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Under Part XII, Section 3, Articles 202 and 203 require that "States shall, directly or through competent international organizations \[which could include the RFB councils we have recommended\]: promote programmes of scientific, educational, technical and other assistance to developing States for the protection and preservation of the marine environment and the prevention, reduction and control of marine pollution. Such assistance shall include... training of their scientific and technical personnel; facilitating their participation in relevant international programmes; supplying them with necessary equipment and facilities; enhancing their capacity to manufacture such equipment; advice on and developing facilities for research, monitoring, educational and other programmes... \[States shall also give developing nations preferential treatment for\] the allocation of appropriate funds and technical assistance; and the utilization of their specialized services" (Division, 1984). Therefore, it is reasonable to enhance the system in which developed nations provide incentives for developing states to shift to more environmentally-sound aquaculture practices and fishing methods. In particular, financial assistance, technical education, and sharing of mutual scientific research are especially called for. The visit of scientific experts qualified in the areas of environmental conservation to developing countries should be sponsored. Moreover, joint ventures between the developing and the developed nations with the aim of creating mutual benefit through environmental conservation (for example: creating marine reserves or assisting with marine tourism in the target country) should be encouraged as a method of cooperation (Agenda 21). Also, developing nations and developed nations may work together in marine research, with developing nations supplying the labor and local knowledge of conducting the scientific experiments and the developed nations providing the experts in guiding and designing the experiments. Eventually, the technology can also shift over so that local experts will be trained and the developing nations will be able to generate research capabilities on their own. This creates revenue and promotes environmentalism amongst the bloc of developing nations. Mission hopes to encourage more collaboration between the developed and the developing worlds in order to stabilize marine ecosystems and eventually global fisheries. This collaboration can be nurtured through communication between the regional councils and continued interaction in the UN. |
Preventing Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing
Especially with an otherwise well-executed solution to sustainable fishing, the Food and Agriculture Association's plan (INTERNATIONAL PLAN OF ACTION TO PREVENT, DETER AND ELIMINATE ILLEGAL, UNREPORTED AND UNREGULATED FISHING, 2001) to prevent illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing will be especially ineffective. The major problem with this solution is that it consists of suggestions without any political or economic influence to assist countries in following the suggestions. We propose the following solution containing inherent economic incentives:
Illegal Fishing Discipline
An enforcement agency in each state will be charged with the enforcement of fishing regulations. A fleet of boats will patrol waters and apprehend boats who are engaged in activities that have been defined as illegal. Subsequently, the vessel, fishing materials, and catch will be seized. The fishing vessel, materials, and catch can then be sold and the funds can be used to support the enforcement agency and any additional funds can be used for fisheries research or fishery restoration.
This method has precedent in the seizure of cars used for drug transport and their sale at public auction in the United States. In justification of the sale of the catch (which may be controversial as they were caught illegally), as the fish are already dead, no benefit is derived from tossing them back into the water; thereby, with the goal of creating revenue that can be used for further enforcement, research, and fishery protection, we recommend the sale of the confiscated catch. Flag-Hopping Deterrent
A State should pass a law making flag-hopping to a country which does not abide by international fishery law (such as Law of the Sea) and management practices illegal. As such, any vessel or company which adopts a flag-of-convenience under such a country has committed a crime under the host nation. That State should then freeze the assets of the company or individual responsible until the time when that party renders to the government the fishing vessel(s) and fishing materials. The government may then sell the seized vessels and materials or use them as it sees fit.
The benefits of this are that the State does not need to expend resources to chase down boats that have adopted such flags-of-convenience, and it will gain revenue from the seizure of the those illegal assets. Furthermore, political pressure applied from banks to refrain from seizing assets (since a major draw to banks is their security and the promise that one?s funds will always be
available) can be countered by an advertising/political campaign that portrays banks as wishing to keep criminals solvent (consider public disapproval of Swiss banks protecting Nazi funds).
Developing Natoins
We recognize that developing nations would most likely disregard this policy, since they would desire the most possible assets in the shortest possible time in order to become fully developed. Therefore, we propose that an investment system by adjacent developed countries should be implemented. The adjacent developed countries would loan a large sum of money to the developing country to help establish IUU policies in developing nation and modernize the nation. Both companies would subsequently benefit economically: the developed through interest on the investment and through maintaining its mutual fish stock with the adjacent developing country, and the developing country through initial capital and later fish availability.
Works Cited
United Nations Division for Sustainable Development. (2004). Agenda 21, Chapter 34. Retrieved November 21, 2007, from http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter34.htm.
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