Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 106

PART 2 FAO FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE IN ACTION
BOX 3
REPORTING ON SDG TARGETS 14.4., 14.6 AND 14.b
surveillance (MCS) and legal frameworks. The
percentage of respondents identifying IUU fishing as a
problem dropped from 90 percent in 2013 to 79
percent in 2015. Of these countries, 69 percent have
drafted a National Plan of Action on IUU fishing
(NPOA-IUU), and 84 percent of countries with an
NPOA-IUU have started implementing it.
Target 14.4. Based on FAO’s assessment, the fraction
of world marine fish stocks that are within biologically
sustainable levels declined from 90 percent in 1974 to
66.9 percent in 2015 (see “The status of fishery
resources” in Part 1). Thus, 33.1 percent of fish stocks
were estimated as fished at a biologically
unsustainable level and therefore overfished in 2015.
While the decreasing trend has slowed since 2008,
perhaps because of improved management, little
progress has been made towards achieving SDG
target 14.4 at the global level.
Target 14.b. Some 70 percent of the respondents to
the 2015 CCRF survey, representing 92 countries and
the European Union, have introduced or developed
regulations, policies, laws, plans or strategies
specifically targeting small-scale fisheries. Some 85
percent confirmed the existence of mechanisms
through which small-scale fishers and fish workers can
contribute to decision-making processes.
Target 14.6. Almost all respondents to the 2015 CCRF
survey reported having taken measures to combat IUU
fishing, most importantly through the improvement of
coastal State controls and monitoring, control and
methods used in each country. FAO provides the
SDG reporting framework with necessary technical
support and capacity building through technical
workshops, guidelines on methodologies, standards
and operational procedures of estimating and
reporting on indicator 14.4.1.
FAO contributed to the Sustainable Development
Goals Report 2017 (UN, 2017b) and the 2017 UN
Secretar y-General’s report on progress towards
the SDGs (ECOSOC, 2017b). For SDG target 14.4,
the latter report highlights the biologically
unsustainable levels of over 30 percent of
assessed marine fish stocks (Box 3).
Indicators for targets 14.6 12 and 14.b rely on data
generated through country responses to the
biennial Code of Conduct for Responsible
Fisheries (CCRF) questionnaire. The methodolog y
used to compile and to facilitate ease of reporting
of such data is being continuously improved. An
FAO workshop on target 14.b, held in late 2017 for
representatives from governments, regional
organizations and civil society organizations
(CSOs), discussed capacity development needs
related to monitoring and implementation of
efforts towards achieving target 14.b. FAO
provides support on related data collection,
analysis and reporting through e-learning courses,
for example on SDG indicator 14.b.1, securing
sustainable small-scale fisheries (FAO, 2017h). »
The existing SDG indicator 14.4.1 (proportion of
fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels) is
based on assessments by FAO of major fishing
areas and needs to be adapted for country-level
assessment, as the ownership and responsibility of
estimating and reporting SDG indicators lie with
Members. Assessing the status of fish stocks within
exclusive economic zones (EEZs) may present
numerous governance and reporting challenges to
many developing countries (see Box 4), because
formal stock assessment is data demanding, skill
intensive and financially costly (see the section on
“FAO’s approach to improving the quality and
utility of capture fishery data”). At the global level,
a consistent monitoring framework is needed to
meet the requirements of transparency and
comparability in estimating the indicator across
time and countries, especially the coverage of the
reference list of stocks to be monitored and the
12  The current target 14.6 indicator does not encompass all elements
of SDG target 14.6, as it focuses on instruments to combat IUU fishing
but does not cover fisheries subsidies.
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