Current Projects

This proposal is designed to coordinate, support and amplify the efforts of a range of Oceans5 grantees operating in support of both quantitative and qualitative targets in the CBD post-2020 Agenda. The O5 grantee partners include the MPA Guide, the 30X30 Ocean Alliance and Marine Conservation Institute (MCI).

It also aims to establish and utilise partnerships with institutions such as the UN Foundation who bridge the gap between civil society and UN departments. This partnership aims to support delivery of the campaign objectives by positioning and aligning O5 grantees alongside relevant UN agencies including IPCC scientists and the UNFCCC, BBNJ and CBD negotiators.

The proposal also aims to utilise the OneOcean flotilla initiative, an unbranded, collective drive to achieve maximum impact for the ocean by the end of 2020, by supporting ocean groups to align around key objectives, including setting new targets to protect at least 30% of the ocean in implemented, fully or highly protected MPAs by 2030. The initiative is guided by ocean organisations and informed by the work of scientists and other experts and is open to all non-governmental organisations sharing its principles and values.

The proposal runs from March 2020 to the end of 2021, and is focused on securing defined targets from the CBD COP and embedding the concepts and willingness to adopt the approaches necessary to deliver on the targets.

RFMOs and their member governments are not accountable for whether they act in the public interest. The problem is two-fold: Within RFMOs, there are no transparent or effective compliance regimes to hold member governments accountable for implementing agreed-upon measures and few penalties for noncompliance, allowing bad behavior to persist. Second, their operations are not sufficiently transparent to the people and groups in society who have an interest in them—which insulates member governments from public scrutiny of their decisions. 

This lack of transparency hurts the ability of civil society and the public to understand decisions, provide outside views of whether RFMOs and their member governments are acting to ensure sustainable fisheries, and expose bad actors. Improving the transparency of international fisheries management is key to achieving better outcomes on the water for the fish and the people who depend on them. With additional transparency, countries could deal with each other more fairly because positions taken in bad faith are more difficult to defend. The mere fact that bad actions can be exposed enhances compliant behavior. And transparency increases the accountability and responsiveness of governments. Further, where there is no RFMO accountability, the liability falls on the market—food retailers, in particular. 

In recent years, in large part due to the work of Pew, there have also been promising developments, which have the potential to transform the way RFMOs manage international fisheries. Pew’s international fisheries program targets five core areas that we see as opportunities for reform within RFMOs, including: 

1. De-politicizing management of targeted species through a shift to a more transparent, sciencebased, and automated approach to quota-setting known as harvest strategies; 

2. Increasing accountability by adopting measures to improve compliance with existing rules; 

3. Enhancing oversight of fishing activities through electronic monitoring and expanded observer coverage on longline vessels and through transshipment reform; 

4. Securing protections for vulnerable, non-target populations through bycatch measures and spawning and nursery ground protections; and 

5. Leveraging evolving technology and building cooperation between coastal, flag, market, and port states to track and prevent illegal fishing. 

Collectively, these changes can modernize international fisheries management by increasing the transparency and accountability of RFMOs, and ultimately benefiting the long-term health of international fisheries and the ecosystems they impact. Over the last two years, Pew has led work at RFMOs to secure these improvements, and we already see their impacts in shock proofing RMFO management. For instance, where harvest strategies are in place, RFMOs have adopted new quotas even without formal Commission meetings in 2020. And where old management approaches prevail, measures are simply being rolled over, or in one extreme case, stocks have been left without any regulation due to a lack of consensus among government officials during virtual meetings and/or electronic negotiations. 

This project focuses on increasing accountability through the adoption of improved compliance mechanisms. It also proposes the development of critical external pressure on RFMOs to implement all of these changes through a broad RFMO transparency and accountability coalition that would spotlight the systemic lack of transparency and the failure of RFMOs to protect these resources and the urgent need for reform. The other four areas of work would require additional funding, separate from this proposal. We would welcome further discussion as Pew is scoping work globally to protect vulnerable non-target species and their critical habitats. We see many opportunities to take this work to scale within RFMOs, including leveraging campaign wins such as CITES listing for shark species impacted by RFMO tuna and swordfish longline fisheries and industry commitments to shift to less harmful longline gear.  

The deep sea makes our planet habitable. By volume, over 95% of the areas of the planet that can support fauna are in the deep sea. Scientists have discovered an extraordinary wealth of unique biodiversity that becomes richer with every deep-sea research expedition. Moreover, up to half of the carbon dioxide that people have put into the atmosphere has been absorbed by the deep sea. Yet only 1% of the deep ocean floor has thus far been explored and the vibrant and often fragile deep-sea life is under threat from a range of human activities. While some protections have been achieved, most of the deep sea remains vulnerable to a growing footprint that includes destructive fishing practices, pollution and climate impacts. On top of these cumulative stressors, the emerging industry of deep seabed mining now poses one of the greatest direct physical threats to the health of the deep ocean and the planetary life support systems that it provides.

Momentum to mine the seabed has built rapidly in recent years, driven in large part by key countries and companies and the Secretariat of the International Seabed Authority (ISA). A number of proponents have argued that demand for minerals for renewable energy sources and battery storage power should be met from new sources of metals in the deep sea. The ISA is a multilateral regulatory body established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Its role is twofold: to regulate States’ mining activities in the deep seabed beyond the limits of any state’s continental shelf and to effectively protect the deep sea environment. To date, the ISA has issued 30 exploration contracts for mining, covering over 1.3 million square kilometers of the deep seabed and creating the largest potential set of mining operations ever. These mining companies, and the handful of countries that sponsor them, are increasingly emphasizing their plans to commence large-scale testing in the near-term. They are pushing for finalization of exploitation regulations that would give a “green light” to their commercial operations. Once the ISA granted the first contract for exploitation, it would be difficult - if not impossible - to prevent them from handing out more. The current discussion on the governance regime therefore offers a window to hold a public and political debate around the presumptive need to open a new frontier of environmental degradation and possible extinction events across wide swathes of the deep sea.

Scientists have warned that deep-sea mining would cause permanent loss of biodiversity in the deep sea but the scale of the loss is currently unknown. We do, however, know that if unleashed, mining would pose a serious threat to the deep-sea environment and be in direct conflict with SDG 14 and other political commitments for the protection of biodiversity and the marine environment. In the context of simultaneous crises in climate, biodiversity loss and human health, we have a rare opportunity to press 'pause' on a damaging large-scale exploitative industrial activity before it has begun.

Therefore, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition is calling for a global moratorium on deep seabed mining; the adoption of seabed mining regulations for exploitation (including the ISA's ""Exploitation Regulations”); and the issuing of exploitation and new exploration contracts, unless and until:

1. The environmental, social and economic risks are comprehensively understood;

2. It can be clearly demonstrated that deep seabed mining can be managed in such a way that ensures the effective protection of the marine environment and prevents loss of biodiversity;

3. Where relevant, there is a framework in place to respect the free, prior, informed consent of Indigenous peoples and to ensure consent from potentially affected communities;

4. Alternative sources for the responsible production and use of the metals also found in the deep sea have been fully explored and applied, such as reduction of demand for primary metals, a transformation to a resource efficient, closed-loop materials circular economy, and responsible terrestrial mining practices;

5. Public consultation mechanisms have been established and there is broad and informed public support for deep seabed mining, and that any deep seabed mining permitted by the ISA fulfills the obligation to ‘benefit (hu)mankind as a whole’ and respects the Common Heritage of Mankind; and

6. Member States reform the structure and functioning of the ISA to ensure a transparent, accountable, inclusive and environmentally responsible decision-making and regulatory process to achieve the above.

 IFAW works to ensure the glob­al trade in sharks and rays is effec­tive­ly reg­u­lat­ed. Over half of the world’s sharks and rays are threat­ened or near threat­ened with extinc­tion, large­ly due to inter­na­tion­al demand for their fins and meat. By work­ing with gov­ern­ments via the Con­ven­tion on Inter­na­tion­al Trade in Endan­gered Species of Wild Fau­na and Flo­ra (CITES), threat­ened sharks that are trad­ed in high num­bers can be lim­it­ed to sus­tain­able lev­els, allow­ing their pop­u­la­tions to recov­er. CITES man­age­ment pri­or­i­tizes the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and seizures of ille­gal ship­ments of shark prod­ucts, as well as dri­ving bet­ter fish­eries man­age­ment at the nation­al lev­el — lead­ing to effec­tive reduc­tions in shark mor­tal­i­ty worldwide.

For more information visit: https://www.ifaw.org/animals/sharks

Oceans 5 is supporting C4ADS and Trygg Mat Tracking (TMT) in a partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts to define and map ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) in the fishing industry in an effort to establish a global standard for UBO reporting.

Knowing which companies and individuals ultimately own specific vessels and fleets is critical to effective regulation and enforcement in the fishing industry. But regulators' and enforcement agents' transparency and traceability efforts are often hindered by the absence of a universally agreed upon standard for defining and reporting beneficial ownership. This ultimately means that IUU operators can continue to fund and support illicit fishing activities with limited risk of detection. By standardizing a definition for beneficial ownership across the fishing sector and formalizing UBO reporting requirements, fishing companies can be held to a higher standard, preventing the continued exploitation of lax regulations to conduct exploitative or illegal fishing practices.

To that end, C4ADS, Pew, and TMT are working together to 1) understand how the term "ultimate beneficial ownership" should be defined in the context of fisheries, and 2) analyze the ownership networks of industrialized fishing fleets in several different countries in order to create a standard definition for UBO that can be incorporated into regulatory frameworks around the world.

Established in 2013, the Global Ocean Commission (GOC) is an independent body of global leaders that was formed to address the principal threats facing the global ocean, and in particular the high seas (i.e. that area which lies beyond the 200 mile national jurisdiction of countries, constituting nearly 50% of the planet, yet is currently unmanaged and unregulated).

As influential advocates for global ocean health, its seventeen commissioners include former Heads of State and Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Finance, Defense and Environment, and global business leaders. The Commission is administered by an independent Secretariat based at Somerville College, Oxford University, with oversight from its three Co-chairs: José María Figueres (former President of Costa Rica and currently the President of the Carbon War Room), Trevor Manuel (former Minister of Finance, and the Presidency, South Africa) and David Miliband (former UK Foreign Secretary and currently President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

Since its launch the Global Ocean Commission worked alongside representatives from science, business, NGOs, academia and industry to form politically and technically feasible recommendations to address issues on the high seas. This work culminated in the release of a concise report in June 2014, “From Decline to Recovery: A Rescue Package for the Global Ocean”, that presents eight strategic proposals the Commission believes will stimulate ocean recovery:

• Securing a stand alone UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for the ocean;
• Reforming and strengthening high seas governance;
• Ending harmful high seas fishing subsidies;
• Combatting and ending illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing;
• Reducing plastic pollution;
• Establishing new international safety standards for the offshore oil and gas production sector;
• Establishing an independent Global Ocean Accountability Board;
• Promoting high seas regeneration zone(s); and,
• Placing the ocean at the heart of the climate change debate.

The Global Ocean Commission is now in its implementation phase where over the next year it will engage key stakeholders, global leaders and policymakers in order to build coalitions and high level action around each of the proposals that will lead to the ocean change the Commissioner seeks.

Oceans 5 supports the High Seas Alliance, a partnership comprised of more than 37 organizations working to improve protection of the nearly 50 percent of the planet that is the high seas. As the region of the global ocean that is beyond national jurisdiction, the high seas includes some of the most biologically important, least protected, and most critically threatened ecosystems in the world.  Currently, there are few legally binding mechanisms for establishing marine protected areas outside States’ territorial seas, or for undertaking environmental impact assessments.

This project aims to ensure that an intergovernmental conference taking place at the United Nations from 2018-2020 for the development of a new legally binding treaty under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, results in robust protection for marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, including a framework for establishing marine protected areas and reserves in the high seas. This is the first global treaty process related to the ocean in over two decades and the only one targeted specifically at the protection of marine biodiversity in ABNJ. The High Seas Alliance is committed to working with States towards the adoption, ratification and implementation of this comprehensive treaty to protect the world’s ocean beyond national jurisdiction. 

Every year at least 8 million tons of plastic enters the ocean, with single use plastic and plastic packaging being the largest part of the problem. Recognizing that the best way to protect ocean ecosystems is to stop the plastic ending up in the ocean in the first place, Oceans 5 has contributed to the Plastic Solutions Fund, a funder collaborative aimed at stemming the tide of plastic pollution.

Eighty percent of the plastic ending up in the ocean comes from land. The Plastic Solutions Fund supports projects aimed at reducing production of single use plastic and packaging at the top end of the supply chain. This includes projects that help change the way companies and brands deliver products to consumers, the way cities, particularly in Asia, manage plastic waste and that change the stories people hear and tell about plastic.

If successful, the Plastic Solutions Fund will decrease the amount of plastic pollution by supporting projects that ensure:
● Companies innovate products and delivery systems such that single use products become the exception rather than the norm.
● Cities recognize and promote the environmental and financial benefits of zero waste systems.
● A culture of cringe rather than a culture of convenience accompanies the use of single use products; and
● A large, vocal, high profile, successful global movement emerges.

Oceans 5 is a member of the Shark Conservation Fund (SCF), which is a philanthropic collaboration with Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Paul M Angell Foundation, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, Moore Charitable Foundation, and the Volgenau Foundation. The SCF is focused on halting the overexploitation of the world’s sharks and rays, reversing declines, restoring populations, and preventing extinctions.

Sharks and rays represent one of the oldest and most diverse group of animals on earth. These cartilaginous fish play important ecological, cultural and economic roles in our oceans and coastal communities. One quarter of all shark and ray species are threatened with extinction and millions are killed annually for their fins, meat, leather, liver and gills. This crisis represents a growing threat to the health and well-being of the oceans and the billions of people that rely on them for food and employment.

The SCF recognizes that major investments are needed in conservation science, policy, advocacy, communications, and capacity-building to reduce mortality of sharks and rays and ensure their recovery, and sustainable management.  Its objectives are:
1.            Ensuring the effective regulation of  global trade of shark and ray products through listing the top species of sharks and rays in global trade on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and implementing those listings;

2.            Preventing the extinction of the most imperiled sharks and rays by enhancing legal protections in priority countries and through international forums; and

3.            Combatting unsustainable shark and ray fishing globally through the adoption and implementation of conservation and management measures through international forums and in priority countries.

Overfishing, Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activities, human rights abuses, and fraud continue to be reported from the global seafood industry. At the same time, the efforts of companies practicing environmental and social responsibility are often not recognised. 

In the current climate, fishing companies are seeking social licence to continue to operate, and end markets are seeking mechanisms to ensure that they do not source from bad supply chains engaged in illegal or unethical practices. 

WWF New Zealand, with the support from Ocean5 and in partnership with industry and government agencies, is designing a full transparency model to eliminate unsustainable, illegal, and unethical fishing practices, whilst demonstrating social, environmental, and economic benefits, leading to a shift in New Zealand fisheries policy in favour of full transparency.

New Zealand's fisheries management system is considered relatively sound and progressive, with independent scientific assessments indicating that, overall, New Zealand's fisheries are doing well. New Zealand's foundation for fisheries management includes the Fisheries Act of 1996 and the Quota Management System (QMS), which have been in place for over 20 years. However, the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) recently acknowledged the need for improvements and conducted a Fisheries Management Review in 2015 that led to a major work programme called the Fisheries Change Programme (FCP) that is currently underway. The FMR considered topics including fisheries management, processes, technology, research gathering, and regulations and legislation. Among those other significant considerations, the FMR specifically observed that "international seafood markets want to be sure that seafood products are sustainable and can be traced." Incentives and motivations are currently well aligned within both the government and industry to support a transparency project.

The impact of this project for the fishing industry is profound, both in New Zealand and globally. WWF expects to achieve a step change in the perspective and receptivity of both government and the industry toward true transparency and traceability in New Zealand, ultimately shifting policy.  WWF further expect markets, and the consumers they serve, to respond very positively and affirm the steps of New Zealand's progressive industry leaders toward transparency.  The level of transparency anticipated in this project would create unparalleled social license for the fishing industry to operate in New Zealand's waters, while providing unprecedented public access to information for analytical purposes as well as verification and validation.  Because New Zealand is globally recognised for its fisheries management policies and general approach to sustainable fisheries, the successful application of a true transparency model in New Zealand could serve as a beacon and touchstone for transparency applications in other fisheries around the globe.

The Fiji Government is making significant efforts on the international stage and within individual Ministries to advance and solidify marine conservation and management across Fiji’s EEZ. In 2019, the Government announced its intention to develop and adopt an Oceans Policy to manage 100% of its ocean by 2030, and meet its 30% MPA commitment by 2030. In addition, it made 17 commitments at the UN Ocean conference in 2017. As part of these efforts, this project aims to build consultative and transparent decisionmaking processes to increase sustainable fisheries management and marine protected areas for food security and biodiversity protection. 

This project builds upon and leverages existing work conducted by five partners in Fiji: cChange, Conservation International (CI), Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area (FLMMA) network, International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). 

Specifically, the project will: (1) implement new science-based, minimum size limits for key fisheries in Fiji; (2) identify new offshore marine protected areas (MPAs) to support Fiji’s national and global 30 percent protection goal, through effective and thoughtful consultations with local communities, key stakeholders and the broader Fijian public; (3) implement the Lau Seascape Strategy with a focus on improving fisheries and establishing protected areas; and (4) identify sustainable financing options for Fiji’s LMMAs. 

Oceans 5 joins the Waitt Foundation in supporting the implementation of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), the first large marine reserve created by a small island developing state.

The PIPA resides in the Republic of Kiribati, a nation of approximately 100,000 residents on 21 inhabited islands, with a total landmass of just 800 km2. In total, 32 atolls and single raised coral island are spread across 3.5 million km2 of Pacific Ocean, home to some of the most pristine waters on the planet. The PIPA encompasses 400,000 km2 of Kiribati’s EEZ, an area almost the size of California, and includes eight islands, two underwater reefs and several seamounts, all of which became fully protected in January 2015.

To operationalize the full closure of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, together with the Waitt Foundation, Oceans 5 is partnering directly with the Government of Kiribati and the PIPA Trust, which was created in 2009. Oceans 5 funds will support implementation of the fully protected area, including management, surveillance and enforcement.

Oceans 5 is supporting four organizations as they work to reform how transshipment is governed in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO).  The transshipment of tuna, which commonly involves both purse seine and longline vessels transferring fresh fish to large carrier vessels, both at sea and in port, for transport back to shoreside processing hubs, is an important part of the tuna supply chain.  However, lack of monitoring and regulatory oversight of this activity, especially at-sea transshipments involving longline vessels, means that over $142 million USD of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) product is linked to transshipment in the WCPO each year.

While data and information on transshipment activities are collected by both vessels and independent observers, no single management body has access to the range of documentation necessary to create a full and complete picture of the transshipment activities that occur in the WCPO region. A thorough and complete study and analysis of this activity is needed in order to clearly identify inconsistencies and gaps in the reported information and identify key regulatory needs and reforms.

The Oceans 5 grant supports The Pew Charitable Trusts, WWF, the Australian National Centre for Ocean Governance and Security (ANCORS), and the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) whose members include: Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The organizations are cooperating to conduct a comprehensive review of transshipment monitoring and regulation in the WCPO and then develop and implement high quality standards for the governance of transshipment. Oceans 5 is providing three years of funding that began in summer 2017.

Over the last three years, Niue has achieved a significant level of policy development and action that substantially enhances marine conservation and management reform away from piecemeal ocean management to a holistic sustainable conservation, management and development approach. This has been made possible with a unique Public-Private Partnership project between the government of Niue and Tofia Niue (local None Profit Organization), through the Niue Ocean Wide (NOW) project. This is seen as underpinning resource and ecosystem sustainability, as well as optimizing its value and benefits back to the Niuean people through both spatial protection and tightly managed marine resource use zones. The high-level outputs/outcomes of the NOW project include:

1. The development of the EEZ wide Niue Nukutuluea Marine Spatial Management Plan., establishing a network of conservation and resource use zones.

2. The Niue Moana Mahu large scale no-take marine protected area, representing 40% of Niue’s EEZ, and a the Nukutulueatama Beveridge Reef special management area (SMA). 

3. Established the first Niue EEZ Compliance Strategy.

4. Increased benefits to Niue through enhanced sustainable management of marine resources, as well as measured increase in benefits through sustainable-tourism and innovative sustainable development and resilience initiatives, enhanced through the marketing of Niue’s pristine marine environment and enhanced marine conservation values.

5. Developed fit-for-purpose sustainable financing strategy aimed at a game changing institutionalization of donor and partner support harmonization aligned with a country driven Public Private Trust to underpin sustainable resourcing for future sustainable development and conservation efforts in Niue in perpetuity.

With MSMP policies and management frameworks in place, this project looks to complete the detailed coastal  (0-3nm) MSP, and commence implementation to ensure not only the maximum chance of success and sustainability for Niue in this space, but also to overcome the above-mentioned lessons and legacy of shelved policies. In the current and predicted environmental and climate change circumstances imposing on our marine ecosystems, failure and delay are no longer an option for Niue.

