Evolution of international commitments for fisheries sustainability

Rice, J. 2014. Evolution of international commitments for fisheries sustainability. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 71: 157–165. The basic standards for the sustainability of fisheries were set by international policy in the UN Fish Stocks Agreement (FSA). However, each year since the FSA was ratified, the United Nations General Assembly has negotiated and agreed to resolutions on Ocean Law of the Sea and on Sustainable Fisheries. This paper reviews chronologically how the interpretation of “sustainability” has evolved in those resolutions, as well as been addressed in the decadal world summits on sustainable development. Although the basic biological benchmarks for sustainability have not been altered by these resolutions, commitments for the standards to be met by all ecosystem components impacted by fishing have become increasingly strong. The annual resolutions have increasingly stressed that environmental sustainability is critically important, but is not more important than social well-being aspects of sustainability, with fisheries having a vital role in sustainable development in many parts of the world. In addition, agreements on biodiversity conservation made largely in Oceans and Law of the Sea resolutions are increasingly influencing the nature and pace of evolution of how “sustainability” is interpreted in fisheries.