Pledge to stop illegal tuna fishing, related forced labour on high seas by 2020
Fifty of the world’s largest businesses, retailers and fishing companies from across the tuna supply chain on Monday announced a commitment to stamp out illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in their industry, to eliminate forced labour from fishing vessels and to protect the health of the oceans and livelihoods of fishing communities.
Launched on World Environment Day at the United Nations’ first global Ocean Conference, the Tuna 2020 Traceability Declaration aims to stop illegal tuna from coming to market. It is supported by 18 civil-society organisations including the Benioff Ocean Initiative (University of California, Santa Barbara), the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Marine Stewardship Council, the Nature Conservancy, and OceanElders.
The declaration, which is available at www.wef.ch/tunadeclaration, sends a clear message to organisations on the tuna supply chain – from fishing companies to producers to retailers – that the net is closing in on illegally fished tuna and forced labour on the high seas.
To help deliver on the outcomes in the declaration, the World Economic Forum (WEF) says it will mobilise an “Ocean Data Alliance”, an open-source collaboration among leading tech companies, governments and research institutes. This will bring together the data needed for comprehensive monitoring of ocean resources.
Such traceability of stocks and the elimination of illegal activities are possible through new Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as blockchain, big data, machine learning and satellite tracking.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing represents a global theft of about 26 million tonnes of fish, or US$24 billion (Bt816 billion), each year. Around a billion people rely on fish as their primary source of animal protein, particularly in developing countries.
Tuna is one of the most overfished and at-risk groups of fish. Many are “keystone species”, meaning that overfishing can have a significant impact on ocean health. Bluefin tuna have seen their populations collapse by more than 90 per cent and will take decades to recover fully.
IUU tuna fishing is a source of forced labour in many countries, violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organisation’s Conventions and Recommendations.
“The Tuna 2020 Traceability Declaration is an unprecedented commitment to stop illegal tuna from coming to market,” said Dominic Waughray, WEF’s head of public-private partnership and member of the group’s executive committee.
“Multi-stakeholder collaboration combined with Fourth Industrial Revolution innovations such as advanced remote sensing, the latest generation of satellites and new computing technologies provide real opportunity to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals to make this happen.”
Meg Caldwell, deputy director for oceans for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, a US-based provider of funding to non-profit organisations, said recent analysis showed that IUU fishing might be 50 per cent more than the officially reported catch.
“The good news is that there are solutions for responsible and evidence-based marine resource management. This intersection with our strategic priorities is why tackling IUU fishing has become an increasing priority for us,” she said.
The Tuna 2020 Traceability Declaration came out of discussions at the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in January among industry stakeholders, governments, civil society and the Peter Thomson, president of the United Nations General Assembly. They called for further collaboration between the public and private sectors to accelerate efforts to address the IUU fishing of tuna in line with Sustainable Development Goal 14 on oceans.
"SDG 14 is critical for the health and economies of many nations, particularly coastal countries and small island states. This declaration is a bold step towards ending illegal fishing and empowering countries to make fisheries more sustainable," said Arni Mathiesen, assistant director-general of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The UN Ocean Conference, which began on Monday and runs until Friday, marks the first time since the 1982 passage of the Law of the Sea that so many world leaders are convening to discuss the future of the world’s oceans, including its impact on economic growth, environmental sustainability, human health and the achievement of the SDGs.