The overarching project goal remains: The holistic sustainable development and management of our ocean and its resources to improve livelihoods of Niuean’s now and into the future.” 

Oceans 5, in cooperation with the Waitt Foundation & Institute, is working with the Government of Tonga by supporting the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Oceania Regional Office (IUCN-ORO) and the Vava’u Environment Protection Association to transform the management of Tonga’s entire ocean.

The country of Tonga comprises 98 percent ocean and its seas cover an area the size of USA’s state of Texas (about 700,000 km²). Tonga’s marine resources are, therefore, very important in terms of food security, coastal protection, commercial fisheries, livelihoods, tourism and carbon sequestration. Just some of these values are estimated to sum to over US$20million annually—more than the annual value of Tonga’s exports (US$13 million).

But Tonga’s marine resources are under threat: from competing uses, overuse in some areas and conflicts between uses and the ecosystem.

Recognizing this, the Cabinet of Tonga, in response to the first-ever multi-Ministerial Cabinet Paper, decided in July of 2015 to implement the Pacific’s first marine spatial plan (MSP). The overall goal is to achieve ecologically sustainable social and economic development of Tonga’s ocean for the benefit of all Tongans. Also, the government has committed to 30 percent network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) within the MSP.

The Oceans 5 investment will allow for the:

1. Conduct of a national ocean awareness program.
2. Conduct of national consultations to gain input to, and build ownership of, the MSP.
3. Preparation of a draft MSP, including a network of 10-30% MPAs.
4. Conduct national consultations on the draft MSP.
5. Revision and finalization of the MSP including drafting of regulations.
6. Implement the MSP in law.
7. Conduct consultation and awareness to inform people about the new MSP.

The MSP process is expected to result in adopted regulations by 2020.

Oceans 5 is supporting the Wildlife Conservation Society to ensure biodiversity and fisheries-associated livelihoods are secured through the development of new marine managed areas in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. The project builds on the commitments by both governments under the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security to protect marine biodiversity and sustain fisheries.

High levels of population growth and increasing fishing pressure in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands are creating concern that local populations will be unable to meet their food security needs from fisheries by 2030. Recent evidence from a decade long tuna tagging program from the region indicates that industrial purse-seine fisheries are potentially impacting artisanal and subsistence fisheries. Integrated area-based management that considers how best to simultaneously achieve the objectives of local communities, government and industry is being undertaken to plan for future needs of all stakeholders.

The Wildlife Conservation Society is working with provincial government, local communities and industry in areas of high biodiversity in the Bismarck-Solomon Seas Ecoregion to achieve consensus on and formal recognition of tiered zoning schemes within large-scale marine managed areas. In parallel, sustainable financing options are being explored to incentivize compliance by industry and local resource users. By 2020, the work supported by Oceans 5 will enable endorsement for integrated management covering up to 25,000 square kilometers in Papua New Guinea and 5,000 square kilometers in Solomon Islands.

Oceans 5 is supporting the Micronesia Conservation Trust (MCT) and its partners on a campaign to extend the commercial fishing exclusion zone around all islands in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) from the current 12nm zone to 24nm. Expanding the current no commercial fishing zone to at least 24nm for each country will result in 10 percent protection of waters in both the FSM and RMI (over 298,000 and 259,000km², respectively). FSM completed the expansion in 2017. In addition, this project is working towards the development of Protected Areas Networks (PANs) and sustainable financing mechanisms for the FSM and RMI. The goal of the PANs are to afford both countries access to their 5 percent share of the Micronesia Challenge Endowment Fund, which provides long-term revenue streams of revenues for long-term conservation efforts.

The grant to MCT supports the Micronesian jurisdictions in achieving their Micronesia Challenge goals. The Micronesia Challenge is a regional commitment by the governments of the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas (CNMI), and the U.S. territory of Guam to put under effective protection 30 percent of their nearshore marine resources and 20 percent of their terrestrial areas by 2020. When achieved, the Micronesia Challenge will have placed 14,000km² hectares of nearshore/coastal and terrestrial areas under effective protection. See (www.micronesiachallenge.org) for more information.

Oceans 5 is supporting a coalition of NGOs (The Nature Conservancy, Environmental Justice Foundation, Oceana, WWF, ClientEarth, Our Fish, the Fisheries Secretariat, Seas at Risk and Sciaena) working to encourage fully documented fisheries and improve transparency in the European Union (EU).

EU fisheries are governed by a Common Fisheries Policy, which can only be met if efficient and coherent rules are in place that ensure the appropriate level of oversight. The EU’s fisheries Control Regulation is—together with the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing Regulation—the cornerstone of its fisheries control system. The fisheries Control Regulation lays out the responsibilities and obligations for EU Member States related to monitoring, control and surveillance of their waters and flagged vessels, as well as seafood traceability. However, it is an outdated regulation which, for example, does not provide for the development of Fully Documented Fisheries in the EU and is silent on transparency issues.

Through this project, the coalition members will encourage the EU to strengthen the fisheries Control Regulation in several key areas. The updated regulation would include Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM), a system for monitoring fishing vessels through GPS, sensors and CCTV cameras that is being successfully used in Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia and the US. It would also mandate user-friendly electronic reporting and monitoring systems for all EU vessels, regardless of their size. The catch information provided by such tools would enable accurate stock assessments, which would in turn reduce the risk of overfishing and/or depletion of fish stocks.

In addition, the coalition will encourage better transparency to ensure that the EU member states comply with the fisheries Control Regulation and publicly share information about their compliance. This increased transparency would ensure that all member states are fulfilling the requirements of the regulation, enable a level playing field and set a global example of sustainable fisheries for other nations and regions to follow.

 In Europe, countries committed in 2008 to have clean and healthy seas by 2020, and specifically for marine biodiversity to restore it to its natural state. What is meant by natural state is rich marine ecosystems with many available habitat niches and a wide variety of life-forms and organisms filling those niches. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are the prime tool for protecting the marine natural world from the impacts of maritime activities, and for the recovery of marine ecosystems at a wider scale. However, MPAs are successful only if there are strong and effective measures in place to manage (i.e. restrict or ban) human activities taking place within their boundaries. Recent research has shown that despite their conservation status, MPAs appear to host just 4.9% of global marine wilderness.

Although more than 10% of EU seas is now labeled as ‘MPAs’, representing almost 625,000 km2, most of these areas are mere ‘paper parks’ with little effective protection in place. Fisheries is recognized as the main pressure on marine biodiversity.

The main legal instruments for the designation and management of MPAs in Europe are the Habitats and Birds Directives and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (‘Marine Directive’). Protection of biodiversity and management of damaging activities in MPAs are legal requirements of the Directives, but there is currently a low level of compliance with these rules by EU Member States.

Beyond environmental legislation, the implementation of a coherent and well-managed network of MPAs is also supported by EU legislation regulating maritime sectors. In particular, the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive requires countries to adopt an ecosystem-based approach to the management of human activities at sea, and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) Regulation enables Member States to adopt Joint Recommendations to introduce fisheries management measures in their offshore MPAs where other Member States have a direct interest in the fishery (Article 11 of the CFP).
European countries are bound not only by EU legal requirements to protect their marine biodiversity but also by international commitments. As parties to the United Nations, they have signed the Declaration for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The objective of the project is to get three European countries, France, Ireland and Portugal, to effectively protect all of their MPAs, against the impact of damaging activities. In order to achieve this objective, we will also do advocacy at EU-level to increase pressure on the three focus countries, including by creating precedents for sustainable management of fisheries in MPAs and establishing good practices in other EU countries. The project will focus particularly on fishing activities and will aim in priority at the creation of no-take zones. When that is not possible, it will aim to get the most damaging fisheries practices, e.g. fishing with bottom-contact gears, banned from MPAs.

In order to achieve our overarching goal and two specific objectives, we will design, launch and run an advocacy campaign to promote the implementation of a coherent and well-managed network of Marine Protected Areas in Europe. This will be done at two levels: at the national level in five selected countries; and at EU level.

The EU Common Fisheries Policy aims to end overfishing by 2020 and reduce environmental impacts of fisheries. However, implementation by the 27 EU Member States has fallen short. While especially in the North East Atlantic less stocks are being overfished, the deadline to end overfishing by 2020 will not be met and overfishing continues. Meanwhile little has happened to address the wider environmental impacts of fisheries. 35% of the shelf area of European seas and even 86% of the assessed seabed of the North Sea and Celtic Seas is physically disturbed by bottom-touching fishing gear, and by-catch of marine mammals remains a major threat. In addition, Brexit presents an additional challenge, as many stocks that are shared by the UK and EU are currently fished by EU Member States in UK waters and the new UK fisheries legislation has a lower ambition than the CFP. As with every economic sector, the COVID-19 crisis has put the fisheries sector, in particular small-scale fisheries, under some pressure, fuelling arguments that more flexibility in environmental rules is needed. Fortunately, there is a growing level of ambition in the EU to restore and conserve the environment, including the ocean, as reflected in the European Green Deal and the Biodiversity Strategy that forms part of it. This provides opportunities to reduce overfishing, mitigate cetacean bycatch and limit bottom trawling. Ensuring fisheries measures to achieve this requires a coordinated EU-wide push, because EU fisheries legislation is decided by the EU Commission and (often) Parliament, as well as the fisheries ministers of the 27 EU Member States in the Fisheries Council. Seas At Risk and its member organisations will seize these opportunities in an EU-wide fisheries project, in which targeted advocacy at EU level is paired with national advocacy work and increased pressure on key decision makers, with a focus on Germany, France and Spain. 

Oceans 5 supports a collaborative project between The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and the WWF-UK. The project aims to influence the UK’s post-Brexit fisheries legislation to create sustainable and climate-positive regulatory requirements.

 We are in the midst of interlinked nature and climate crises.  Ocean health is vital if we are to combat climate change, recover biodiversity and build resilience.  We have two years to put in place the building blocks that will deliver on our ten-year window to avoid global temperature increases. We have a major opportunity to work on ocean recovery as the UK leaves the EU and sets in place new legislation and governance for marine and fisheries management. This proposal seeks to capitalise on this window and secure the urgent action to address both the nature and climate crises and help bring about ocean recovery.

 The way we manage our fisheries is about to change.  The EU Common Fisheries Policy has governed fisheries in UK waters since the early 1970s and over that time climate change and overfishing have continued to accelerate the decline of our seas, with the UK failing to meet 11 of the 15 indicators of ocean health.  As we leave the EU, there is a clear opportunity to turn this around and develop a sustainable fisheries and marine management regime across UK seas to enable ocean recovery.

