Purpose of the IUU Workshop
IUU fishing has been recognised to be a serious environmental problem by the international community. This was, inter alia, highlighted in the Johannesburg WSSD Action Plan as well as at the recent G8 Evian meeting Communiqué and singled out as an area of concern to be addressed by the international community. The growing concerns with IUU fishing activities are reflected in the initiatives that have been taken to combat IUU fishing activities over the past decade. These include in particular:
While these initiatives represent significant steps forward, very little attention, research and reflection has focused on the economic and social variables that drive the IUU activity. This is despite the fact that the activity is primarily driven by economic factors. The OECD’s Committee for Fisheries, through the hosting of the Workshop on IUU, recognizes that the approaches taken so far to combat IUU may need to be complemented by additional instruments focusing on the economic aspects of IUU operations.
The objective of the Workshop is to address the problems of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, its impact on world fisheries, and the associated serious economic, environmental and social consequences that it gives rise to within and outside the fisheries sector.
Clearly, the number and complexity of the factors driving IUU activities demands a multidisciplinary and multifaceted response. Hence, the Workshop on IUU seeks to bring together experts from various strains of life to discuss and advance our thinking on new ways of combating this activity that gives rise to a range of problems.
The OECD Workshop on IUU Fishing will take place at OECD in Paris/La Défense on 19 and 20 April 2004 and is open to representatives from Member countries, regional fisheries management organisations, non-governmental organisations and international institutions with an interest in IUU fishing.
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