FAO and other UN agencies strengthen coordination to combat IUU fishing
The Joint Working Group on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and related matters, in its fifth meeting held in January in Geneva, Switzerland, put forward 52 recommendations to the three United Nations (UN) organizations that form it and to their Members, to further strengthen coordination to combat IUU fishing.
Recommendations include, amongst others: increasing cooperation on an international, regional, and national level; the accession, ratification, or adherence to international instruments that address IUU fishing and related matters; further usage of existing tools of the three organizations; and recommendations about environmental and labour aspects often linked to IUU fishing.
The ad hoc Joint Working Group on IUU fishing and related matters (JWG) was formed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) after a call from the 23rd Session of the Committee of Fisheries (COFI 23) in 1999. The International Labour Organization (ILO) formally joined in 2019. Since its setup, the JWG held meetings in 2000, 2007, 2015, and 2019.
In its fifth meeting, held between 8 – 12 January 2024 and chaired by Ghana, there were 150 participants representing national administrations of fisheries, maritime and labour, UN specialized agencies, the World Trade Organization, and international non-governmental organizations.
Amongst its proposals, the JWG recommended that Members to the three organizations that have not yet acceded to the 2012 Cape Town Agreement, to do so, as well as to the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA), and the ILO Work in Fishing Convention, 2007 (C.188). Members were also recommended to ratify the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies to bring its entry into force.
Members that are Party to the PSMA were additionally recommended to further utilize existing FAO tools, including the Global Information Exchange System (GIES) and the Global Record for Fishing Vessels, Refrigerated Transport Vessels and Supply Vessels (Global Record).
The recommendations were transposed into an intersessional workplan, with concrete actions to guide the work forward until the next JWG meeting.