Fisheries subsidies need urgent reform – here’s why

The author highlights the critical state of global fish stocks, noting that over 31% of commercial stocks are overfished. A primary driver of this crisis is the estimated $20 billion in capacity-enhancing subsidies that encourage overcapacity and illegal fishing. The text calls for the World Trade Organization to fulfill a 2015 pledge to eliminate harmful subsidies by 2020 to support the Sustainable Development Goals.

• Overfishing and habitat destruction are the primary threats to marine biodiversity, with over 31% of commercial fish stocks assessed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated to be overfished, a rate that has tripled since 1974.
• Capacity-enhancing subsidies, which include fuel subsidies, tax exemptions, and boat construction, are estimated at approximately $20 billion and contribute to overfishing, overcapacity, and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
• World leaders pledged in 2015 to use the World Trade Organization to prohibit or eliminate fisheries subsidies that contribute to overfishing, overcapacity, and IUU fishing by 2020 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.
• The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, concluded in October 2015, represented a significant breakthrough by including the first rules on reducing fisheries subsidies in an international trade agreement, although the deal remains on stand-by.

APA

Meléndez-Ortiz, R. (2017). Fisheries subsidies need urgent reform – here’s why. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/sustainable-development/fisheries-subsidies-need-urgent-reform-heres-why/

Chicago

Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. Fisheries subsidies need urgent reform – here’s why. World Economic Forum, 2017. https://www.weforum.org/stories/sustainable-development/fisheries-subsidies-need-urgent-reform-heres-why/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Meléndez-Ortiz |first1=Ricardo |title=Fisheries subsidies need urgent reform – here’s why |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=6 June 2017 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/sustainable-development/fisheries-subsidies-need-urgent-reform-heres-why/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{melndezortiz2017fisheries, author = {Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo}, title = {{Fisheries subsidies need urgent reform – here’s why}}, publisher = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2017}, month = jun, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/sustainable-development/fisheries-subsidies-need-urgent-reform-heres-why/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }