares), Brazil (92 million hectares), Colombia (17 million hectares) and Mexico (14 million hectares), protecting a diverse array of coastal and oceanic ecosystems.

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