FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular No. 1038 FIEL/C1038 (En) ISSN 2070-6065 ANALYSIS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION AND IMPACT OF THE FAO CODE OF CONDUCT FOR RESPONSIBLE FISHERIES SINCE 1995 Copies of FAO publications can be requested from: Sales and Marketing Group Communication Division FAO Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00153 Rome, Italy E-mail: [email protected] Fax: +39 06 57053360 Web site: www.fao.org FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular No. 1038 FIEL/C1038 (En) ANALYSIS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION AND IMPACT OF THE FAO CODE OF CONDUCT FOR RESPONSIBLE FISHERIES SINCE 1995 by Gilles Hosch Fisheries Planning and Management FAO Consultant FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 2009 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. 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Applications for such permission should be addressed to: Chief Electronic Publishing Policy and Support Branch Communication Division FAO Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy or by e-mail to: [email protected] © FAO 2009 iii PREPARATION OF THIS DOCUMENT This document was prepared by FAO consultant Gilles Hosch to provide the twenty-eighth session of COFI (2009) with a global analysis of the implementation and impact of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries since its adoption in 1995. The analysis provided in this document represents a first consolidated attempt to review progress in implementation and impact of the Code since the inception. Hosch, G. Analysis of the implementation and impact of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries since 1995. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular. No. 1038. Rome, FAO. 2009. 99p. ABSTRACT This circular analyses the implementation and the impact of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries since 1995. In doing so, it first establishes a picture of fisheries and aquaculture sectors before the publication of the Code and 13 years after, in order to detect major changes in both sectors. While fundamental changes in the fisheries sector remained few, the aquaculture sector displays a rather important degree of change, where practices in farm management and environmental management, amongst others, seem to have undergone broad and significant improvements. The document bases its analysis on country-level implementation of Code principles and provisions, and then looks into how various sector related players have endorsed and adopted the Code, and contributed to its implementation. This analysis shows that in many domains, implementation of the Code has been slow on the ground, but that in some domains, such as the implementation of the International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IPOA–IUU), countries have been fast to embrace the Code and implement its instrument in the ways prescribed. The study also shows that a very vast and diverse range of sector stakeholders across the entire spectrum have endorsed the Code and do pursue its stated objectives. The key impacts of the Code relate to its broad-based endorsement, and the ways in which it has shaped policies, legal and management frameworks worldwide, as a universally applicable international policy instrument, and how it has brought across into the fisheries domain the key principles of sustainable and responsible development inherent to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and its Agenda 21. The Code has been a facilitator of change towards more responsible and more sustainable approaches, but quantifying these, and relating them directly and primarily to the Code is not something that would appear reasonable. However, advances in domains such as combating IUU fishing have been Code-driven to a noticeable extent. v CONTENTS Preparation of this document.....................................................................................................iii Abstract......................................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................vii Acronyms and abbreviations....................................................................................................viii 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 The Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries – its origins and essence..................... 1 1.1.1 Origins ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 Essence of the Code................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Scope of this report ......................................................................................................... 4 2. WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE SITUATIONS: 1995 AND 2008......... 5 2.1 Fisheries .......................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1 International legal framework.................................................................................. 6 2.1.2 Trends and status in world fisheries production ...................................................... 7 2.1.3 World fishing fleet evolution................................................................................... 9 2.2 Aquaculture................................................................................................................... 11 2.2.1 Legal framework.................................................................................................... 11 2.2.2 Aquaculture and the environment.......................................................................... 13 2.3 Trends and status in world fish supply and utilization.................................................. 15 3. CODE IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS SINCE 1995................................................. 16 3.1 What “implementation effort” means and how it can be measured .............................. 16 3.2 Country-level implementation ...................................................................................... 17 3.2.1 Monitoring efforts to date...................................................................................... 17 3.2.2 General country feedback on Code implementation.............................................. 19 3.2.3 Fisheries................................................................................................................. 21 3.2.4 Aquaculture............................................................................................................ 37 3.2.5 Code-related instruments ....................................................................................... 40 3.3 Industry associations ..................................................................................................... 47 3.4 Regional fishery bodies and regional fisheries management organizations.................. 51 3.5 FAO and its Programme of Work and Budget.............................................................. 53 3.5.1 Development of the Code, Code-related instruments and Technical Guidelines .. 54 3.5.2 Dissemination and promotion of the Code package .............................................. 58 3.5.3 Monitoring of the implementation of the Code and its related instruments .......... 58 3.5.4 Other FAO initiatives............................................................................................. 59 3.5.5 The FishCode Programme ..................................................................................... 61 3.6 Civil Society in action................................................................................................... 63 3.6.1 WWF and TRAFFIC ............................................................................................. 64 3.6.2 CFFA ..................................................................................................................... 64 3.6.3 IUCN...................................................................................................................... 65 3.6.4 RSPB and BirdLife International........................................................................... 65 3.6.5 The Earth Justice Foundation