POOR coastal nations are sacrificing their long-term prosperity by allowing
European fishing fleets to catch their fish at rock-bottom prices.
The warning comes from the UN, which has just completed a study into the
impact of free trade on the environment. It says poor countries are forfeiting
the future health of fish stocks worth billions of dollars and the incomes of
their own fishers in return for paltry short-term financial gains.
One such nation is Argentina, whose exchequer is currently bankrupt. After
the country opened up its fisheries to European Union boats, exports of fish
leapt by almost 500 per cent between 1985 and 1995. But in the past few years
catches have dropped by a quarter as a result of overfishing. According to the
report, which was prepared for ongoing talks on trade and the environment at the
World Trade Organization, the unsustainable fishing of one
species鈥攈ake鈥攈as cost Argentina $500 million. It says a
better managed fishery could benefit the economy by as much as $5
billion.
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Several other countries face a similar problem. Fish stocks all over the
world are suffering as too many, often heavily subsidised vessels chase a
dwindling number of fish, warns Klaus T枚pfer, director of the UN
Environment Programme. Rich nations send their surplus fleets to foreign waters,
where they drive local fishing communities 鈥渋nto ever greater poverty, as well
as robbing the marine environment鈥�, he says.
One of the nations most at risk is Senegal in West Africa, which is currently
deadlocked in talks with the EU over the price of access to its fisheries. The
report concludes that EU fishing of Senegalese waters over the past decade has
had a devastating effect on some key fish stocks and resulted in 鈥渁 serious
impact on local food supplies鈥�.
Many EU vessels, once laid up by restrictions designed to protect European
fish stocks, now head south to plunder West African waters. Two-thirds of
Senegal鈥檚 export revenues come from fish 鈥渆xports鈥� to Europe.
Last spring, the EU sought a new deal with Senegal that would increase its
take of shrimp, hake, octopus, grouper and other species by up to 60 per cent
(快猫短视频, 31 March 2001, p 19).
Talks on how high a price
Senegal鈥檚 government might charge stalled just before Christmas, when Senegalese
negotiators banned further visits by EU vessels until the dispute was resolved.
Now, in a comment that is bound to anger EU negotiators, the UNEP report says
Senegal should charge more for access to its fish and 鈥渟uspend fishing in cases
where a stock is seriously depleted鈥�.
The EU is under growing pressure from scientists and environmentalists to
apply the same conservation rules to fish stocks abroad that it increasingly
applies at home. Later this month, the European Commission is expected to
release a report outlining how this might be done. 鈥淏ut right now the EU is
still trying to export its excess fishing capacity to countries like Senegal,鈥�
says Julie Cator, European fisheries coordinator for the World Wide Fund for
Nature.