The issue
As a result of the process of globalization of
problems, impacts, technologies, knowledge and
public awareness, societies with different values
are slowly converging in their perceptions. Yet,
technologies, institutions, market practices and
intellectual property rights are hardly
value-neutral, carrying with them hidden
assumptions, and sources of inequity. Insofar as
these changes are a potential source of conflict
and social upheaval, they have brought to the fore
numerous issues related to societal values and
morals. Many of these ethical issues are central to
fisheries and their role in relation to resources
allocation and management, food security and rural
development. Their resolution requires reflection,
dialogue and action and the process, in fisheries,
has just started.
The issue that fisheries governance has
confronted for some time, such as overfishing,
by-catch and discards, food quality, safety on
board, illegal fishing, endangered species,
resource allocations and fishing rights, etc., have
always been considered respectively as being of an
ecological, technological, social, economic or
institutional nature. Many of them are
progressively being addressed also in the realm of
ethics and in relation to ethical concepts such as:
the value of food, human well-being; human health;
natural resources; and nature. Today, ethical
concerns are central to the debate about the sort
of future we want in fisheries and for fishers as
well as for people as a whole, the sort of
conditions we see acceptable today and for the
future generations. They are prompted by very
significant trends in demography, excessive
pressure on fishery resources, degradation of the
aquatic environment, industrialization of fisheries
and aquaculture, concentration of economic power,
globalization, increasing role of the market, new
biotechnologies (particularly genetic engineering),
and the information revolution.
The ethical issues which emerge out of these
trends relate to, inter alia, poverty and hunger
(and the bias against the hungry and the poor),
ineffective guardianship of aquatic resources (as
shown by growing overfishing in EEZs and the high
seas global commons), the parallel erosion of
biodiversity and cultural identity (particularly of
small rural communities), and in places the threats
to acquired peoples' rights.
Solutions
The actions required to address these issues and
inequities include:
- strengthening the mechanisms to balance
interests and resolve conflicts, whether
national regional or global: FAO Committee on
Fisheries, regional fishery bodies, national and
local fishery committees;
- promoting more and more effective
participation in decision-making and
enforcement, e.g. promoting the development and
participation of NGOs;
- promote dialogue on what is ethical,
identifying areas where societies have common
perceptions and values e.g. around concepts such
as precaution, fair trade, equity, resource
conservation, the use of nature;
- disseminate widely the information needed to
make " ethically correct" decisions;
- ensure transparency of decision-making and
clarity of decisions;
- foster the use of science and technology for
human and ecosystem well-being, bearing in mind
traditional practices and cultures;
- ensure that agreed norms and standards take
ethical considerations into account;
- develop and adopt ethical codes of conduct
(related to the above)
- periodically review ethical commitments and
achievement in the face of changing
circumstances.
Action taken
Many international organizations, including FAO,
and a number of instruments of relevance to
fisheries, such as the Code of Conduct for
Responsible Fisheries, the Convention on Biological
Diversity, or the Codex Alimentarius, address the
subject, albeit not always explicitly and sometimes
using different terminology. It is therefore not
easy to report. The FAO Code of Conduct, which
brings together the requirements of the key
international instruments of relevance to fisheries
addresses many of the ethical issues identified
above (e.g. discarding; destructive fishing
practices; state of resources; environmental
degradation; equity; food safety and security).
Selected issues are examined every two years in the
State of Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA). The
Organisation has started an active process to
improve the regional fisheries bodies. It has
organised conferences on fisheries and food
security, fishing rights, fisheries in the
ecosystem, precaution, illegal fishing, etc. and
developed related guidelines to promote action. A
global fisheries information system is under
development and will contribute to
transparency.
A specific framework has recently been proposed
by the FAO Sub-Committee on Ethics in Food and
Agriculture to address ethical issues and aim at a
more equitable food and agriculture system. Such a
system would include improved well being of human
societies, protection of the environment, and
greater public health. It includes basic elements
on:
- Beneficence hunger alleviation,
increase standard of living, environmental
protection,
- Safety precautionary approach, human
and animal rights, human and environmental
health,
- Autonomy participation, right to
knowledge, access to resources,
- Justice equity, food security,
inter-generational equity, sustainability.
Outlook
It is difficult to predict how these issues will
evolve. On the one hand democratization and
information are increasing the opportunities for
progress and the public demand is growing. On the
other hand, the diversity of societal perceptions
and the real or perceived social and economic costs
of some of the solutions are significant
challenges. The overall international context is
positive and, in fisheries, the very important
progress made during the last decades in
international instruments and frameworks indicate
that the issues with ethical considerations will be
addressed even more effectively in the coming
decade.
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