U.N.’s Global Biodiversity Framework Requires Fisheries Managers to Protect Ecosystems

Overview

In December 2022, 196 member governments of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to an ambitious plan to safeguard the natural world: the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Signatory nations pledged to drastically reduce threats to wildlife and ecosystems and to help people better live in harmony with nature. The framework outlines a set of targets for urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by preserving and sustainably using Earth’s resources and by protecting and conserving at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030.¹

To achieve the GBF’s goals, governments need to consider not only how to protect the areas set aside for conservation but also how to best govern the places designated for sustainable use. This is especially important in fisheries management, because fishing activity will still be allowed in most of the ocean that is not protected. The governments that signed on to the GBF envisioned major changes that would embed biodiversity protection in fisheries management decision-making.

Important GBF targets for fisheries

Exploitation of wild populations, particularly fish, is one of the largest drivers of biodiversity loss in marine ecosystems.² The GBF’s 23 action-oriented targets, particularly 5 and 10, require that fisheries managers contribute to the protection of biodiversity:

• Target 5—Ensure Sustainable, Safe and Legal Harvesting and Trade of Wild Species
  “Ensure that the use, harvesting and trade of wild species is sustainable, safe and legal, preventing overexploitation, minimizing impacts on non-target species and ecosystems, and reducing the risk of pathogen spill-over, applying the ecosystem approach, while respecting and protecting customary sustainable use by indigenous peoples and local communities.”³
• Target 10—Enhance Biodiversity and Sustainability in Agriculture, Aquaculture, Fisheries and Forestry
  “Ensure that areas under agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries and forestry are managed sustainably, in particular through the sustainable use of biodiversity, including through a substantial increase of the application of biodiversity friendly practices … [that contribute] to the resilience and long-term efficiency and productivity of these production systems and to food security, conserving and restoring biodiversity and maintaining nature’s contributions to people.”⁴

Despite clear rules for sustainable management laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA) and the Sustainable Development Goals, implementation in fisheries management of essential practices to safeguard biodiversity is still lacking.⁵ One tool, ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) – a holistic approach that incorporates marine ecosystem health considerations into the management of fish populations – is readily available now to help fisheries managers deliver on these commitments and could help assimilate biodiversity conservation into management on the ambitious scale envisioned by the GBF.

Ecosystem-based fisheries management supports biodiversity resilience

EBFM accounts for interactions among species, the impacts of fishing on all species and habitats, and the effects of environmental trends, particularly climate change, on fisheries productivity. By modelling and adjusting decisions to reflect changing realities, EBFM enables managers to strengthen the sustainability of fisheries and the resilience of ecosystems.

Regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) – international bodies made up of member governments that are responsible for the conservation and management of many of the world’s most valuable commercial fish stocks and highly migratory species – are already moving towards EBFM. For example, when making decisions about how much fish may be caught, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization now sets collective thresholds for several stocks, which indicate to managers when the total catch of all of those species creates a risk of “ecosystem overfishing” – that is, when too many fish are being caught relative to how many the ecosystem can produce. Similarly, the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission has begun setting ecological objectives, such as maintaining the integrity of food webs, in addition to traditional objectives such as maximum yields.

EBFM is more than smart fisheries management; its emphasis on protecting non-target species, preserving habitats and adapting to changing conditions makes it a critical tool for realizing the sustainability and biodiversity goals of the GBF. However, progress towards widespread use of EBFM has been limited, and the five tuna RFMOs, which govern the world’s largest fisheries, have not kept up: A 2023 analysis showed that they have a long way to go to effectively and systematically integrate ecosystem approaches into their policies and practices.⁶

How managers can implement EBFM

To apply EBFM in practice, governments and international bodies such as RFMOs should strengthen fisheries management through ecosystem-focused measures, including:

• Harvest strategies. Fisheries managers should continue to move away from short-term decision-making and towards the use of harvest strategies – innovative plans, also known as management procedures, that set long-term objectives and use pre-agreed rules to control how fishing levels will fluctuate over time based on the status of a particular fish population. Harvest strategies can incorporate EBFM tools to account for environmental trends and interactions among species, such as by adopting revised scientific benchmarks to assess the status of non-target species or respond to rising ocean temperatures.⁷
• Bycatch measures. RFMOs and governments should adopt conservation and management measures not just for target species but also for bycatch species – non-target species such as sharks, marine mammals and seabirds that are caught accidentally during fishing – within a fishery. This would help ensure that managers work not only to protect all species affected by fishing activity but also to fulfill GBF target requirements.
• Spatial measures. Managers can use spatial measures, such as seasonal closed areas or areas where specific types of fishing gear must be used, to help protect habitat and vulnerable life stages of marine species. Although such measures give managers an important tool to regulate the impacts of fishing, the scope and nature of the conservation they offer is typically insufficient to qualify for the GBF’s target to conserve 30% of the ocean by 2030, but they may help satisfy other GBF targets focused on sustainable use.

Endnotes

1. Convention on Biological Diversity, “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework,” 2022, https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/e6d3/cd1d/daf663719a03902a9b116c34/cop-15-l-25-en.pdf.
2. Pedro Jaureguiberry et al., “The Direct Drivers of Recent Global Anthropogenic Biodiversity Loss,” Science Advances 8, no. 45 (2022): https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm9982.
3. Convention on Biological Diversity, “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework,” 9.
4. Convention on Biological Diversity, “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework,” 10.
5. “Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform,” United Nations, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.html. “United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement Overview,” Division for Ocean Affairs Law of the Sea, United Nations, https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_overview_fish_stocks.htm. United Nations, “Agreement Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction,” 2023, https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=a%2Fconf.232%2F2023%2F4&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False.
6. The Pew Charitable Trusts, “Governments Make Progress on United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement,” 2023, https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2023/05/governments-make-progress-on-united-nations-fish-stocks-agreement.
7. The Pew Charitable Trusts, “Two Tools Can Help Make Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management a Global Reality,” 2023, https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2023/09/two-tools-can-help-make-ecosystem-based-fisheries-management-aglobal-reality.