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Making Waves Winter 2020
Commentary by John DePersenaire, RFA Fisheries Specialist
Is 30/30 Sweeping the Globe? A New United Nations Initiative with Possible Negative Impacts on Recreational Fishing
A
new initiative was spawned earlier this year at the United Nations which is rarely good news for recreational fishing. It adopted the catchy and somewhat descriptive name of 30/30, an acronym based on the objective’s goal to protect 30 percent of all lands and waters of the Earth by the year 2030.
tal crimes, and transition to sustainable food production methods. Much of this is aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
While the concepts are reasonable, and I would suspect most fishermen would support sustainable fishing or protecting lands important for fish habitat or hunting, sportsmen should be wary of The initiative will charge member nations with such a broad, all encompassing proposal without proactively addressing the loss of biodiversity and having clear details on how it would be impleits effects on climate change, among other mented and what it would mean for fish and fishthings. The think tank at the UN suggested that ermen. RFA has long advocated that restricting one of the primary tools to achieve this lofty goal recreational fishermen from areas of the ocean as it relates to the world’s oceans will be an exwith the use of widespread marine protected aretensive implementation of No-Take Marine Proas and marine reserves is simply not a sciencetected Areas. based management approach. It does little to achieve management goals that otherwise could Leading up to the September 2020 Convention be achieved through traditional management on Biological Diversity, 64 countries signed a techniques such as seasons, size limits and bag pledge to embrace the initiative and commit to its limits, and does a lot to hurt the socioeconomic ten-point pledge. In its current form, the initiabenefits achieved from well-managed recreationtive, as discussed during the Summit, is largely al fishing with open access. This position was conceptual and merely puts forward broad goals, and continues to be supported by a large body of but the pledge includes acknowledgement by scholarly research found in numerous peer rethe signing nations to promote sustainable land viewed publications. and forest management, stop unsustainable fishing practices, significantly reduce pollution, stop The United States was not one of the 64 counharmful government subsidies, end environmen- tries that signed the pledge, however, that does
