Driving positive momentum and collective action on SDG14: Life below water
FAO’s Chief Economist, Máximo Torero, spoke today at a UN General Assembly high-level thematic debate on the ocean, where the importance of fisheries and aquaculture featured widely in talks about food security and agri-food systems transformation to achieve the 2030 Agenda and SDG14
New York, 1 June 2021 – With minds focused on redoubling efforts to deliver on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the President of the UN General Assembly convened a high-level thematic debate on the ocean and on Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14). The event took place virtually from New York, and was jointly organized by the Governments of Portugal and Kenya, the co-hosts of the Second UN Ocean Conference, as well as Peter Thomson, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean.
FAO’s Chief Economist, Máximo Torero, participated in the panel discussion on fisheries and aquaculture, which centered on opportunities and challenges to the implementation of SDG targets 14.4 (sustainable fisheries), 14.6 (ending harmful subsidies) and 14.b (supporting small-scale fishers).
“There is a need to improve the understanding of how sustainable fisheries and aquaculture support livelihoods, food security and nutrition – and the achievement of the SDGs – by having better data and offering evidenced-based policy advice,” he said, pointing to how FAO’s work on SDG14 aims to ensure that the ocean continues to support fisheries and aquaculture-based livelihoods and the achievement of the SDGs.
Incentives for collective action
Speaking on governance mechanisms and their importance for the sustainability of fisheries-based livelihoods, Torero shed light on FAO’s work in support of standard setting and voluntary and binding instruments to galvanize collaboration and collective action, including the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication. He also spoke of how cooperation and management for shared resources can be achieved through regional fishery bodies and regional fisheries management organizations.
These instruments, including the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), acknowledge the need to take urgent action to ensure that oceans are resilient, that fisheries and aquaculture – and the trade of these products – are sustainable and produced with a nutrition-sensitive approach, all while safeguarding marine ecosystems.
“One in three commercially exploited fish stocks is unsustainably fished, and these stocks are largely where management is not effectively implemented,” Torero remarked.
“The reasons for management failures are complex: lack of institutional, scientific and management capacity, lack of monitoring, control and surveillance systems, and in some cases lack of political will. Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, for example, is a direct consequence of these failures,” he added, pointing out that “where management is implemented, stocks are rebuilding and sustainability is being achieved.”
Working together for SDG14 ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit
Bringing together evidence for data-driven decisions on food security, nutrition and conservation is paramount. As such, improving the understanding of how sustainable fisheries and aquaculture can translate into improved food and nutrition security, through a people-centered and rights-based approach, is expected to feature prominently in the lead up to the UN Food Systems Summit later this year.
Against this backdrop, Torero underscored: “The only solution is capacity building at all levels, including demonstrating that political action pays off, and recognize that effective management is the best conservation tool.”
In relation to FAO's efforts to reduce the increasing numbers of undernourished people around the world, Torero called for a Blue Transformation of the sector with active interventions in three pillars: (i) sustainable intensification of aquaculture, targeting a 35-40 percent growth in global production by 2030; (ii) transforming fisheries through a better management to restore fish stocks to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yields; and (iii) improving efficiency, viability and inclusiveness of fish value chains, thus reducing loss and waste as well as discards, while also opening new markets, removing barriers to trade and making use of new opportunities as climate change affects traditional sources.
The panel discussion also touched on the recently endorsed 2021 Declaration for Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture of the FAO Committee on Fisheries and on the UNCTAD-FAO-UNEP Inter Agency Plan of Action on SDG 14, both of which link to FAO’s efforts in brokering consensus around the PSMA, as voiced by the FAO Director-General in a call for additional collaborative efforts to combat IUU fishing, on the occasion of the Third Meeting of the Parties of the PSMA. Several permanent missions took to the virtual floor following the panel presentations, calling for concerted action to preventing and ending harmful sector subsidies, including a call to action to reach an agreement that would also enhance the implementation of the PSMA.
Related links
- Visit the event webpage and watch the recording
- Read about FAO’s work on SDG14 and FAO’s work on combatting Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing