The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020

NUMBER OF RESPONSES
CUMULATIVE RESPONSE RATE (%)
SOURCE: FAO.
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PART 2 
SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION
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FIGURE 42
PERCENTAGE OF FISHERIES MANAGEMENT PLANS IMPLEMENTED FOR MARINE AND INLAND 
CAPTURE FISHERIES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CODE, AS REPORTED BY MEMBERS
SOURCE: FAO.
FIGURE 41
NUMBER OF FISH MANAGEMENT PLANS DEVELOPED FOR MARINE AND INLAND CAPTURE 
FISHERIES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CODE, AS REPORTED BY MEMBERS
Africa
Asia
Latin America and the Caribbean
Near East
Northern America
Southwest Pacific
NUMBER
0
200
400
600
800
1 000
1 200
1 400
1 600
2011
2012
2014
2016
2018
Europe
SOURCE: FAO.
PERCENTAGE
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2011
2012
2014
2016
2018
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THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE 
2020
Small-scale marine and inland fisheries
The roles of both small-scale and inland fisheries 
are gaining greater attention. Members have 
been expressing an interest in better guidance 
on the governance of small-scale fisheries since 
the mid-2000s, especially with regard to safety 
at sea since 2009. In fact, interest in small-scale 
fishers has grown steadily in the past 25 years, 
with Members increasingly referencing their 
importance. The adoption of the human-rights 
based Voluntary Guidelines for Securing 
Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context 
of Food Security and Poverty Eradication 
(SSF Guidelines) in 2014 has been hailed as a 
major leap forward in managing both marine 
and inland small-scale fisheries. Members have 
also noted the SSF Guideline’s auxiliary role 
in developing social policy and regulation on 
aspects closely related to small-scale fisheries. 
One recent trend catalysing this process is the 
defining of small-scale fisheries, with slightly 
fewer than half of Members having adopted a 
legal definition for small-scale fisheries. There is 
also a positive trend emerging between countries 
with a definition for small-scale fisheries and 
countries that collect sector-specific data (mainly 
on production, value of production, employment 
and trade). 
The questionnaire responses also indicate a rise 
in the mechanisms through which small-scale 
fishers and fishworkers can contribute to 
decision-making processes, and more than 
three-quarters of these mechanisms would 
include the promotion of the active participation 
of women. At the global level, small-scale 
fisheries now feature as agenda items in COFI’s 
deliberations. In relation to inland fisheries, 
regional cooperation is focusing on: prohibiting 
destructive fishing methods; addressing the 
biodiversity of aquatic habitats and ecosystems; 
and addressing the interests and rights of 
small-scale fishers in their management plans. 
Aquaculture development
The questionnaire reveals that the importance 
of aquaculture in national agendas grew 
significantly between 2011 and 2018 (
Figure 43
). 
In 2007, of the few countries that included 
aquaculture as an economic sector, 87 percent 
reported having some form of legal framework in 
place to regulate the development of responsible 
aquaculture. By 2012, 98 percent of Members 
FIGURE 43
NUMBER OF COUNTRIES THAT HAVE A LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
RESPONSIBLE AQUACULTURE IN LINE WITH THE CODE, AS REPORTED BY MEMBERS 
SOURCE: FAO.
NUMBER
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
2011
2012
2014
2016
2018
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PART 2 
SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION
and implementation of national plans of action 
to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing. 
In recent years, the uptake of the FAO Voluntary 
Guidelines for Catch Documentation Schemes 
has supported such actions. The coming into 
force and implementation of the PSMA is 
expected to be a major advance in combating IUU 
fishing and advancing traceability efforts.
Constraints and suggested solutions
Regarding the Code’s implementation, most 
Members report constraints related to insufficient 
budgetary and human resources. To overcome 
these constraints, Members highlighted the 
need for: access to more financial and human 
resources; training and awareness raising; and 
improvements in research and statistics. 
The focus on small-scale fisheries and 
aquaculture will perhaps prompt greater 
engagement with civil society in achieving the 
Code’s objectives. FAO’s role in catalysing this 
engagement, and indeed across all areas of the 
Code, can be seen through ongoing regional 
and national workshops, as well technical 
guidelines, the translation of some guidelines, 
and assistance in elaborating national plans 
of action. However, to improve the use of the 
indicators reporting system, the COFI Secretariat 
has introduced a tool to allow users to extract 
a report of each indicator after completing 
the questionnaire. 
Lastly, many countries advising on the interface 
between the Code and the questionnaire 
have suggested the need for periodic reviews 
of the questionnaire in order to integrate 
new challenges and frontiers in fisheries and 
ocean governance. 
The future of the questionnaire 
Overall, the questionnaire has proved an 
important tool for reporting by Members and 
RFBs on their implementation of the Code 
globally. Moreover, in recent years, it has shown 
itself adaptable to emerging issues, and reporting 
on related SDG targets. 
It is encouraging to see the increased number 
of responses since digitalization of the 
questionnaire and its improved accessibility. 
Moreover, the broadening of the topics in the 
reported that aquaculture occurred in their 
countries, but only about 40 percent of these 
had legislative and institutional frameworks in 
place. Thus, the growth of aquaculture activities 
appears to have outpaced the development of 
legislation and legal frameworks to govern 
aquaculture. In 2018, the figure had risen to 
just over half, still indicating a need for some 
countries to adopt a legislative framework to 
better manage and benefit from aquacultural 
economic activity. In addition, Members that 
have taken measures to promote responsible 
aquaculture practices are equally ensuring 
support to rural communities, producer 
organizations and fish farmers. 
