The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020

Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity 
(CBD) continue to promote “mainstreaming 
of biodiversity for well-being”, the theme of 
the CBD 2016 global conference. As the CBD 
Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 
and its 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets are 
renewed, the establishment of the Post-2020 
Global Biodiversity Framework will set a 
new transformational vision for the delivery 
of biodiversity mainstreaming, including 
for “sustainable use”. Such goals have the 
opportunity to strengthen coherence of policy 
and practice in the delivery of both biodiversity 
conservation and fishery outcomes if they 
are well crafted. Therefore, it is important to 
define biodiversity conservation goals that 
both engage use sectors such as fisheries 
and aquaculture, and that target species-rich 
environments where human pressures are 
greatest. Such well-crafted objective-setting can 
focus the attention of international financing 
mechanisms, and engender and strengthen 
cross-sectoral support for actions that contribute 
to conserving biodiversity. 
At the same time, the global community is 
looking at strengthening management of 
living resources in the deep ocean (seabed 
and waterbody beyond the continental shelf 
and States’ EEZ). In this case, a series of 
intergovernmental conferences has been 
convened to put in place an international legally 
binding instrument focused on this biodiversity 
beyond national jurisdictions.
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This process 
responds to new understanding of life in the 
deep ocean, and to the need for governments and 
international organizations to ensure sustainable 
and equitable use of those renewable resources. 
The negotiations include elements on how to 
assess impacts from the use of these genetic 
resources, spatial management of any use of the 
resources, and capacity building and marine 
technology transfer. Considering access and 
use of marine genetic resources, the discussion 
also considers how and whether benefit sharing 
from the commercialization of these resources 
will happen (see the section An aquatic genetic 
resources information system to support 
sustainable growth in aquaculture, p. 105).
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Following United Nations General Assembly Resolution 72/249.
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THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE 
2020
A fundamental requirement for productive 
fisheries is maintenance of the biodiversity 
that offers natural systems resilience against 
changing conditions. Although species extinction 
in the oceans is markedly lower than on land 
(McCauley, 2015), extra-ordinary management 
responses, often involving a broadened range 
of governance actors, are being put in place 
to recover productivity of many ocean areas 
by reversing marked depletions of fish stocks. 
Recognizing that stocks become depleted for a 
range of reasons, the fisheries sector as a whole is 
working on reversing overfishing on target stocks 
and fisheries impacts on non-commercially fished 
species (Garcia 
et al
., 2018). Both CITES and the 
CMS promote a diverse array of policy positions 
related to sustainable use and conservation of 
vulnerable and threatened species. Within the 
context of these two conventions, marine 
and freshwater species can be listed on their 
appendices at the will of treaty Parties, triggering 
increased regulation of take of or/and trade in 
those species. Given that status information and 
advice on species proposed for listing is of varied 
quality (Friedman 
et al
., 2020) and that countries 
have reported ongoing challenges in maintaining 
legal trade of species once they are listed in 
CITES Appendix II (Friedman 
et al
., 2018), FAO 
supports this process through convening an 
expert group that provides status information on 
the species proposed for listing (i.e. expert advice 
on whether species meet the established listing 
criteria). FAO also promotes best practice 
management advice for recovery of species 
already accepted onto convention appendices.
Other multilateral conventions approach 
biodiversity conservation at a larger scale than 
species. The Ramsar Convention, as the World 
Heritage Convention, facilitates conservation 
of biodiversity in locations of conservation 
concern – referred to as sites (Ramsar Regional 
Center – East Asia, 2017). The Ramsar 
Convention includes various measures to 
respond to threats to the ecological character 
of sites, where specific iconic species or more 
general aquatic biodiversity of conservation 
interest is found, or where fishery and/or 
sociocultural qualities are of global importance. 
The conservation and wise use of such biodiverse 
wetlands through local and national actions 
and international cooperation contributes 
towards achieving sustainable development of 
freshwater and coastal systems (for example, 
Fiji designated Qoliqoli Cokovata [Ramsar Site 
no. 2331], which covers coastal fishing grounds 
on Fiji’s second-largest island), and presents 
opportunities to conserve and enhance aquatic 
biodiversity in managed agricultural ecosystems.
Analogous species- and area-based conservation 
is ongoing within RFMO/As, which may have 
mandates that cover waters both within and 
beyond national jurisdiction.
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Specific to the 
deep seas, the United Nations General Assembly 
has adopted a series of resolutions
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calling on 
high seas fishing nations to take urgent action to 
protect VMEs from destructive fishing practices. 
Several RFMO/As and regional environmental 
authorities (regional seas organizations and 
conventions) are working together to incorporate 
explicit benchmarks for the conservation of 
this biodiversity, benchmarks that reflect 
the more decisive commitment of capture 
fisheries to address ecosystem and biodiversity 
considerations across its activities (CBD, 2018). 
