Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 62

PART 1 WORLD REVIEW
biological characteristics”. The indicator to
measure progress against this target is the
“proportion of fish stocks within biologically
sustainable levels” (see also “Fisheries and the
Sustainable Development Goals: meeting the
2030 Agenda” in Part 2). Based on FAO’s
assessment, this proportion was 66.9 percent in
2015. It seems ver y unlikely that the world’s
fisheries can rebuild the 33.1 percent of stocks
that are overfished in the ver y near future,
because rebuilding requires time, usually two to
three times the species’ life span.
capture fisheries. Almost 95 percent of the world’s
inland f isher ies catch is in developing countr ies
(Bartley et al., 2015), and 90 percent of inland capture
production is consumed in the developing world
( World Bank, 2012). Approximately 43 percent of
global inland catch occurs in low-income food deficit
countries (LIFDCs) (see Box 11 in Part 2, page 117).
This is important, as it illustrates how allocation of
resources for monitoring and catch data collection
of inland fisheries is often not a priority in countries
with more pressing issues to address. One effect of
the limited monitoring of inland fisheries is that
national catch statistics may be under-reported, as
noted i n prev ious ed it ions of The State of World
Fisheries and Aquaculture and other in-depth analyses.
Pa r t ly a s a consequence of t h i s i nacc u rac y, t he
potential for inland fisheries to contribute to nutrition
and livelihood resilience in v ulnerable countries
may not be fully recognized, particularly in relation
to compet ing dema nds for the use of water (see
”Global inland fisheries revisited: their contribution
to achievement of the SDGs” in Part 2).
However, the continuous increase in the
percentage of stocks fished at biologically
unsustainable levels does not mean that the
world’s marine fisheries have not made any
progress towards achieving SDG target 14.4. Yet
the world has diverged, with worsening
overcapacit y and stock status in developing
countries and improved fisheries management
and stock status in developed countries (Ye and
Gutierrez, 2017). For example, the proportion of
stocks fished within biologically sustainable
levels increased from 53 percent in 2005 to 74
percent in 2016 in the United States of America
(2018), and from 27 percent in 2004 to 69 percent
in 2015 in Australia (FRDC, 2016). This
divergence is fueled by economic
interdependencies through international trade
and fisheries access agreements, coupled with
limited management and governance capacities
in developing countries (see Box 4 in Part 2, page
91). Achieving SDG target 14.4 will require
effective partnership between the developed and
developing worlds, particularly in policy
coordination, financial and human resource
mobilization and deployment of advanced
technologies (e.g. for monitoring fisheries).
Practical experience, as ref lected in the above
examples, has proved that overfished stocks can
be rebuilt, and rebuilding will produce not only
higher yields, but also substantive social,
economic and ecological benefits. For some
fisheries, increased stock abundance will
eventually bring higher catch rates which can
benefit fishers through increased profitabilit y.
T he catc h f ig u re repor ted at t he nat iona l le vel
represents an aggregate of all national production
and hence does not provide information on individual
fisheries. Increasing or decreasing national catch
does not necessarily reflect the state and sustainability
of individual fisheries and their stocks, or provide
i nsight i nto whether decl i nes i n one f isher y (or
subnational area) are offset by gains in another.
In the absence of a management f ramework and
systematic monitoring, production statistics do not
typically provide information on the status of inland
fisheries, but rather an estimate of their contribution
to food supply. Long-term trend analyses of production
are also weak indicators of how well fisheries are
m a n ag ed a nd t he s u s t a i n abi l it y of t he f i sh i ng
press u re. T here a re con siderable c ha l leng es to
der iv i ng e ven a n i nd ic at ion of t he s u st a i nable
production level from many of the world’s inland
fisheries, let alone detailed assessments as to the
condition of the fisher y resources.
Monitoring of indiv idual fisheries may prov ide a
c lea rer pic t u re of how wel l t he world’s i n la nd
fisheries are managed, as well as the status of the
fisher y resources. Data on fisheries are easier to
collect on larger water bodies and highly concentrated
f i sher ies, a nd t he t rend s i n t hese f i sher ies a re
clea rer. However, they a re on ly a subset of the
Inland fisheries
FAO does not have a system for tracking the status
of inland fisheries comparable to that used in marine
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