Fisheries Reform in Asia: Key opportunities for action and investment

Simon Funge-SmithSenior Fishery Officer, Secretary Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission

FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

Trends - fishery

• Fishery is all about numbers – Asia home to 87% of the world’s small scale fishers

– ~ 9-10% of global population!

– More than 1.64 million boats in S and SE Asia

– 21 % of global marine fish production from S & SE Asia

• Challenges the validity of paradigms from elsewhere

• Recent capitalization & industrialization (post 1970)

• Driven by:– development policies and opportunities of technology and

trade

– subsidies and supportive policy an integral part

– limited restrictions allowed unchecked growth

• Has led to – expansion of fished area, rising overfishing

– over-capacity in the fleet & on-shore processing

• Impacts– modified composition of fishery (loss of quality)

– catch per unit effort declines to ~20% of 1970s level

– marginal profitability

Trends - trade

• Domestic & regional diversity in fish consumption– preferences for a huge diversity of products forms

– mostly unknown or unacceptable to global trade

• Changing trade trends– from local supply of fresh and traditionally

preserved products

– moving to iced fish value chains

– more intra- & inter-regional movement

• Efforts to add value through processing– rapid technology shifts allowing new products

– surimi; air freight; frozen processed

– fuels demand for raw material - drives fishing

• Value addition– adding value to a low value product (skipjack tuna;

small pelagics; surimi; squid)

– added value is not passed back to the fishery

Taiwanese tuna longliner

What keeps this going?

• Direct subsidies– Fuel, vessel construction, insurance or compensation

schemes

• Supportive policies– lack of capacity controls

– tolerance of IUU landings, cheap foreign labour

– “blind eye” to infringements

• Growing regional & international trade– globalization, FTAs, advances in transport, international

trading

• Technological advances and adaptations– lights, GPS, ice, processing

– utilize species less economic species (e.g. for surimi);

– Improved use of fish previously discarded/used as feed

• Aquaculture development– driving demand for fishmeal

– keeps fish price low inside region

Net repairs on a purse seiner

The policy camel?

• Usually competing interests– policy contradictions common– trade-offs inevitable

• Economic development, export income– driven by industry/

processors/exporters/fleet owners– sensitive to trade issues– strong lobbying power– important for exporting countries

• Social inclusion, livelihoods– rural development policy– poverty alleviation– votes – local politics– limited livelihood alternatives– important for poor highly populated

countries

• International context– Maintain trading status/access– variable impact

• Sustainability is rarely the foundation of policy

EXPORTINCOME

SUPPORT POOR LIVELIHOODS

FOOD SECURITY

INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS

What drives change?

• Fisheries reform is hard– few clear win-win situations– someone has to lose when cutting capacity/limiting

catch– “closing the commons”; lost livelihoods; – political “hot potato” – undermined by “losers”– short term politics will not address long term

challenges

• As resource or economic situation worsens– fishers become less able to change– chronic debt, risk of the unknown, no financial” slack”

to experiment

• Change can occur when relevant stakeholders– perceive benefits (preferably short term) can be

gained– see reduced (mainly financial) risks for changing

behaviour– see rules applied to all and “free riders” controlled– can be part of convincing demonstration of concept

(not small, subsidized pilots with little transfer potential)

surimi

Fish meal

Fish for processing

The opportunity - the time is right for change

• Market demand for fish continues to rise

• Resources in decline, quantity and quality

• Profitability in fisheries is low

• There no new ways to reduce operational costs

• Market requirements and standards are increasingly hard to meet

• Countries clamping down on foreign fishing

• Prices are not rising

Opportunity - Build on existing processes

• Often assumed little fishery management is in place– most management measures impossible to enforce in large

diverse fishery

– little stock management

– focussed on trade-offs between users, mitigation of conflicts

– heavy emphasis on seasonal and spatial management

– few sustainability objectives

• Current set-up result of budget, capacity and institutional arrangements– much can be done to strengthen this

– basic elements of fishery management could be improved

– increasing interest in sustainability

– need a strong financial, social or economic argument

– often little objective analysis available (knowledge)

– ideally a mixture!

• Ecosystem Approach to Fishery Management – provides effective framework for management planning

and improvement

Scale of action

• National scale is too large for any project, but…– local /community pilots often achieve little

meaningful change

• Province (or equivalent) is the typical governance unit– fisheries operate around this scale– Right scale for management plans– unlock provincial government budgets

• Real benefits from regional approaches– gives pilot work greater weight– more convincing to Govt. than fishers– can provide encouragement to “take a policy

leap”– Essential on issues that relates to

transboundary fishing (e.g. IUU)– Degree of peer pressure– Critical mass on knowledge Delineation of a Provincial

artisanal zone

Institutional change – capacity building – governance & management

• Introduction of fishery management– fishery management capacity development starts at

university– Build capacity at Provincial level (competent

governance unit)– Support knowledge generation on the fishery

• Ecosystem Approach to Fishery Management training – identifies issues– trade-offs, balancing environmental, social ,

economic and governance considerations– practical planning approaches– built within local context

• Support coherent legislation and long-term policy– Recognize political short–termism – and fight it– modernize legislation (takes 5-10 years)– supporting local planning and management– Removing loopholes and perverse subsidies etc.

