WWFs internasjonale årsmøte i København

Dear friends,

It is a great honour to be invited to the WWF Annual Conference, and especially to be given the opportunity to address some of the key issues regarding sustainable management of fisheries. 

I come from the High North, from a small place in Northern Norway,  that is not even shown on CNN’s weather map. People from my little part of the world have always been dependent on the sea and the fish, and the rich fish stocks in the Barents Sea is the main reason why Norwegians, Russians and the Sami have settled down along the coast and the fjords up north.

Imbalance in the ecosystems, seal invasions and lack of fish meant starvation in the old days – and unemployment. On the other hand, when the quotas are stable or even increase – it means jobs, optimism and security for my neighbours and the rest of the coastal population.
The way we manage our fish stocks is deciding the future of many coastal communities and individuals – in Northern Norway, in West Africa, and in other parts of the world.

SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT
This is why the Norwegian Government has high ambitions for the management of the marine resources.  To emphasize the duty of compliance, these ambitious objectives have now been established by law in The Marine Resources Act.  This act embraces the “management principle”. 

This means that, firstly, the management is based on a precautionary approach.

Secondly, to secure the biodiversity and the functioning of the marine habitats, all our management shall include ecosystem-based perspectives. 

And further – to secure employment and maintain coastal communities, we need to secure an effective control of harvest as well as regulations of the fishing fleet. 

All in all, this will contribute to maintain the resource basis and high yields for generations to come.

But the precautionary approach is, of course, not new to our management. The advice provided by The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, has for several years been normative when setting catch quotas.  Hence the precautionary approach has shown results. We have succeeded in recovering many of the fish stocks which were once over-exploited.  For instance, our policy is now rewarding us with the strongest spawning stock biomasses of both North-East arctic cod and Norwegian spring-spawning herring that have been observed in decades. 

However, the Norwegian Government will not use these promising results as an opportunity of resting on its laurels – because there are so many tasks yet to be resolved, both nationally and globally.
Also, we find ourselves obliged to continue the never-ending effort to improve scientific knowledge – because successful management is so much dependent on our ability to understand each part, not to say the totality, of the marine ecosystem puzzle.

IUU
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a serious threat to important fish stocks, marine ecosystems and sustainable management. Thus, in any discussion on sustainable management of living marine resources, IUU should be seen as a major topic – and for our government, the fight against IUU has the highest priority. IUU activities constitute both a local, national, regional and global problem – and must be addressed accordingly.

IUU-fishery is a big problem for a rich nation as Norway – but it is of course a much bigger problem for developing countries without the same control resources that we have. IUU is a question of income for the fishermen; securing jobs along the coast; taking care of the environment; fighting criminal networks – and it is a question of solidarity between countries.

And we must expect all countries to take responsibility; coastal states, flag states, port states and the markets. Close bilateral and regional cooperation is therefore paramount.

Fighting IUU is demanding and complex. Major players in the systematic and large-scale IUU business are rational actors with considerable resources and the ability to act swiftly when adjusting to new control measures. To succeed in fighting them, cooperation between governments and civil societies is very important.

And the consumers have a very important role. MSC and other ecolabels are useful tools, and governments should also require tracing systems, and secure that the consumers get all the relevant information they need to choose sustainable products in the supermarket.

For many years, IUU fishing was a major concern in the Barents Sea. Analysis carried out by our Directorate of fisheries showed that about 100 thousand tonnes of cod was caught each year in this unreported fishing between 2002 and 2005. The situation was totally unacceptable, and demanded intense work by the most central coastal and port states for this stock.

At the bilateral level, we intensified our already well established cooperation with Russian authorities, which resulted in better transparency and increased exchange of information. At the regional, and indeed global, level – we agreed with a number of countries to try to close ports to reefers carrying illegal fish from the North Atlantic. This proved to be very effective, for example through the port state measures, introduced in the convention area of the North east Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) from May 1st 2007. The cost-effectiveness of this measure has inspired us to work in favour of a global regime for port state measures in the fisheries.  A number of consultations have been held in the FAO in order to create such a global instrument.

In addition, civil society contributed significantly in addressing the collective dilemma of unreported fishing. The NGOs played a major role by raising awareness through media, and by working with traders. WWF played a major and very constructive role.

I am pleased to present a report today written by Friends of the Earth Norway in cooperation with WWF Norway. This report is a survey of the trade flow in the fisheries sector in Asia. Through this work we have gained greater understanding of the white, but also the black, part of the transnational fisheries industry. There is transnational cooperation involved in a great deal of the black fish market. New countermeasures will be crafted accordingly. We will follow up this new knowledge with a study on transport routes, because the networks organising IUU fishing will try to find new ways into the markets. Under our new marine act, we will make a by-law which will make it illegal for Norwegian citizens to engage in IUU-activities, also under other flags. We will also look at the possibility to deny foreign companies license to fish in Norwegian waters if they have been involved in IUU fishing in other areas.

Anyway, it was a joy to see that the overfishing of cod was reduced from 101 000 tonnes in 2005 to 80 000 tonnes in 2006. The following year, IUU fishing had been reduced to 40 000 tonnes; a reduction of 60% from 2005.

Needless to say, estimating IUU fishing is difficult. We have therefore carried out work with Russian authorities, in order to produce joint reports of overfishing in the Barents Sea. This cooperation continues, and we will very soon be able to present the figures for 2008, which show that the reduction in IUU fishing continues.

I am very pleased with that, but we still need to join forces to combat IUU in other parts of the world and to stop discards. And in our own waters, we need to take stronger actions to build up the stocks of coastal cod and eel.

The sustainable use of living marine resources is about principles and politics. To coastal communities, sustainable management of fish stocks is a question of survival. I can ensure you that my government will continue to work in favour of sustainable management of living marine resources. At the same time, we acknowledge that there are many challenges ahead - both in Norway and globally.

Let me conclude by expressing my gratitude to WWF for your contribution in this field.

Thank you for your attention.