 A Fisheries Bill (to replace EU law) has been introduced to the UK Parliament to provide a broad framework for fisheries management. A Joint Fisheries Statement (JFS) will provide a common policy framework to achieve the Bill’s objectives. The JFS requires agreement across the four UK countries and will be prepared over 2020-22. Securing sustainable fishing practices via binding commitments is crucial to tackling the nature and climate emergencies.

 Our advocacy-based approach will utilise our established UK presence, commission science-led reports, run public facing campaigns and hold parliamentary events to create sustainable and climate-positive regulatory requirements in a post-Brexit UK. Our advocacy activities will:

 1. Leverage re-invigorated political will and community support to raise awareness of the need for fisheries and marine management reform to promote ocean recovery

2. Support the integration of legally binding commitments in the Joint Fisheries Statement (JFS) and each administrations Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs)

 By the end of 2022, the outcomes we seek are four legally binding commitments enshrined in the JFS, FMPs or other domestic policies or legislation. The deliverables will be commitments to achieve the following:

1. Secure at least 30% of UK seas as highly or fully protected (not merely designated) by 2030.

2. End overfishing and set out a pathway for the restoration of all stocks to above sustainable levels

3. Verify documentation of catches in UK waters via Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) and cameras on all vessels

4. Develop a UK fisheries net zero strategy

With Oceans 5’s support, ClientEarth is working to hold the European Union to its commitment to make fishing sustainable. In theory, the EU is committed to being a leader in global ocean governance. That means leading by example to end overfishing and other unsustainable practices. Yet the EU is failing to live up to that commitment and to its own legal obligations. The stakes are high: the EU is important in its own right, with its vast territorial sea, fishing industry, and seafood market, and as a global player, setting standards that apply directly across the globe and influence others. 

The twenty-seven countries that make up the EU manage their fisheries jointly through the Union’s Common Fisheries Policy. It is a complex legal framework. ClientEarth believes making information public about the Common Fisheries Policy and about public spending on fisheries will dispel the complexity, misunderstanding, and active secrecy that stand in the way of making EU fisheries sustainable. ClientEarth is taking advantage of a unique historical context: the European Green Deal is driving EU policy-making during this period, which is also a time of unprecedented public spending. The Green Deal’s commitment to transforming Europe’s economic model creates the context for ClientEarth’s action.

ClientEarth has three objectives it is working to achieve with Ocean 5’s support. The first is to secure concrete actions from EU institutions – specifically the European Commission (the EU’s executive body) and the Council of the EU (where Member States meet to take decisions) – to end overfishing. Every year the EU sets catch limits and distributes quotas to Member States for specific stocks. ClientEarth is working to make sure that an increased number of those catch limits are set in line with scientific advice, and that the EU puts in place remedial measures for species caught as bycatch. An important step is getting the EU institutions to publish more information about the process for setting catch limits. ClientEarth is engaging in advocacy to get the Council to publish in real time the policy documents it is relying on when setting catch limits. ClientEarth is also working with the European Parliament to get that body to put legal pressure on the Council to set limits sustainably. ClientEarth is also advocating with the European Commission to secure visible action against EU Member States which fail to implement a key aspect of EU fisheries law: the no-discards rule, which bans fishers from throwing fish that are subject to catch limits back into the sea. This rule is widely ignored, which leads to overfishing. That overfishing occurs not only because unscrupulous fishers take too many fish out of the sea and throw some back illegally; but also because catch limits are set too high, on the false assumption that illegal discarding is not happening. So even those following the rules end up contributing to overfishing. National authorities in the EU are supposed to enforce the no-discards rule, but in many places they are not doing it. The European Commission has the power to take Member States to court for failing to enforce the rule. ClientEarth is getting the Commission to flex its muscles. 

The second objective is to close legal routes by which EU Member States subsidize overfishing. The European Maritime and Fisheries Fund distributes billions of euros to support sustainable marine environments and fisheries in Europe. ClientEarth is working to make sure that the money cannot and does not end up fueling overfishing. ClientEarth is also working to end an EU rule exempting fuel for fishing vessels from tax.

ClientEarth’s third objective is to stop the EU from revising its Common Fisheries Policy legislation and instead to get the EU to recognize that the law is good; what is missing is better implementation. The EU has world-class fisheries legislation that is not working as it should because the bloc’s Member States do not implement it properly. Re-opening that legislation risks levelling down the law. Instead, what the EU and its Member States need to do is level up implementation. And they need to do it transparently, so that playing by the rules becomes the norm. ClientEarth is contributing to the formal evaluation of the Common Fisheries Policy that is underway to make sure EU decision-makers understand this.

The EU is holding itself out as a model of green governance, in fisheries and other areas. With Oceans 5’s support, ClientEarth is making sure that the EU’s model of sustainable fisheries works in practice.

Oceans 5 is supporting a partnership between the International Pole & Line Foundation, the St Helena Government, the St Helena Fisheries Corporation and local partners to establish a conservation area in St Helena’s 447,000 km² maritime zone. The project will ban the use of destructive fishing gear such as baited longlines, purse seine nets and bottom trawlers, allowing only responsible fishing methods which enable tuna to be caught one at a time, thus creating the world’s first one-by-one only tuna fishing zone. This initiative will shield a vibrant ocean area from harmful fishing activities, protecting dolphins, whales, sharks and turtles. The project will also bolster the returns to this remote island community to provide valuable protection for the local low-impact, socially responsible tuna fishery.

Project activities focus on creating policies to promote and protect St Helena’s unique ecosystem, as well as the sustainable small-scale tuna fishery that has been part of island community for decades. It will provide a model for low-impact fisheries and marine conservation to capture a global audience and inspire governments and coastal communities.

  The principal objective of the collaborative project of Citizens’ Institute for Environmental Studies (CIES) and Korea Federation for Environmental Movements (KFEM) is to strengthen Korea’s commitment on MPAs, both globally and domestically.

CIES and KFEM will engage in dialogues and cooperation with multiple stakeholders including government officials to influence the overall decision-making in marine conservation and align Korea’s perception of MPAs to global standards. 

Also, to create a more favorable domestic context for the establishment of MPAs, the organizations will carry out evidence and science-based awareness raising activities involving various actors and partners from the National Assembly, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, local governments, academia, and the general public.

Pacific High Seas Fisheries - Technology, Transparency and Traceability

In the second year of this project, Global Fishing Watch (GFW), Japan’s Fisheries Research and Education Agency (FRA), and the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) will work to improve the sustainability and transparency of high seas squid fisheries and global squid supply chain, by combining expertise in remote sensing technologies, regional squid fisheries, and fisheries policy. With a focus on the Pacific, the work will support the implementation of global transparency benchmarks by the North Pacific Fisheries Council (NPFC) and the South Pacific Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO). This collaborative project will result in the adoption of conservation and management measures that improve transparency in these high seas fisheries. Our activities will:

1. identify weaknesses and illustrate best practice responses in Monitoring, Control and Surveillance, and Fisheries Management;

2. expose IUU fishing and overfishing threats;

3. provide analytical tools and materials that demonstrate the benefits of compulsory AIS as well as centralized VMS, best practice transshipment regulations and other related measures.

Cambodia’s marine environment harbors rich biodiversity within expansive coral, seagrass, and mangrove habitats. Cambodia’s southwest coast, which includes Kampot and Kep provinces, is home to regionally important coral reefs, southeast Asia’s largest seagrass meadows, and a globally important marine mammal area. This productive ecosystem supports valuable artisanal fisheries (fish, shrimp, blue swimmer crab) and threatened megafauna like marine turtles, dugong and Irrawaddy dolphin. Destructive fishing practices and rapid coastal development threaten these marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of coastal communities. In response, we are working to advance effective co-management of this area with government and community partners through creation of one new marine protected area, known locally as a Marine Fisheries Management Area (MFMA), in Kampot and operationalizing a recently gazetted MFMA in Kep.

The Korea IUU coalition is a partnership of environmental and human rights-focused organizations, which pull their expertise from respective fields to address IUU fishing. The coalition will work to amend and introduce fisheries-related and migrant fishers’ labor rights-related laws to improve the industry’s legal obligations; strengthen the Korean fisheries’ compliance with international standards both as a port state (port inspection) and a flag state (E-Monitoring); and educate the public and the National Assembly on the need to act now for a change in current fisheries practices. 

Through the collective efforts of the Anti-IUU Forum Japan in 2016-2019, Anti-IUU Forum Japan succeeded in creating a huge momentum in Japan to establish regulations to tackle global IUU issues.  This new three-years project will focus on a more collaborative approach and to deliver greater transformation of the Japanese system to eliminate IUU seafood products in the market.  In the first year of the project, the forum is expecting to have the very first import control rules and new domestic catch documentation scheme in Japan and start implementing activities to improve transparency, accountability and stakeholders participation in the fishery management policy reformed in 2018. This project will also strengthen alignment with relevant regions and countries such as East Asia, the EU and the US in order to deliver global impact in combating IUU.

The project entitled Advocating for the passing of shark conservation policies and preparation for their implementation aims to establish legal frameworks for the conservation of sharks in the Philippines at the national level and support shark and ray listings in the upcoming Conference of Parties to the CITES. The passing of these policies and support to the listings are expected to result in the protection of Threatened shark and ray species; the emphasis of their importance to the Philippine economy, biodiversity, and ecology; and the promotion of sustainable fisheries and management. 

Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD) has been working with Binh Dinh province and Directorate of Fisheries of Vietnam (Dfish) to enhance the resilience of small-scale fishing communities through the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM), at both local and national level. 

At the local level, efforts were made building capacity and introducing EAFM. Key results included development of EAFM guidelines that are approved by Binh Dinh People’s Committee, applicable to Quy Nhơn locally managed marine reserves.  With this approval, MCD was able to collaborate with DFish, facilitating the incorporation of EAFM principles into the highest-level fisheries legislation reform (New Fisheries Law, 2017). MCD further provided technical assistance for the preparation of empowering and establishing the community groups as recognised under the new Law. With MCD’s support, the four communes of the Quy Nhơn Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) were have their co-management practices took place. 

At the national policy level, feedback from the work in Binh Dinh has been fed into modifications of the fisheries law and Decrees on both co-management implementation in the aquatic resources protection and community participation in the marine protected areas (MPA’s).  EAFM and co-management practical models are being observed by the Department of Fisheries Resources Protection and is recommended for further training provided to a large number of fisheries officers throughout the country.   

MCD proposed project “Supporting Vietnamese fisheries reform under the revised law: from national to local action” builds on momentums when co-management of fisheries resources became officially recognised in the revised fisheries law. Lessons learnt from a diverse network of co-management practices and champions shall be strong case study, that can inform and provide useful inputs to development of national technical guidelines for co-management of aquatic resources operation and evaluation, and development of a road map for enhancing co-management contributing to the Vietnam national program on aquatic resources protection in next strategic period 2021-2030. 

The project has three components: 1) Building and Scaling Co-management practices in  Binh Dinh province with some extension to other LMMA sites in central coastal provinces Quang Nam and Khanh Hoa provinces. 2) Assistance to DFish on technical guidelines for co-management and the strategies to reflect co-management in National Programme on Fisheries Resources Protection and Exploitation 2021-2030.  Feedback into government policy and engage with managers/practitioners at national and local levels to identify capacity gaps and to inform development of the guidelines and 3) Developing Case Studies across the six management practices to present at a National Workshop. sharing experiences, and methods on co-management principles for reforming fisheries. 

Six sites engaged in the project includes three communes Nhơn Hai, Nhơn Ly, Gheng Rang (Binh Dinh province), Bai Hương and Tam Tien (Quang Nam) and Ran Trao (Khanh Hoa). In these sites, i) adaptive fisheries co-management plan shall be developed and revised focusing on fisheries stocks and coral reef cover Ii) Workshops, providing education and pilot implementation of alternative income-generating livelihood options. To support the reduction of fishing effort in selected sites and iii) document lessons learned and challenges faced through implementing co-management practices across all project sites, with particular focus on the five Binh Dinh project sites to inform DFish’s 2020 Technical guidelines on co-management and national plan for fisheries protection. 

At national level, i) drafting the technical guidelines on co-management and strategies, identify champions who can then provide institutional training and capacity building program; ii) Training/capacity building program for the local facilitators  iii) youth led campaign and iv)  network and dialogues 

Key outputs/outcomes: 

6 sites are supported with: adaptive fisheries management plans; technical guidelines and road map for national co-management implementation (including set of criteria for evaluation, drafted national action plan/road map for co-management implementation);  a Network of co-management practitioners in central coast enhanced with 35 champions and facilitators at central and local level identified, trained, empowered for technical support to the network and national implementation of co-management. Workshops and events: inception,  Interim workshop,  final workshop, policy dialogue for co-management technical guidelines,  national consultation  for road map of co-management implementation and  youth led outreach event). Reports sharing wider audience through public relations and social media.

 Indonesia owns 6.4 million kilometer-square of ocean, which represents around 1.7 percent of the world’s ocean. However, Indonesia’s ocean also faces numerous threats that are affecting the health of the ocean and diminishing the marine biodiversity, such as plastic pollution, illegal fishing and impacts of climate change. Therefore, policies reform and coalition of actions which adhere to the principles of good and sustainable ocean governance are needed in order to maintain and improve the health of the ocean.

Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative (IOJI) is an independent policy advocacy group established to promote ocean policies that adhere to principles of sustainable development. IOJI was formed in February 2020 by founders who have experiences of working in public sector and expertise in law, maritime, environment and public policy. By carrying out IOJI's four work streams (Enforcement Support, International Advocacy, Policy Reform and Access to Justice), IOJI expects improvement in policies by the government of Indonesia in those 4 aspects, and subsequently other countries.

A recent Stimson report identified a lack of transparency across the global seafood supply chain and described distant water fishing (DWF) as an opaque system with little information about where fleets go, what they catch, and how fish is shipped to market. In addition, labor practices, vessel ownership, and fish access agreements between flag states and coastal states remain shrouded in secrecy. The clandestine nature of the industry has led to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and other illicit activities that threaten the long-term sustainability of fisheries resources and the economic, food, and environmental security of coastal countries. In West Africa alone, IUU fishing robs coastal states of $2.3 billion a year and has contributed to the loss of 300,000 jobs.

China is the top DWF nation, comprising about 40 percent of global DWF operations. Their expansion is transactional, driven by a combination of economic opportunity, weak enforcement capacity in host nations, and a desire to enhance their geopolitical reach by expanding the maritime component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China continues to expand its fleets and construct new fishing bases throughout West Africa. These efforts lack transparency and China’s government has been reluctant to police its DWF operations. Despite growing concerns from local fishing communities and African governments about lost resources, leaders are often reluctant to press Beijing to police its fleets due to concern over other economic support from China.

Further, government to government negotiations can be slow and difficult. Yet engagement between West African coastal states and China is needed to reduce these negative impacts. Any solution to combat IUU fishing in West Africa must include China. Similarly, any solution to the threat posed by DWF must include local stakeholders. To pave the way for change, the Stimson Center proposes a track II dialogue with members from West African states (from the Economic Community of West African States or ECOWAS, and the Economic Community of Central African States, or ECCAS) and Chinese civil society who are well-respected by their governments, to facilitate discussion on fishing transparency. The dialogue will culminate in a set of mutually agreed upon recommendations that will be presented to the governments of China and West African coastal states by dialogue participants and at international fora. By engaging trusted experts from China and across West Africa, this dialogue aims to increase transparency across the DWF industry. It will lead to better fisheries management and greater economic sustainability for fisheries-dependent communities, while reducing harmful IUU fishing.

During the first phase of the project, the team will work with in-country partner NGOs, industry, local government, and academia to conduct research, frame the issues and identify key local players in preparation for the dialogues. The second phase will include two dialogue meetings, one in Accra, Ghana and the other in Shanghai, China that will culminate a set of mutually agreed upon principle and recommendations for both China and West African coastal states. In the final phase, dialogue participants from West Africa and China will join the project team to present the recommendations to the Chinese government, forming the basis of a final report for coastal West African governments and to be presented to key U.S. stakeholders in Washington, DC and at the UNFAO in Rome.

Trygg Mat Tracking and Global Fishing Watch will work with the Tawainese Government and other relevant actors to support effective controls of Taiwanese owned but foreign flagged fishing vessels, and implementation of the ‘Taiwanese Act to Govern Investment in the Operation of Foreign Flag Fishing Vessels’. Known as Flag of Convenience 'FOC' vessels in Taiwan, fishing vessels that are flagged out to other countries have inherent risk in their operations as many such registries are either deliberately structured to have limited flag State responsibility, or have limited resources to control fishing operations, and have been linked to issues such as IUU fishing and labour abuses, as well as providing a structure that assists in obscuring ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO). The project partners will work with the Taiwanese government to address the key challenges to achieving effective control of FOC vessels, including: lack of information on FOC/flagged out vessels with Taiwanese UBO, limited understanding of how FOC/ flagged out vessels operate globally, limited experience in identifying and investigating these types of operations, effective port controls of FOC vessels and their catches, and limited cooperation mechanisms and communication channels with relevant flag, port and coastal States. The project brings together organizations with complementary abilities - GFW open-data and analytical tools, TMT fisheries intelligence capacity, and global relationships with countries relevant to FOC operations will be used to build on an effective support partnership with Taiwanese Fisheries Agency. 

AIDA, a pioneer organization working on environmental protection in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities and critically endangered habitats, is working to support the debate concerning the future of the world's fisheries and find solutions to the impacts of harmful fisheries subsidies that contribute to the high rate of fisheries depletion. This project focuses on several countries in Latin America, using governance strategies and advocacy work to push for better policies and their enforcement. The overall goal is to revamp the way fisheries subsidies are granted in these countries with a focus on promoting livelihoods among coastal communities and ecosystem protection and conservation. 

The political contexts of Brazil and Uruguay, which border the Southwest Atlantic, and the advent of new governments provide significant opportunities building alliances for effective conservation and ecosystem connectivity through marine protected areas  (MPAs). It is a region of great relevance for fisheries and biodiversity conservation with the La Plata River, one of the largest estuaries in the world, together with oceanic features of a subtropical convergence ecosystem.  This three-year project seeks to establish two adjacent Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)  with effective management plans, covering more than 150,000 km2. It will improve the performance of Brazil and Uruguay in relation to multilateral agreements on marine biodiversity conservation and connectivity; and leave the political and social leadership and general public of Southern Brazil and Uruguay with a greater grasp of the role,  contribution and benefits of MPAs. Project activities can also impact on IUU fishing in the Southwest Atlantic, encouraging the Uruguayan government to implement control mechanisms to prevent and deter illegal fishing fleets.  

To advance in the fight against illegal fishing, the proposed project intends to advance a series of processes for strengthening the capacities of the Colombian authorities. This includes the improvement and updating of a national platform for registering fishing vessels, the creation of a dedicated environmental jurisdiction institution, and the increased capacity of judges and prosecutors to deal with environmental crimes and conflicts. As an overall result, this project will bring Colombia closer to the adoption and compliance of the Port State Measures Agreement and to sustainable use of fishing resources. 

Fisheries along the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) support the livelihoods of millions of people across four countries: Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. But along this coastline, unrelenting fishing pressure has contributed to a drop in commercial fish biomass (909 g/100m2 in 2016 to 731 g/m2 in 2018) in sites surveyed by the Healthy Reefs Initiative (HRI), as registered in their 2020 Report Card. Fully-protected “fish replenishment zones” (no-take zones) with adequate management and enforcement, have proven to be successful, doubling commercial fish numbers over the past decade in those zones. In the 2018 Report Card, HRI compared the biomass of commercial fish between a marine protected area, a fish replenishment zone within a marine protected area, and an area without any protection. The results were very clear: biomass within the fish replenishment zone was ten times higher than the biomass within the protected area. There was little difference in commercial fish biomass between the protected area and the area without protection. Unfortunately, only 3% of the MAR is fully protected from fishing as “fish replenishment zones”.

Identifying healthy marine ecosystems is critical for fisheries and conservation; these sites serve as baseline monitoring sites; they help replenish adjacent areas and can be highly beneficial for local tourism and recreation. Healthy marine ecosystems, however, are rare given the increasing anthropogenic pressures. Nevertheless, in 2013, scientists discovered an extremely healthy reef straddling the maritime border between Guatemala and Belize, which likely includes Guatemala’s only multi-species fish spawning aggregation (FSA) site. Properly protected and managed, the “Cayman Crown” can help ensure biological connectivity and permanence of marine resources in the MAR.

Legal designation of this important reef has been achieved in both countries. They are each applying different strategies, but in both, this new reef is now protected as a no-take zone.

Project objectives are:

• Advance permanent legal protection and initial management regime for Cayman Crown in Guatemala and Belize;
• Establish a baseline for future monitoring of fish spawning aggregations in Cayman Crown; and,
• Strengthen sustainable finance for the Cayman Crown sites in Belize and Guatemala.

