Fish, the oceans and secure jobs are core to a new ‘sustainable world’ plan, but there are worrying questions about the bill and cash to fund it.
Governments will approve the strategy, writes Peter O’Neill¸ watched by up to 5,000 NGOs (and far fewer fishermen), in Rio (June 20-22).
Since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, the rich-poor gap has got wider. Without practical compromises by those in the richer fishing sectors, it is hard to see how the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development can ensure the bill is shared fairly.
European fishermen may struggle with fuel costs, but a billion and more fishermen and their families in developing countries (DCs) hardly make a subsistence living. Westerners turn off lights to conserve energy (or because they cannot afford rocketing bills). China’s Sichuan orange growers have long raised fish as an extra on their lipped, flat-roofed houses. A German firm is offering German burghers a roof module to do the same – at up to €35,000 per container.
Yet, hundreds of millions of poor DC families don’t even have electric light, never mind a cold store. One foreign factory ship, profiting from a DCs’ fish, can have more electricity than a coast of subsistence fishing villages.
Sharing the fish pie
The UN aims to eliminate global poverty so all can make a decent, healthy living with a secure supply of food and in peace. Fisheries and aquaculture, maybe with seasonal agriculture for the lucky, are the Rio+20 lynchpins for basic food security for billions.
The rich’s cash means they can make even more profits from DC licences to replace their reduced stocks. The European Parliament is unhappy with EU cash-for-fish licences with DCs. Officials in Brussels told WF&A that MEPs halted EU-Morocco talks on a new fish deal, because there was not enough value-added. Iberian fleets have been hit – but everyone loses when shares are not equitable.
The office of EuropeAid’s EU commissioner, Andris Pielbag, told WF&A the EU is the biggest aid donor to the poor. Mr Pielbag knows jobs need electricity: for processing fish, and mobiles for local and foreign sales. There is a new UN/EU €50m technical unit to promote universal electricity access. In some DCs, from Africa to Pacific islands, he is funding inter-country grid connections, local solar electricity, cold stores and better fishing craft. But his officials accept these are small beginnings.
Some EU citizens criticise aid. Yet, EU owners got paid to scrap vessels, only to build fewer and bigger ones. Those subsidies are now scrapped. EU fishermen will share nearly €7bn from the new European Marine and Fisheries Fund.
Discards were about maximising profit, not feeding people, and must go, along with pirated catch. More marine reserves are coming and there will be less mango swamp destruction for cheap supermarket prawns. The time is approaching when DCs will maximise their own fish wealth. Rio+20’s value may lie in making the richer industries grasp that sustainability means real cooperation on the ground.
