Transparency in 21st Century Fisheries Management: Options for Public Participation to Enhance Conservation and Management of International Fish Stocks

The research paper argues that the effectiveness of international fisheries management depends on the support and input of non-governmental stakeholders. It analyzes the 'three pillars' of public participation—access to information, access to decision-making, and access to justice—as established by the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, and the Aarhus Convention. The author compares the participatory practices of Rio-era conventions (Climate Change, Biological Diversity, and Desertification) with those of various RFMOs, such as the WCPOFC, NAFO, and ICCAT. The document concludes that broad NGO participation enhances decision-making quality and legitimacy, and recommends that RFMOs adopt open-access policies for meetings and documents to ensure sustainable resource management.

• The Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 established three essential 'pillars' for sustainable natural resource management: access to information, access to decision-making, and access to justice.
• Public participation by NGOs provides four primary benefits to multilateral institutions: it enhances legitimacy and public acceptance, improves decision-making quality through increased technical expertise and perspectives, provides accountability via public scrutiny, and helps small or less-developed states build their participation capacity.
• The Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPOFC) and the U.N. Fish Stocks Agreement incorporate Rio-era transparency principles, requiring that NGOs have 'timely access to the records and reports' of RFMOs.
• Pre-Fish Stocks Agreement RFMOs, specifically the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), historically lacked provisions for public participation or NGO observer status.
• NAFO's updated rules of procedure are criticized as potentially restrictive because they require NGOs to submit planned 'input' and materials at least 100 days before a meeting, which may render the information irrelevant by the time the meeting occurs.
• The North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) allows NGOs and private persons to file 'submissions on enforcement matters' to alert the secretariat when a party is failing to enforce its environmental laws.
• The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) utilized the legal expertise of CIEL/FIELD to improve its capacity to negotiate under the Climate Convention and the Kyoto Protocol.

APA

Wiser, G. M. (n.d.). Transparency in 21st Century Fisheries Management: Options for Public Participation to Enhance Conservation and Management of International Fish Stocks. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/trans21cenfisheries_options.pdf

Chicago

Wiser, Glenn M. Transparency in 21st Century Fisheries Management: Options for Public Participation to Enhance Conservation and Management of International Fish Stocks. Center for International Environmental Law, n.d. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/trans21cenfisheries_options.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Wiser |first1=Glenn M. |title=Transparency in 21st Century Fisheries Management: Options for Public Participation to Enhance Conservation and Management of International Fish Stocks |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/trans21cenfisheries_options.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wiserndtransparency, author = {Wiser, Glenn M.}, title = {{Transparency in 21st Century Fisheries Management: Options for Public Participation to Enhance Conservation and Management of International Fish Stocks}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/trans21cenfisheries_options.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }