The European Union challenge
Oceanic fisheries is one sector in the Pacific that has a high-degree of policy, research, management, and enforcement. The Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat all play a role in the sector.
Policies for conservation and management of migratory fish stocks are outlined in the Regional Tuna Management and Development Strategy (RTMADS), which was approved by Forum Fisheries Committee Ministers in July 2009 and noted by Pacific Islands Forum leaders in August 2009. ‘There are two key pillars to the regional approach to fisheries management — sustainable fish stocks and enhanced economic returns,’ says a Forum Secretariat paper issued in late September. ‘All of the goals regarding economic returns are long-term and therefore require sustainable fish stocks. The sheer importance of fisheries resources to the economic, social and political stability and self-determination of most countries creates an additional dimension to fisheries management that is often not present in the developed world.’
In the Pacific, the Forum report points out, conservation and management measures must be designed in innovative ways to facilitate benefits to coastal states, particularly Small Island Developing States. ‘This is different to more traditional approaches in international fisheries that have relied upon historic fishing patterns of developed distant water fleets and the concept of “equal burden” where each country simply has its opportunities reduced equally and typically no one does, thus the global tragedy of the commons in Regional Fisheries Management Organizations.’
The Forum Secretariat paper was prepared as part of significant appeal to the European Union to delay voting on a Comprehensive Fisheries Strategy for the Pacific so that consultations could be held. The Forum’s intervention had little impact; the measure was overwhelmingly adopted by the European Parliament earlier this month. So what do you do when you are managing an area and an outside agency doesn’t consult you, creates its own management plan for your area, and bases the strategy on faulty information? The Pacific’s response to the EU’s new fisheries strategy has been to criticize it sharply and publicly.
Indicating the outrageousness of the EU’s action, the Forum Secretariat — normally noted for its diplomatic language — lambasted the document and the process by which it was produced. “We are extremely disappointed that the Pacific ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) region was not consulted nor did it have the opportunity to provide input into such an important initiative for both the EU and the PACP region,” said Forum Deputy Director General Andie Fong Toy in a letter distributed to European Parliament members in late September. “We are extremely concerned with the misinformation in the draft report. A strategy based on wrong information, coupled with the departure from agreed consultation practices, will not be the basis for a sustainable partnership.” Despite a detailed four-page letter from Fong Toy, accompanied by numerous documents to support criticisms of the EU fisheries strategy, the European Parliament adopted the strategy.
In reality, this latest development is hardly surprising. The EU has worked at undermining the vessel day scheme (VDS) that now controls purse seine fishing in the region, limits fishing days, and has quadrupled revenue accruing to PNA members in three years. To convince the European Parliament, the draft strategy manipulated data to claim that VDS is not controlling fishing effort. Fong Toy’s letter of criticisms was backed up by WCPFC Director Hurry and Secretariat of the Pacific Community Principal Fisheries Scientist Peter Williams.
‘The draft strategy states that the framework agreement should be based on the Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) provided that the measures are transparent and are implemented by all parties concerned and based on the best available scientific advice,’ Fong Toy said. ‘This would be a very positive change from the current practice during negotiations on bilateral Fisheries Partnership Agreements (FPAs), where the EU has insisted that PACP states disregard the VDS to the detriment of the region. FPAs, by nature, do not limit effort or catch.’ Earlier this year, the EU negotiated an agreement with Kiribati that ignores the VDS, and has opposed inclusion of VDS language in the fisheries section of the Economic Partnership Agreement trade deal under negotiation with the region.
‘PACP states maintain that their conservation and management measures, including the VDS, are credible and comply with relevant international laws and obligations,’ Fong Toy said. ‘These measures are also recognised and adopted by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, which the EU is a member of, and have been effective tools in the sustainable management of fisheries resources in the region. The same measures have been recognised by the U.S., Japan and all other distant water fishing nations. We expect the EU to respect our national and sub-regional conservation and management measures including the VDS.’
Not all island nations are bending in fisheries negotiations with the EU. The Solomon Islands recently refused to renew a fisheries partnership agreement with the EU. In a September 27 letter to the Forum Secretariat, Solomon Islands Permanent Secretary for Fisheries and Marine Resources Dr. Christain Ramofafia explained why the Solomons took this action. The decision was based on the Solomon Islands’ solidarity with PNA arrangements agreed by the eight members. “The EU refused to accept the application of the VDS to EU vessels,” said Ramofafia. “Secondly, as a signatory to the PNA Third implementing Agreement, Solomon Islands advised it could only license EU vessels on the condition that they not fish in designated high seas areas.”
Several years ago, PNA imposed a ban on fishing in two high seas “pockets” that were surrounded by 200-mile exclusive economic zones of PNA members as a conservation measure to reduce fishing. The ban on high seas pockets became a licensing condition: if distant water fishing nations want to fish in PNA waters — which they do, because 50 percent of the world’s skipjack tuna is caught in PNA waters — they had to agree not to fish in these pockets. “I do not consider that this action is against the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and WCPFC provisions as Solomon Islands is not unilaterally closing the high seas, but rather it is refusing, as is its right, to license vessels to fish in its EEZ if they fish in these designated high seas areas,” Ramofafia said. “This approach was successfully used by Forum Fisheries Agency members to ban high seas transshipment in 1993, a move that was not legally challenged by distant water fishing nations.”
The EU appears to be repeating an unhappy history the Pacific has experienced with other distant water fishing nations. It took FFA members years, for example, to get the United States government and its tuna vessels first to agree to follow rules and pay for fishing in the region, and more recently, to accept operating according to the VDS. It took years in both cases, but U.S. vessels have been operating under a region-wide treaty since 1987 and, as of June this year, all American-flagged purse seiners now recognize the VDS. How many years will it take to bring the EU into line with conservation and management rules enforced by the region?
This debacle with EU’s new Pacific fisheries policy shows too that, despite significant fisheries policy organization in the Pacific, there are nations outside the region that behave as if it is still the 19th century. It’s a challenge, and it uses precious time and resources that most islands don’t have to battle with huge organizations such as the EU. But if ever there was a sector of importance to livelihoods in the Pacific it is fisheries. And it appears the organizations that represent the islands are unlikely to surrender the region’s most precious resource to the European Parliament’s comprehensive fisheries strategy for the Pacific.
