Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 107

THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE 2018
BOX 4
THE GAP BETWEEN DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES’
SUSTAINABILITY TRENDS IN RELATION TO MARINE CAPTURE FISHERIES
interdependencies, coupled with limited
management and governance capacity in
developing countries, have increased the
sustainability divide between developed and
developing countries.
A global effort to achieve sustainability is
justified by the relative indivisibility and
interconnectedness of marine ecosystems, the
roaming of long-distance fleets, the common
nature and dynamics of fishery resources, and
the intertwining of countries through international
trade and bilateral fishing agreements. To
eliminate the current disparity between
developed and developing countries, and to
make progress towards the zero-overfishing
target set by the 2030 Agenda, the global
community needs to renew its efforts to support
developing nations in the pursuit of sustainability.
The solutions include:
„ „ enhancing regional and global partnerships to
share management knowledge and enhance the
institutional and governance capacity of
developing countries;
„ „ adjusting fishing capacity to sustainable levels
through policy and regulations, including
judicious use of targeted incentives, while
eradicating subsidies that contribute to
overcapacity and overfishing or support IUU
fishing;
„ „ establishing a trading system for fish and fish
products that promotes resource sustainability;
„ „ encouraging a global mechanism and financial
support to accelerate parties’ fulfilment of legally
binding and voluntary instruments.
Despite efforts to meet the SDG target of ending
overexploitation of marine resources by 2020,
capture fishery landings have stabilized around
90 million tonnes in recent decades, but the
percentage of overfished fish stocks continues to
increase, exceeding 33 percent globally in
2015. The global picture masks disparate
patterns between developed and developing
countries: Developed countries are significantly
improving the way they manage their fisheries,
while the situation in least developed countries is
worsening in terms of fleet overcapacity,
production per unit of effort and stock status (Ye
and Gutierrez, 2017).
For instance, FAO data show that marine
capture fishery production in the developed
world decreased by about 50 percent from its
peak in 1988 (43 million tonnes) to 21 million
tonnes in 2015. In contrast, developing countries
saw a continuous increase in fish production
from 1950 to 2013. Furthermore, fishing effort
(in kW days) in 2012 was eight times higher in
developing countries than in developed countries
and increasing, while it has been decreasing in
developed countries since the early 1990s,
mostly as a result of stringent regulations and
management interventions. Since the late 1990s,
developed countries have managed to halt the
decline in overall production rate (catch per unit
of effort [CPUE]) by reducing fishing pressure to
allow recovery of overfished stocks in many
jurisdictions.
Fishing restrictions in developed nations have
resulted in reduced domestic fishery production
and reduced self-sufficiency. To compensate for
their decline in production so as to meet high
demand from domestic consumers, developed
countries have increased their imports of fish and
fish products from developing countries or in
some cases made fishing access agreements with
them to allow developed country fleets to fish in
their national waters. The resulting economic
Replication and adaptation of successful policies
(for example, in management interventions) and
implementation of transformational changes (that
is, lasting policies that influence entire sectors of
the economy) are needed if exploitation of
global fishery resources is to be truly
sustainable.
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