MAR Fund will provide sub grants to local NGOs, and contracts to local and international consultants for implementation, as required. This solid institutional framework provides fiscal and management oversight and non-profit (501 c 3) status, with the ability to solicit, receive, and manage donations from larger donors and for larger projects.

 The Jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) and the Argentine shortfin squid (Illex argentinus) are the two most important squid fisheries in the world. Both fisheries, occurring on either side of South America and largely within oceanic waters bordering the 200-nautical mile EEZs, face a number of sustainability challenges. In South Atlantic waters, there is no currently operating regional fisheries management body mandated to manage the Argentine shortfin squid fishery, resulting in a total lack of management and control over the distant-water fishing fleet. In South Pacific waters, the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) is mandated to manage the jumbo flying squid fishery. However, despite the global importance of the fishery, lack of attention by the SPRFMO to jumbo flying squid has resulted in important deficiencies in collection of data from the fisheries, which forms the scientific basis for decision making, a lack of management, and lack of enforcement.

IUU fishing is a key problem in both fisheries. In the jumbo flying squid fishery, the SPRFMO maintains a register of fishing vessels operating in the Convention Area. However, there is a lack of monitoring, control, and surveillance systems in the high seas. In the Argentine shortfin squid fishery, cases of illegal fishing have been reported and the high seas fishery, as noted above, is unregulated.

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) has been engaging international suppliers and key vendors (producers, processors, and exporters) from producing countries to work together on a pre-competitive basis to address these issues. In the case of squid fisheries, this work is carried out through two tools: first, through the Global Squid Supply Chain Roundtable (SR), and second through fishery-specific Regional Key Vendors Groups. The Global Squid Supply Chain Roundtable is a forum of buyers (importers and distributors) of global squid, who work together in a pre-competitive environment to achieve improvements in squid fisheries. SFP provides SR participants coordination support, technical and purchasing advice, and updated information on the sustainability of the fisheries they source from, as well as the improvements needed. This support enables the development of improved purchasing policies as well as importers’ and distributors’ direct engagement in improvement efforts.

A Regional Key Vendors Group is an association of producers, processors, and exporters who work together to address the sustainability challenges faced at the regional level by the fishery or fisheries upon which their livelihoods depend. SFP provides logistical and secretariat support, along with updated information and technical advice so that the group understands the sustainability issues and the policy changes needed to address them.

This project is aimed at engaging national industries in Latin America (producers, processors, and exporters — referred to as key vendors) and global supply chains (importers and main distributors — referred to as suppliers; and the retail sector — referred to as retailers) in the US and European markets in the use of global transparency tools. The goal of the project is to use the power of the market to contribute to eradicating IUU fishing in the South Pacific jumbo flying squid fishery and the Argentine shortfin squid fishery.

Through this project, World Wildlife fund aims to significantly reduce illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing throughout the Guianas (Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana) by developing and implementing National Plans of Action (NPOAs) and increase and strengthen cooperation and data sharing between the three Guianas with a focus on small-scale fishers. Working closely with the national focal points in each country and through strategic coordination and consultation with key stakeholders, WWF will: 1) Strengthen regional coordination and governance mechanisms to address IUU fishing as well as data sharing in and between the three countries (Suriname, Guyana and French Guyana); 2) Assist in the development and implementation of NPOAs to address IUU fishing (NPOA-IUU); 3) Improve management of the artisanal fisheries sector through the adoption of best practices and appropriate technology; and 4) Strengthen capacity of National Fisheries Departments in Suriname and Guyana and support sustainable fishing practices and establish effective collaboration between the fishing sector and relevant stakeholders. 

Oceans 5 supports Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI) and Causa Natura in a two-pronged approach to improve fisheries management in Mexico. Mexico has recently created several very large protected areas. However, these areas have multiple uses and most of Mexico’s exclusive economic zone is open to fishing. COBI has a long history of working with fishing communities to create fully protected marine reserves, and during the project COBI will promote the inclusion of science-based design principles and citizen science in the national fish refuge agenda, whilst continuing to increase the number of fish refuges created through bottom-up, participatory processes. Fish refuges foster the conservation marine habitat and fisheries resources—including the different stages such as reproduction, recruitment, migration, and growth.

A recent evaluation by the Superior Audit of the Federation highlighted that part of the problem of the persistent fishery deterioration in Mexico is that policies are poorly designed and monitored. This includes policy areas such as fisheries subsidies and combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Causa Natura, through the use of open tools, web platforms and big data set analysis, will work with a community of stakeholders from government, researchers and civil society to increase transparency and accountability in these key areas of fisheries policy and decision making.

Oceans 5 will support this project for three years to improve management, transparency, participation and science-based decision making at the local and national level.

Oceans 5 is supporting The Nature Conservancy’s plans to assist Grenada, Dominica, and Saint Lucia in brokering their debt restructuring with commercial creditors, in return for the countries making conservation and policy. Grenada, Dominica, and Saint Lucia, like many Small Island Developing States, have very high debt burdens, limiting their ability to invest in much needed conservation and climate adaptation activities. 

Working collaboratively with the Government of Grenada, the Government of Dominica, and the Government of Saint Lucia, The Nature Conservancy has designed a debt conversion to address this predicament, thereby allowing the countries to redirect a portion of their current debt payments from external creditors to fund these much-needed conservation and climate adaptation activities on the ground, including the creation and management of approx. 22,000 km² of new marine managed areas and no take fish replenishment zones in these three countries.

Working collaboratively with the Government of Grenada, the Government of Dominica, and the Government of Saint Lucia, The Nature Conservancy has designed a debt conversion to address this predicament, thereby allowing the countries to redirect a portion of their current debt payments from external creditors to fund these much-needed conservation and climate adaptation activities on the ground, including the creation and management of approx. 22,000 square kilometers of new marine managed areas and no take fish replenishment zones in these three countries.

The Nature Conservancy with the support of Oceans 5 is pursuing these debt conversions with the aim of realizing greater conservation outcomes and creating on-going funding for climate adaptation and marine conservation activities. To achieve these outcomes in a manner that ensures they address both the ecological as well as the social and economic aspects of the affected areas, The Nature Conservancy will use a marine spatial planning process. The plan will also identify and address the policy holes in marine, fisheries, and coastal zone management that need to be addressed.

In the Central Eastern Tropical Pacific (CETP), Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama are responsible for planning and managing an extensive marine territory (2,150,976 km² of Territorial sea and Exclusive Economic Zones). This area is much larger than the land area of the four countries combined (1.610.272 km2). Considering the size of the CETP and the available resources, it is nearly impossible to effectively control activities in the area unless there is closer collaboration and transparency at a regional scale between the institutions that are responsible for regulating and controlling the use of marine resources.

For this reason, a key programmatic area of PACIFICO’s five-year strategic plan is to work on regional initiatives to coordinate compliance management efforts in the CETP.  Given the sensitivity of the issues, this task must be tackled at the highest levels of the four governments. Accordingly, with this grant, PACIFICO is supporting the efforts of the Ministers of Public Security-Defense and the Ministers of Environment of the region to develop a Regional Marine Strategy on Compliance Management for the CETP and to introduce transparency as a key aspect of the Strategy by encouraging data sharing between countries and the public availability of information such as vessel databases, license requirements and vessel locations. 

Oceans 5 supports Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) work with Cuba partners to rebuild fish populations and promote sustainable fisheries that support vibrant coastal economies and healthy marine environments in Cuba.

Overfishing in Cuba is threatening once pristine coral reef systems and thriving fish populations. Commercial fisheries are critical to the economy and food security, but managers often require additional data and expertise to set science-based measures—and fishing is on the rise to meet a spike in demand for fresh seafood from the booming tourism sector. Moving forward, any strategy to secure healthy and resilient marine ecosystems in Cuba will require getting fisheries right and strengthening Cuba’s impressive network of MPAs.

With EDF’s support, Cuba has embarked on a path toward science-based fishery management aimed at increasing food production and improving fishing livelihoods. EDF is collaborating with Cuban agencies, research centers, seafood enterprises, NGOs and fishing communities to: (i) improve fisheries science and build technical capacity; (ii) create strong management institutions and political and stakeholder support at every level (national, provincial, local); and (iii) promote and facilitate key policy and rule changes that will result in science-based and community-based fisheries plans and programs. EDF coordinates their work on sustaining fisheries with Wildlife Conservation Society and Cuban institutions to ensure that Cuba’s impressive network of MPAs is well-managed, financed, and integrated with fisheries management programs.

Oceans 5 supports Wildlife Conservation Society  (WCS) and the Forum for the Conservation of the Patagonian Sea and Areas of Influence to ensure effective implementation and representation of all major habitat types and biodiversity within the existing marine protected area systems in Argentina and Chile.

In the Southern Cone the Pacific and Atlantic oceans come into contact, creating globally unique ecosystems and marine habitats that extend beyond national borders. This region is uniquely populated by a diversity of wildlife and charismatic megafauna, from right and blue whales to several species of albatrosses and penguins, sea lions, and elephant seals. Argentina and Chile have increased their MPA coverage over the last few decades, yet there remains a need to increase the eco-regional coverage of marine protected sites in Patagonia, while improving governance, design, and effectiveness of Protected Areas.

Established in 2004, the Forum is an alliance of conservation NGOs that work together to protect an ecologically healthy and diverse Patagonian Sea in order to meet the needs, wishes and aspirations of people, and at the same time, protect one of the most productive marine ecosystems with unique wildlife sightings in the world, through a genuine partnership of all interested sectors. The Forum member organizations have long-standing, collaborative relationships with key national and local government agencies, which uniquely position them to achieve their goals for marine conservation in the Southern Cone. Oceans 5 is helping the Forum achieve its near-term goal of improving the effectiveness and biogeographic representativeness of the national MPA systems in Argentina and Chile, through eco-regional planning, network integration, and the creation of new protected areas.

Marine 30x30 Initiative

The Marine 30x30 Initiative will support broad public participation and incorporate expert scientific and cultural guidance to achieve the goal of restoring abundance to Hawai‘i's nearshore waters so that the people of Hawai‘i can enjoy our coastal waters, support local livelihoods, and feed our families.