Who to work with – recognizing complexity

• Multiple stakeholders, different processes• Processors, exporters in private sector are dynamic

and reactive– Quick to lobby and drive changes in their interest– ready capital to work with projects & sensitive to

market-related issues– limited engagement if benefits/change not immediate

• Government institutions– often tempting to by-pass and often frustrating– rent seeking and hidden agendas– conflicting policies– essential for regulatory aspect, or legitimacy– market-based approaches need government support to

secure changes

• Regional dialogue processes offer strong advantages– Plenty of capacity inside the region– Tap into regional knowledge– Organizations and projects, long-term outlook– Community of practice– Country to country cooperation, transboundary dialogue

At the fishery levelWhat should we be trying to achieve?

• Focus on incremental change• Enabling fair, “rules–based” management that is

robust, low cost and which tackles the real issues– reduce over-fishing in most heavily affected areas– enabling fishery recovery - restoring CPUE– controlling IUU, stopping “cheating”/”poaching”– restore higher value catch species (improved value of

catch)– provide ecologically meaningful management measures

• Address the institutional structures of fishery management– Don’t “leave it to the market”– Need to address structural and governance issues

• Knowledge generation on the fishery– long term trends & ecosystem effects – often hidden– economic arguments rarely framed convincingly (lack

“fisher’s bottom line)– scenario building on management options– tracking change

Malaysian wheelhouse markings

At the boat/fisher levelWhat should we be trying to achieve?

• Look for real or innovative incentives– address immediate financial realities

– reducing operational costs/increasing incomes

– modest increase in CPUE

– reduced costs through efficiency (fuel, labour, sorting, gears)

– reduced losses on-board (preservation)

– improved value of catch at point of landing (value chain?)

• Combat cheating, reduce conflicts, support management – capturing the opportunities of IT to manage fishing

– vessel registers, catch landings, electronic reporting, mobile technology

– linkages between VMS/safety at sea

– control of IUUSquid boats at dawn

Empower and enable fishers

• Putting knowledge in fisher’s hands– Improve information flows to inform and keep

stakeholders on board

– tracking resources and trends

– Bring this to the table in co-management/EAF

• Empowerment of fishers– develop appropriate co-management structures

– use an EAF planning approach

– incremental, adaptive, inclusive planning

– cost-effectiveness

• Enable fishers to seek alternative livelihoods– how can we assist fishers to leave the fishery?

– assist fishers to reduce their dependence

– many fishers would like to do something else

– livelihood support to families and children

– think generationally Mixed trawl catch – no discards, all for market

There are no “silver bullets”

• It is tempting to look for “single solutions” to complex problems– rarely one thing – usually need a suite of actions

• Single stock management focus– most fisheries multi-species– exist alongside other gears, other targets– demonstrably failed so far….

• Market-based approaches– limited impact where benefits do not reach fishers– somewhat intangible, compared with immediate

effect of cost savings– often focussed on a limited slice of overall fishery

trade – does not apply to the majority of the fishery

• Eco-labelling– attractive, but tend to overlook social dimensions– over-dependent on foreign trade, high value

commodities– fisheries that can make it, are not the fisheries you

need to fix!!

Artisanal dried fish products

There are no “silver bullets” (cont.)

• Turfs, closing the commons, access limitations

– few successful Asian models?

– highly divisive in populous coastlines

– extremely complex tenure/access arrangements

– risk of elite capture

– artisanal zones already present in almost all countries

– can be built on customary arrangements

• Managing habitats, MPAs, spatial measures

– essential part of the solution, but not the solution

– common mistake is to ignore the human activity

– big challenge to get current spatial management to be biologically meaningful for fisheries

– too much focus on iconic habitat, not enough on fishery habitat

Conclusions

• Long term engagement– but incremental approach– simple and slow is good– but avoid single “silver bullet” solutions– can your funding model accept complexity, trade-offs and

slow progress?

• There are few incentives for change– develop interventions that cross the social, governance

and resource-base issues– often need to be flexible when an opportunity arises

• Invest in knowledge and communication– this must contribute to ongoing management or reform

process

• Engagement and partnership within the region is essential– support regional/sub-regional dialogue that contributes to

more effective coordination with regional stakeholder processes

– EAF offers effective mechanism at country and sub-national level stakeholder

– what is the right dialogue/partnership mechanism for you?

Thank you