As a response to the global decline in fish stocks, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is leading an international attempt to develop binding fishing regulations. These efforts are especially targeting port towns, where illegally caught fish is traded. Beyond that, the FAO will continue to work on guidelines for sustainable fishing. However, this can only be a first step to stop the imminent collapse of fish stocks. The problems are diverse: climate change causes warming and acidification of seas. Both could disrupt the balance of maritime ecosystems in an irreversible way, as the German Advisory Council on Global Change pointed out in a report published last year. In a study on the ten most threatened rivers published in March 2007, the WWF additionally concludes that fisheries in riparian systems are threatened by increased shipping, pollution and use of hydropower.

The consequences of all these factors also impacts on the global fishery industry. The industry itself is of great socio-economic importance: not only does it contribute to food security, but also directly employs over 40 million people. If the fish stocks further decrease because of other global trends, such as population growth, significant socio-economic consequences are likely to follow. At the same time, it would be premature to predict resource conflicts over fish as an unavoidable outcome of these trends. Nevertheless, the FAO sees the need for further action and has called for the regional organisations responsible for sustainable fisheries to be strengthened. (Achim Maas)

For the FAO report "The State of World Fisheries and Agriculture 2006", please see http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/A0699e/A0699e00.htm

For the WBGU report "The Future of Oceans – Warming Up, Rising High, Turning Sour", please see http://www.wbgu.de/wbgu_sn2006.html

The WWF report "World’s Top 10 Rivers at Risk" is available at http://assets.panda.org/downloads/worldstop10riversatriskfinalmarch13.pdf

Published in:ECC-Newsletter, April 2007