Background

In 2016, the State launched the Sustainable Hawaiʻi Initiative, a multi-pronged effort to ensure a healthy environment and economy for Hawaii’s people. As part of this effort, the Department of Land and Natural Resources committed to effectively manage Hawaii’s nearshore waters with 30% established as marine management areas by 2030. The term marine management area refers to a balanced and nuanced approach to managing a specific geographic area for its marine resources and its uses. MMA regulations will vary depending on the area, such as regulating the type of gear used or instituting size limits for species to protect against over-harvesting. Hawai‘i leads the nation as the first state working to achieve the international conservation goal of protecting 30 percent of the planet by 2030 on a regional level. Leading scientists agree that this level of protection can help prevent mass extinctions, preserve critical ecosystem services, and help avert the worst impacts of climate change. The Initiative carries forward commitments made by public and private organizations that launched the Aloha+Challenge, a statewide commitment to achieve Hawaii’s sustainability goals and framework to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and by partners who issued the Promise to Pae‘āina, which is a collective commitment for measurable change in Hawai‘i’s i’s ocean.

HCF’s Role

HCF’s role is to launch and administer a pooled field of interest fund to support robust implementation of Hawai‘i’s Marine 30x30 Initiative. This will include providing grants and contracts to increase and augment state capacity to carry out the initiative and build a marine managed areas (MMA) program, as well as provide support for a range of partners and communities throughout the state to design, monitor, and steward MMAs, advance responsible or pono fishing practices, and to protect and restore Hawai‘i’s unique nearshore marine environments.

Priority Funding Targets

With a fundraising goal of $3 million per year for the next ten years, the Marine 30x30 Initiative will provide grants and contracts to strengthen the collective work of partners. The following are the funding priorities:

• Empowering Community Efforts – To support community groups and networks of cultural practitioners throughout the Hawaiian Islands to revive effective traditional stewardship practices.

• Leveraging Private Investments for Public Funding - To support efforts that create and advance measures to increase public funding for long-term ocean conservation and management.

• Building a Movement – Develop strategic messaging to effectively communicate the importance of marine resources to a full range of stakeholders and decision-makers.

• Ensuring a Strong Foundation in Science - The Marine 30x30 Initiative must incorporate leading scientific information to ensure that its MMAs will function as an ecological network, informed by traditional knowledge, and crafted with monitoring and enforcement in mind.

• Setting the Stage for Good Governance – To support coordinated, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, planning milestones, and transparent communication to ensure greater efficiency and accountability among partners.

Oceana, WWF, and CSIS propose a three-year project to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and to incentivize the adoption of sound fisheries management and labor practices on the water and across supply chains. The US is the largest single nation market for imported seafood, importing 90% of the seafood consumed domestically. Up to 1/3 of wild caught imports to the United States are estimated to have been stolen from the sea worth approximately $1 billion a year. 

Staff reflected in this proposal, with Oceans 5 support and leadership, were instrumental in standing up first of kind regulations in 2016 to break the link between the US market and IUU fishing. The time has come for the next leap forward. Oceana, WWF, and CSIS propose three streams of work:

• Improving tools for US leadership and diplomatic pressure;

• Strengthening and reforming supply chain approaches; and 

• Developing systems capable of addressing IUU fishing and human rights abuses as co-occurring crimes. 

We intend to maximize existing US law to create a system that will employ trade sanctions as a motivator for nation-level change and to pursue a formal MOU between the US, EU, and Japan to ensure complementary, anti-IUU approaches. We will strengthen the existing US regulations through modern, data-driven approaches, will ensure that regulations apply to all imported seafood, and will open the door to transparency through mandatory use of AIS. Finally, we will build solutions across both objectives capable of simultaneously deterring IUU fishing and human rights abuses and promoting adoption of best practices. Our groups realize that both issues require serious attention and that one problem cannot be solved without addressing the other. 

 On June 5, 2020 President Trump issued a proclamation opening the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing, immediately imperiling this remarkable and vulnerable ecosystem and potentially setting a dangerous precedent that threatens the nation’s other marine national monuments in the Pacific and land monuments across the country, if his action is allowed to stand.

Conservation Law Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Earthjustice are working together on a multi-faceted legal and public and political outreach campaign to reverse this rollback and secure the future of the only marine national monument in the U.S. Atlantic. At a time when there is a need to protect at least 30 percent of the land and 30 percent of the ocean by 2030 in order to build the resilience of our planet to climate change and stave off a dramatic trend in species extinction, we must win this fight.

The Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Programme is a renewed commitment by the Government of Bermuda, in collaboration with the Waitt Institute and the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, to support the sustainable growth of marine activities and resources, referred to as the Blue Economy.

Programme Goals include:

Identify and support stakeholder priorities: This Programme is led by Bermudians for Bermudians. Each step of the process will involve broad stakeholder consultations to ensure the Blue Economy supports all.

Support and develop marine industries: The Programme will include assessments of marine industries, such as tourism, maritime transportation, and commercial and recreational fisheries, to best understand their status and how to address the needs of all marine source users.

Optimize marine activities for economic growth: Guidelines for ocean use will be developed with the goal of optimizing sustainable economic growth across all marine sectors. The Programme will use a process called Marine Spatial Planning, which is similar to land-based zoning and planning processes.

Protect and invest in marine resources:The Government of Bermuda has pledged to fully protect20% of Bermuda’s 465,000 square kilometer exclusive economic zone. The exact locations of those protected areas will be determined through scientific analyses, economic assessments, and public input. 

Canada’s northern ocean spaces, which support both wildlife and coastal livelihoods, are increasingly threatened by industrial development. Moreover, the Canadian Arctic is warming three times as fast as the global average as a result of climate change. This combination directly threatens pristine marine ecosystems, biodiversity and coastal communities. Against this backdrop, there is a window of opportunity to conserve marine areas in a way that contributes to the long-term health and wellbeing of both communities and nature. Oceans North is working in partnership with Indigenous and coastal communities to support research, policy and actions that will lead to resilient, abundant oceans for future generations.

In April 2020, Waterkeepers Bahamas and Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation (BREEF) launched a coalition of stakeholders under the name Our Islands Our Future, to educate and activate the Bahamian citizenry about the destructive impacts of offshore oil exploration and drilling on the ecology and economy of The Bahamas. This coalition is supported by partners Waterkeeper Alliance and Oceana to bring communications capacity, strategy and to open a U.S. and international pressure element to the campaign. 

Since the launch, the coalition partners have begun to pressure the government through expert testimony, public awareness activities, administrative and legislative lobbying, and grassroots advocacy. The groups have launched a website, an online petition, social media platforms, written the Prime Minister directly and received excellent press coverage of the issue. 

Over the next year, the Our Islands Our Future coalition will prioritize growing its members with the inclusion of small businesses and stakeholder groups who will be able to support the campaign's mission and help influence the government’s decision by showing the Bahamian People do not support offshore drilling in The Bahamas. These stakeholder groups are an important strategy of this campaign and will include both local and international groups such as Bahamian civil society groups; religious leaders; sustainable tourism groups; fisherman cooperatives and guide services; diving and underwater photographers; international science and advocacy groups; and high profile international advocacy 

We are at a pivotal point in Bahamian history. The Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) has announced its intention to begin offshore oil drilling in our pristine waters in a matter of months. Prime Minister Hubert Minnis has one last chance to protect our nation's economy and precious natural resources from the devastating ravages of oil pollution before it is too late. 

Recently, BPC has announced that after 48 days of drilling in Bahamian waters, they did not find commercial quantities of oil. This further proves oil drilling is not worth the risk to our Tourism and Fisheries economies. The locally established “Our Islands, Our Future”(OIOF) coalition is running an aggressive advocacy, stakeholder/ community engagement, and public relations campaign to convince the Prime Minister to revoke or not renew their leases to BPC.

Two key factors that have proven successful in stopping past bad development in emergency situations are: foreign pressure, and litigation through a localized “Judicial Review” (JR) process. All elements of this legal strategy will be carefully coordinated with the OIOF coalition’s communications and advocacy efforts. It is likely, for example, that discovery produced through the JR will provide new information OIOF for both advocacy efforts and future JRs which can be used in influencing the government toward a “stop drilling” decision.

 Oceans 5 is supporting the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its partners to enhance representation and effective protection of critical marine and coastal habitats and biodiversity in Mozambique and Tanzania.

The Western Indian Ocean contains over 50 biodiversity hotspots, comprising mangrove, seagrass, coral reef, beach, and pelagic habitats. Sustainable resource management provides critical benefits such as ocean-derived protein, livelihoods, coastal protection, climate change mitigation, and near-shore water quality. These marine resources and habitats are, however, threatened by unregulated fishing practices, coastal development, destructive upland land-management practices, and industrial development (e.g., oil and gas) in sensitive ecological areas.

WCS has for many years successfully employed a community-based, participatory approach to ensure MPA design and management is equitable, effective, and sustainably financed for improved conservation and socioeconomic outcomes.

Oceans 5 is supporting Rare to integrate community-based fisheries reform with effective protection of marine reserves in Mozambique.  Half of Mozambicans live along Africa’s fourth largest coastline, and its small-scale fishers catch 85% of the country’s fish, making this sector important for both livelihoods and food security. With 1.4% of the world’s coral reefs and 2% of its mangroves, Mozambique also holds extraordinary biodiversity.  

Unfortunately, overfishing and destructive fishing techniques are diminishing fish catches and degrading ecosystems. National data show fish catch landings and overall catch size are declining, with small-scale fishers reporting that certain species no longer show up in their nets. It is estimated that overall artisanal catch has now declined nearly 30% over the last 25 years. Climate change will likely worsen this issue, as Mozambique’s coasts are vulnerable to cyclones, storm surges, and flooding.

Oceans 5 is supporting Rare’s Fish Forever program in 6 communities in Mozambique, reaching 8,000 fishers and 160,000 community members to build and strengthen community-based fisheries management of Mozambique’s coastal waters. Specifically, this approach works to: 

• Establish managed access areas that provide fishing communities clear rights to fish in certain areas

• Create networks of fully-protected and community-led no-take marine reserves to replenish and sustain fish populations and protect critical habitat

• Build community engagement and effective management bodies to support local decision-making

• Collect, disseminate and help fishing communities use data for decision-making

• Enact national policy to promote and sustain a community-based management approach to small-scale fisheries 

• Enable fishers to adopt more sustainable and better-regulated fishing behaviors (e.g., become a registered fisher; record fish catch; respect fishing regulations; and participate in fisheries management)

• Advance coastal fishing communities’ inclusion in financial and market opportunities to increase household resilience

By the end of 2023, Rare will establish fully protected reserves surrounded by managed access areas that will cover 58,000 hectares of seascape and will have delivered a replicable model for managed access with reserves embedded into the national strategy for coastal zone management, marine protection, and sustainable small-scale fisheries. This project supports the larger Fish Forever program in Mozambique, which reaches a total of 19 communities in 7 districts, reaching nearly 15,000 fishers. 

