Profiles

Visions of Common Fisheries Policy Reform:
Tony Long, Executive Director of World Wildlife Fund’s European Policy Office

Seafood Choices Alliance asked a number of individuals representing various sectors of the seafood industry to offer their view of the Common Fisheries Policy reform and consultation. The following article represents the views of the individual author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Seafood Choices Alliance.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is encouraged by the unusual degree of official soul-searching that the European Commission has shown earlier this year in opening the consultations on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. Civil servants are in effect saying we have got it wrong, our common policy is discredited; we must start again with a ”root and branch” reform. If not, then many of our fish populations will be lost forever. Not the usual bland consultation exercise that one would expect from the European Commission in other words.

So what does a “root and branch” reform look like? In WWF’s view, for Europe’s fisheries to return to a level of abundance and profitability that are sustainable over the long term, we will need to put in place a management system that is very different from the one we have today. We need to begin by setting goals for recovery of our fisheries that are strong enough to ensure they are resilient and healthy. Then we need a management regime that is based on science, that is open and transparent, and that allows all the stakeholders—from fishermen to chefs to grocery stores to domestic consumers—to play a role in making sure we protect the resource that we are living from. Europe must be a world leader in restoring its own fisheries while playing by the rules applying throughout the world’s oceans.

WWF, through its work with the fishing sector, as well as with retailers and consumers, throughout Europe and beyond, is sensing an enormous change in attitudes about the urgency of the fisheries challenges now upon us. We anticipate that during this reform cycle many industry leaders are going to be among the progressive voices calling for radical change. Let’s hope we are proven right!

WWF’s European Policy Office was established in 1989. It is the ‘embassy’ to the European Union for the global WWF network, which is active in 100 countries. The WWF European Policy Office helps realize WWF’s mission to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

September 7 , 2009

Return to profiles page >