Repurposing Harmful Fisheries Subsidies for Nature and People

Overview & Synopsis

Key points of this brief are the following - By reforming harmful fisheries subsidies, governments can reduce overfishing while creating fiscal space for reinvestments that support marine biodiversity, livelihoods, economic development, and food and nutrition security; Successful repurposing of harmful subsidies will require collaborative action from ministries responsible for fisheries, finance, and social protection, together with other actors. Inter-ministerial platforms can facilitate joint planning, programming, monitoring, evaluation, adaptation, and learning; Fisheries subsidies that play a social protection role can be instrumental in promoting sustainable fisheries, including by mitigating the shocks of reform, but social protection needs to be informed by fisheries policy objectives and associated management, and complemented by more effective monitoring of fisheries activities and enforcement of regulations; Repurposing strategies should be designed with the people whose livelihoods are affected by fisheries regulations and reforms, and with specific consideration for and outreach to people in the small-scale fisheries sector, who are often vulnerable.