Policy Brief: Subsidies: A Way Towards Sustainable Fisheries?

Governments pay out some USD 6 billion a year to support the fisheries sector in OECD countries. This money, variously called subsidies, support or financial transfers, is used to help manage fish stocks, to modernise fishing fleets, and to help communities and regions that can no longer make a living out of fishing to develop other economic activity. The money is also intended to assist in resolving problems of over-fishing and over-capacity that affect many parts of the OECD fishing industry.
But are subsidies really helping to achieve a sustainable fisheries sector? Or is it encouraging too many vessels and people to stay in a fishing industry that may not be able to support them in the medium to long term?
These questions underlie the efforts being made by many governments to look at the way they support their fisheries sector, as part of moves towards more sustainable and responsible fisheries. Changes to the rules governing support payments to fisheries are also a key element of the negotiations underway at the World Trade Organization as part of the Doha Development Agenda multilateral trade talks.
This Policy Brief looks at whether changes in support to the fisheries sector might help to make fisheries more sustainable in all three pillars of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental.