Angola signs sustainable legal fishing treaty.
Angola, Eritrea, Morocco and Nigeria are new members of the Agreement on Port State Measures. The treaty is the first legal instrument specifically designed to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing that is mandatory.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, revealed that member nations prevent the entry of foreign ships that carry out or support illegal activities in their ports.
Consumer demand and transformation
The accession of the four African countries raised to 60% the total number of port countries committed to the agreement in favor of more sustainable fishing.
For FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, increased consumer demand and the transformation of agri-food systems in fisheries and aquaculture have led global fish production to the highest levels currently observed. He said that recognition is now widespread and that it is necessary to intensify the fight against harmful fishing.
Donyu found the countries' support to support the Sustainable Development Goals encouraging, at a time when around one-fifth of the fish caught worldwide each year originates from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
Conservation of marine ecosystems
The effects of the practice range from devastating impacts on the sustainability of the activity, damage to the livelihoods of those who depend on it, as well as damage to the conservation of marine ecosystems.
For the director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division of FAO, Manuel Barrange, national, regional and global efforts to achieve sustainable fisheries are also affected. He argues that eliminating this type of illegal activity is critical to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The recommendation is that port control be tightened and that an exchange of information be encouraged through the implementation of the Agreement on Port State Measures.
ship-owning countries
Measures to combat illegal fishing include transforming aquatic food systems and maximizing the activity's role to encourage employment, economic growth, social development and environmental sustainability.
More than 50 countries have received support from the UN agency to revise laws, strengthen institutional capacity, systems and monitoring operations.
FAO's assistance extends to forms of control and surveillance to better implement port State measures and meet international commitments as shipowners, coastal and market.
FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, better known as FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) is one of the United Nations agencies and leads efforts to eradicate hunger and fight poverty. Your motto, fiat panis, means roughly, "let there be bread."
Composed of 194 Member States, plus the European Union (EU) and, with a presence in more than 130 countries, the organization works as a neutral forum, where all the nations that compose it have equal weight in terms of strategies and decisions, as it provides all its members with opportunities to elaborate and discuss policies related to agriculture and food.
Conclusion
With this agreement, the aim is not only to put an end to illegal fishing but also to increase the sustainability of fishing, at a time when risks to the environment are increasing day by day.
The agreement, if fulfilled, will not only benefit the countries involved, but will also greatly benefit the planet.
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