While RFMOs have made significant progress, 
it is recognized that capacity strengthening 
is still needed, especially in relation to 
biodiversity-related planning, research, 
monitoring, compliance, communication and 
assessment of fishery-related impacts (Juan-Jordá 
et al
., 2018). Many RFMO/As and national fishery 
authorities continue to respond to this changing 
management paradigm by further updating 
or replacing their policies and measures. 
Such sectoral efforts are increasingly being 
achieved through collaboration, either through 
the RSN, or by strengthening the relationships 
between sustainable use and environmental 
interests (Garcia, Rice and Charles, 2014).
How to mainstream biodiversity – management 
approaches and tools
The Code offers guidance on sustainable 
indicators and the use of the precautionary 
approach for fisheries and aquaculture (FAO, 
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The Common Oceans ABNJ Program supports improvement of 
sustainable fisheries management and biodiversity conservation over 
areas of the oceans that make up 40 percent of the surface of the 
planet, comprising 62 percent of the surface of the oceans and almost 
95 percent of their volume (FAO, 2019l). 
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Beginning with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 
59/25 in 2004.
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PART 2 
SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION
1995), as do related guidelines. This instrument 
responded to growing interest in strengthening 
biodiversity considerations in fisheries 
management (Friedman, Garcia and Rice, 
2018; Sinclair and Valdimarsson, 2003). 
The adoption of the Code and of the sustainable 
development objectives at the World Summit 
on Sustainable Development (WSSD) provided 
a foundation for the development of the EAF 
and ecosystem approach to aquaculture (EAA). 
With the formalization of the Code in 1995 
and subsequently, the fisheries management 
paradigm has progressively integrated the 
need to preserve the productivity of natural 
systems, together with the explicit consideration 
of social and economic goals and constraints 
of conventional fisheries approaches. This has 
resulted in increasing recognition of the EAF as 
the overall framework for fisheries management. 
In accordance with the WSSD, this recognizes 
the need to: (i) maintain essential ecological 
processes and life support systems; (ii) preserve 
genetic diversity; and (iii) ensure the sustainable 
utilization of species and ecosystems. These are 
all preconditions for achieving the goals of 
reducing hunger, malnutrition and poverty. 
The EAF is based on holistic management 
of fisheries activities. It requires fisheries to 
minimize the negative effects of fishing on the 
natural productivity of ecosystems, including 
deleterious effects on non-target species 
or habitat degradation. Similarly, the EAA 
considers potential negative impacts, also as 
a consequence of species escapes, on habitats 
and on the biodiversity of culture systems and 
processes. Where effectively regulated, the 
fisheries and aquaculture sector is increasingly 
addressing, among other initiatives, the 
implementation of the International Guidelines 
on Bycatch Management and Reduction of 
Discards. This approach ensures that the 
impacts of fishing activity are managed, by 
addressing all fishing operations, fishing 
techniques across different gear types, and their 
impacts on the full range of species affected. 
Within this context, FAO has facilitated 
the development of best practice technical 
guidelines on mitigation of marine bycatch to 
limit the accidental capture and entanglement 
of vulnerable and ecologically valuable species 
groups, such as marine mammals, sharks and 
rays, seabirds and turtles (see the section 
Responsible fishing practices, p. 120).
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Spatial management approaches can be effective 
tools to conserve and restore ecosystems that 
support commercial production of fish, to 
conserve or rebuild populations, or to limit a 
wider range of anthropogenic pressures where 
needed. Area-based fishery management 
measures are increasingly being recognized 
as contributing to 
in situ
conservation of 
biodiversity, and/or improving the connectivity 
and integration of conservation seascapes 
across wider scales. Some of these measures 
comply with the criteria of “other effective 
area-based conservation measures” (OECMs), 
a spatial approach to 
in situ
conservation of 
biodiversity that is part of the CBD’s Aichi 
Target 11. FAO is supporting its Members by 
raising awareness about the role that spatial 
fishery management measures can have in 
increasing the health, productivity and resilience 
of aquatic ecosystems. In particular, FAO and 
its partners are helping countries operationalize 
and document OECMs, a mechanism that has the 
potential to widen the constituency in support 
of biodiversity conservation, and account for 
many sectoral efforts already in place to support 
biodiversity conservation. 
Management approaches to maintain species 
abundances or efforts to conserve natural 
systems are not the only mechanisms for 
mainstreaming biodiversity in the sector. 
Given the vitally important role that aquaculture 
will have to play in the coming decades in 
order to meet the growing demand for fish and 
fish products and to achieve food security, it is 
important that aquatic genetic resources utilized 
and developed within aquaculture are effectively 
managed but also that the impact of aquaculture 
on natural aquatic biodiversity is monitored and 
negative impacts controlled. FAO’s Members are 
being supported to report on the changing global 
picture of the conservation, sustainable use 
and development of aquatic genetic resources. 
Published in 2019,