This project will improve the protection and aid recovery of the marine biodiversity and fisheries of the Republic of Comoros and ensure the sustainable use of ocean assets and thereby enhancing the resilience of coastal communities that depend on them. This project will support the Blue Economy National Plan (2020) developed by the Comoros government, which embraces an effectively managed and expanded network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as an essential tool for achieving resilience, restoration, and prosperity.  This project will work to strengthen the management of and increase protection in the existing four coastal MPAs of Comoros. 

Strengthened government and industry commitment to improve fisheries governance in the key policy areas of enhanced transparency, law enforcement, collaborative management, and capacity of key stakeholders in Ghana and the West African region.

Fisheries provide livelihoods for over 2.7 million people in Ghana and play a critical role in national food security and the way of life of coastal communities. Decades of poor governance of the sector have resulted in fleet overcapacity and illegal fishing (by both artisanal and industrial sectors), driving over-exploitation and collapse of the fisheries resource, particularly, the small pelagic fishery which is the mainstay of over 100,000 artisanal fishers and constituted about 80% of catches of artisanal fishers over a decade ago.

Ghana has one of the largest domestic-flagged industrial trawl fleets in West Africa. Illegal fishing by these vessels poses a major threat to Ghana’s fisheries, and particularly the illegal transshipment of fish from industrial trawlers to specialized canoes at sea (known locally as “saiko”). These practices are pushing fish populations to the brink of collapse, particularly the small pelagics

Although Ghana has taken steps to improve transparency and sustainability in the management of its fisheries, there is much to be done. Urgent actions are needed in the short to medium term to address key governance weaknesses and avert the imminent collapse of Ghana’s fisheries. 

The three-year project aims to strengthen government and industry commitment to improve fisheries governance in the key policy areas of enhanced transparency, law enforcement, collaborative management and capacity of key stakeholders in Ghana and the West African region. 

The project builds on gains made by recent interventions which have increased awareness of issues confronting the sector, driven reforms in areas such as co-management and set out actions towards recovery. It leverages on the good working relationship with regulators and stakeholders and exploit the improved role of fisher associations in fisheries governance.  

Interventions at the national level will provide a learning platform for the sub-region for fisheries governance improvements and cooperation. Cooperation between TMT and FCWC, coupled with their influence in the region, will contribute to the realization of the objectives of this intervention.

Cape Verde is an archipelagic nation formed by 10 islands located 500 km west of Senegal in West Africa. Discovered in the 15th century by the Portuguese, it has since served as an important slave warehouse between Africa and the Americas due to its strategic geographical positioning. Independent since 1975, its oceanic territory with about 1,000,000 km2 has a fantastic wealth of local species, in addition to being on the migration route of megafauna such as whales, sharks, turtles, sea birds and schools of fish. At the time of major fishing agreements with European, African and Asian fleets, its ocean has systematically suffered from fishing pressure that puts the balance in its surrounding seas at risk, which strengthens the urgent need to create legal tools for safeguarding its unique fauna. 

This project “Strengthening the establishment, monitoring and management of the Cape Verde Marine Protected Areas Network” meets the need for a conservation sanctuary that creates a safe corridor for both migrant species and local biological wealth. In this sense, we launched the challenge of strengthening the national network of marine protected areas, as well as proposing the creation of new areas with larger dimensions and innovative management forms that include local populations in a participatory and inclusive management. 

South African coastal communities have been some of the most marginalised, and are heavily dependent on the ocean for their livelihoods. The ocean is under threat from overexploitation of fishing stocks, exacerbated by the impact of climate change. Those with a close relationship to the ocean are the most invested in protecting its rich ecosystems, for future generations to enjoy sustainably.

This project aims to empower these coastal communities with skills and social capital in order to achieve long-term protection for the ocean. The communities will be capacitated to build networks and solidarity along the entire coastline, in a way that enables people to come together to call for further protection, for example, through increasing MPAs and withstand the current oil and gas threat and any further threat to the ocean.

The voice of marginalised and vulnerable communities needs to be heard, through meaningful participation, in order for decision-makers to create a framework that is both enabling and sustainable.

Located in West Africa, Senegal is one of the countries in the sub-region with a relatively long coastline (718 km) and high diversity of fish in its waters. The fishery sector is a key economic sector. Fishing (and related activities) provides jobs for ± 600,000 Senegalese, which represents at least 15% of the working force. With an export volume of 150,909 tonnes/year, the fisheries sector is the largest export sector in the country, and it represents 3,2% of the total GDP. In addition, the port of Dakar offers attractive landing conditions for vessels operating in the sub-region and is a key landing and transit site for industrial vessels operating in West Africa.

Despite its importance to the country and the region, the fisheries sector faces various constraints. In 2012, Senegal lost $300 million or 3,2% of its GDP to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Even if the State has since made considerable efforts, through the adoption of a new law, the development of a national action plan to combat IUU fishing, validated in 2015 and the acquisition of operational resources, IUU fishing activities remain rampant. This is particularly concerning as high market value (mainly exported) coastal demersal stocks (deep fish) remain fully and even overexploited. In addition, the fishing pressure on species consumed locally (small pelagics) is increasing due to the growing export of these species, with a serious risk of a shortage of supply on the local market.

There is a lack of information and capacities to detect linkages between Senegal-based companies and fishing operations in the region, which has diminished the countries’ ability to fight possible IUU fishing operations and conduct targeted controls.

This project will effectively and sustainably improve Senegal's capacity to fight IUU fishing through better fisheries governance, in particular by increasing the transparency of the activities of fisheries policy bodies, through enforcement of fisheries legislation and by building capacities of stakeholders in Senegal.

At the end of the project, the platforms of the fisheries management policy bodies and the tools for combating IUU fishing will have been strengthened, more integrated and traceable in an information system of the Ministry of Fisheries and Maritime Economy. 

Going a step further, at the end of the project Senegal will meet stronger fisheries governance and transparency benchmarks notably through tangible actions encompassing a wide range of institutional instruments - from the formulation of necessary pieces of legislation to operational actions directly contributing to enhancing the country’s capacity to fight IUU fishing. 

This will be supported by the adherence of Senegal to the FiTI (Fisheries Transparency Initiative) standards including the forthwith and regular publication of information on the fishing sector, in particular the fishing agreements, licenses and authorizations – consistently with and feeding into information made available through the FAO Global Record  –, the list of stakeholders in Senegal’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), etc.

To magnify the long-term impact of the reforms undertaken and ensure policy changes are durable, Senegal will benefit from solid multi-stakeholder partnerships with strengthened in-country advocacy capacity, stakeholders empowered to document IUU fishing, and relevant international actors, most notably the EU, having renewed and enhanced their cooperation and support.

The durability of the policy changes achieved will be further secured through the partners attaching great importance that the achievements, lessons learned and recommendations of this Oceans5 project feed into Senegal’s post 2023 fisheries policy.

The project will not only contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of Senegal’s Exclusive Economic Zone and resources, but also to reducing poverty, achieving food security, and to sustained and sustainable economic growth and consumption. Strengthened institutional capacities and secured support of well-informed stakeholders will also contribute to making a step forward in building an inclusive society and revitalizing the global partnership.

Reinforcing the fight against IUU fishing in Senegal is expected to have further positive impact in the region and beyond, considering the importance of Senegal as a flag and coastal state. 

 The fisheries sector of Guinea is of paramount importance to its society and economy, yet Guinea is known to have considerable problems with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Even if the Government has made considerable efforts in the recent years, through the adoption of a new law, the development of a national action plan to combat IUU fishing, validated in 2017, the government's efforts to effectively combat IUU fishing are curbed by the lack of transparency, inadequate local capacity to police its waters and insufficient technical means leading to an over exploitation of the marine resources.

The project will build on this strong political momentum and make concerted efforts towards improving fisheries governance and policy reforms within the project’s timeframe. The passing of these policies will result in the protection of Guinean marine waters; the improvement of its fisheries transparency and the promotion of sustainable fisheries and management. The ultimate impact of this project is the reinforcement of fisheries’ governance in Guinea and the reduction of IUU fishing.

This will be achieved through three main objectives targeting technical capacity support in combating IUU, national fisheries legal and regulatory framework reforms and fisheries transparency improvement. Each of the three objectives will be achieved through specific sets of outcomes leading to a long-term impact on the reduction of IUU fishing activities and fisheries governance strengthening.

The WILDOCEANS’ MPA Campaign is a collaborative one, with a goal of achieving 10 percent protection of South Africa’s oceans within MPAs by 2020. The campaign iswill building support amongst public and ocean stakeholders for marine protected areas (MPAs), by creating awareness of their value for provision of ecosystem services, ocean risk mitigation, food security, ecotourism benefits, moderation of climate change and improving resilience to impacts of other global stressors.

This campaign will counter the positioning of the oil and mining sector (hydrocarbon and mineral extraction) as a viable and important driver of blue ocean economies, that are in competition with MPA’s, by exposing the risks and impacts of these activities on social, economic and environmental resilience of developing countries.

In October 2018, the South African Cabinet approved 20 new or expanded MPAs and the Government finalized these protected areas in early 2019. This new network of protected areas totals 50,000 km2 or 5 percent of South Africa’s continental EEZ.

Ultimately WILDOCEANS hope to lead the way to a regional movement for increased protection across all African national waters and Africa’s Southern Ocean territories, aimed at meeting the current MPA target of 10 percent by 2020, but paving the way to African states supporting a global target of 30 percent strongly protected by 2030. 

Oceans 5 is supporting Trygg Mat Tracking (TMT) to shine a light on industrial fisheries operations in and adjacent to African waters and assure coastal States have better access to, and understanding of, relevant fisheries intelligence in their waters and regions. Working in cooperation with Global Fishing Watch, the focus is on developing a comprehensive overview of fishing operations active in sub-Saharan African EEZs that have beneficial ownership outside sub-Saharan Africa, examining the legal, business and operational structures that are utilized by international fishing operators, and identifying where the risks exist for illegal fishing and related fisheries crimes.

High levels of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the waters off sub-Saharan Africa threaten local livelihoods and food security, national security and marine ecosystems. With limited resources available for fisheries surveillance and enforcement, it is challenging for these coastal States to identify and prosecute the industrial fishing vessels and companies that fish illegally in their waters. Information transparency, sharing and access to high quality fisheries intelligence can significantly enhance capacity to tackle IUU fishing, enabling authorities to clearly identify where vessels are permitted to operate and focus limited resources on monitoring and control of high risk vessels and companies. 

TMT will also work with the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea and the West Africa Task Force to strengthen the Regional Fisheries Body’s capacity to share and make publicly available national and regional legal frameworks, regional conventions, vessel registers, and other relevant material, through its website and other communication platforms.