Post-harvest practices and trade
In 2012, 77 percent of Members reported 
having largely complete and enabling effective 
food-safety and quality-assurance systems 
for fish and fisheries products implemented 
nationally. Progress in this field has advanced 
steadily since 2001, when only 58 percent of 
Members reported having an effective food safety 
management system in place. An indication of 
this progress can be observed in the priority 
that countries assign to post-harvest practices, 
with a decrease of 6.9 percent between 2011 and 
2018. Responses in 2018 reflected an increasing 
inclination to improved bycatch utilization. 
Moreover, more than three-quarters of Members 
reported that processors were in a position to 
trace the origin of the fisheries products they 
purchase, and this too can be observed in the 
6.1 percent increase in priority that countries 
give to trade. The questionnaire section on 
post-harvest practices and trade highlights 
the global increase in food safety and quality 
assurance systems implemented since 2012. 
One possible deduction to be made from the shift 
in priorities is that, as countries have developed 
their post-harvest practices, they have been 
able to focus more on sustainable trade options, 
which have increasingly proved more lucrative as 
consumers in high-value markets are demanding 
guarantees on sustainable and certified seafood. 
With trading in illegally harvested fish commonly 
recognized as an issue, most Members have 
taken measures to address it, frequently through 
enhanced fisheries control and inspections, as 
well as through customs and border controls, 
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THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE 
2020
questionnaire has proved beneficial for reporting 
on areas such as small-scale fisheries that 
previously may not have received due attention. 
The questionnaire should be proactive – 
including emerging issues, and learning from 
past responses in the formulation of new 
questions. Provision of quality and reliable 
responses by Members and RFBs, to reflect the 
reality on the ground at the local, national and 
regional levels, should make the questionnaire 
a valuable tool to gauge progress towards 
sustainable fisheries and aquaculture and related 
SDGs. 
n
MONITORING FISHERIES 
AND AQUACULTURE 
SUSTAINABILITY
FAO fisheries and aquaculture data and 
information systems
Guided by its Members and with concern to 
respond to global societal demand, FAO has 
developed a wide range of data and information 
products in order to establish baselines, 
monitor changes, and support decision-making. 
At the apex, 
The State of World Fisheries and 
Aquaculture
, as an FAO flagship publication, 
informs high-level policy audiences and supports 
evidence-based policy-making. Since 2015, the 
SDGs have been a key policy driver for fisheries 
and aquaculture. This section reviews FAO’s 
fisheries and aquaculture data and information 
systems and how they inform the status and 
trends of the three pillars of sustainability: 
economic, environmental and social (
Box 6
). 
Economic and social dimensions
FAO’s fisheries and aquaculture statistics 
databases on production, fleet, trade, 
employment, and the Food Balance Sheets 
(see 
Box 5
, p. 66), were originally designed 
to respond to post-war society’s focus on 
food security and economic growth. In the 
following three decades, the quality of these 
databases – highly dependent upon Members’ 
capacity to collect, manage and report statistical 
data – improved thanks to the development of 
international standard classifications on aquatic 
species, fishing areas, gear types, vessels, trade, 
etc. guided by the Coordinating Working Party 
on Fishery Statistics (CWP). These classifications 
were complemented with illustrated catalogues 
aimed at helping countries with identification 
and terminology. 
With the adoption of the Code in 1995 (FAO, 
1995), the emphasis on sector sustainability 
induced complementary approaches to core 
statistics. The FAO strategy for improving 
information on the status and trends of capture 
fisheries and aquaculture promoted inventories 
of socio-economic indicators to develop a 
comprehensive knowledge base needed to 
demonstrate the importance of small-scale 
fisheries and related livelihoods. This was 
followed by the National Aquaculture Sector 
Overview maps initiative to compensate 
for insufficient knowledge on the sector. 
Moreover, an inventory of capture fisheries (see 
below) was initiated to promote higher visibility 
of those fisheries not monitored through existing 
statistical systems. 
Environmental dimension
With the 2000 Millennium Development Goals, 
ecosystem sustainability gained traction with the 
Reykjavik Declaration on Responsible Fisheries 
in the Marine Ecosystem giving rise to the EAF. 
As a result, FAO and RFBs launched various 
information systems and partnerships, such as: 
„
Fisheries and Resources Monitoring System 
(FIRMS), which disseminates inventory-based 
information on the status of stocks 
and fisheries; 
„
Database on Introductions of Aquatic Species, 
Vulnerable Marine Ecosystem Database and 
Database of Measures on the Conservation and 
Management of Sharks, which reflect actions 
taken by stakeholders (RFMOs and States) to 
preserve fragile habitats (such as vulnerable 
marine ecosystems [VMEs]) and vulnerable 
species (e.g. sharks); 
„
EAF-Net, which facilitates access to FAO 
resources on EAF application; 
„
in the near future, FAO’s Aquatic Genetic 
Resources Monitoring System (see the 
section An aquatic genetic resources 
information system to support sustainable 
growth in aquaculture, p. 105).
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PART 2 
SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION
One key area for restoring the sustainability 
of fishery resources during the last decade, 
as also emphasized by the SDGs, has been 
combating IUU fishing. Vessel registries 
constitute the spearhead of data-sharing efforts 
at the international level, and, since 2018, FAO 
has launched the Global Record of Fishing 
Vessels, Refrigerated Transport Vessels and 
Supply Vessels (Global Record). These and 
other developments have resulted in the FAO 
fisheries and aquaculture knowledge base as it 
is today (
Box 6
).
These information systems are maintained 
using different levels of control, ownership and 
integration (
Box 7
). The core is fully integrated 
and directly maintained by different FAO 
units, either through countries’ submissions or 
through partnerships (e.g. with RFBs) where 
FAO acts as custodian. The operations of the 
information systems rely increasingly on cloud 
platforms through commercial agreements or