Sustainable development

An overview of the relationship between trade liberalisation under the WTO and the requirements of sustainable fisheries management. This document provides a helpful reference for use in trade and environment issues. Using fisheries as an issue requiring urgent attention, it illustrates a range of conservation issues in the trade agenda including subsidies, eco-labels, and trade barriers.

There is international consensus that many of the world's commercial fisheries are in distress. Eco-labelling schemes are increasingly perceived as a way to simultaneously maintain productivity and economic value of fisheries while providing incentives for improved fisheries management and the conservation of marine biodiversity.

Il existe un consensus international concernant l’état inquiétant de la pêche commerciale. Les mécanismes d’étiquetage écologique sont perçus de plus en plus comme un moyen de conserver la productivité et la valeur économique de la pêche tout en encourageant une meilleure gestion de la pêche et la conservation de la biodiversité marine.

First in a series of background and discussion papers produced to promote dialogue on fisheries, international trade and sustainable development, this paper sets out the context in which ICTSD and IUCN have conceived and launched the Fisheries, International Trade and Sustainable Developement Programme. The brochure should serve as a map to help focus thinking on some inital key questions at the intersection of these three subjects.