THE 2025 Honiara Summit is to regulate, manage and end overfishing throughout the region and international.
This was highlighted by United Nation Secretary-General (UNSG) Special Envoy for the Ocean, Peter Thomson at the official opening of the Honiara Summit at the Friendship Hall in East Honiara yesterday.
“As you’ve heard many times this morning, we’ve gathered here to examine the progress of our implementation of SDG 14.4, our target of ensuring that we are sustainably looking after the world’s fish stocks.
“So just to repeat, SDG 14.4 calls upon us to effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, calls on us to effectively end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices,” Thomson said.
He said to restore fish stocks to the biological sustainable levels in the world the fisheries leaders must implement science-based management plans.
Thomson said the summit on achieving sustainable fisheries is held in Honiara because over 50 per-cent of the world’s tuna stock is overseen by the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), which is headquartered in the Solomon Islands capital.
He said staying true to this spirit of environmental stewardship, “we must ask ourselves how we are faring in the implementation of SDG 14.4 in particular. That is a frank question with a complex (2:01) answer, an answer that will be elaborated on during the course of this summit.”
“We’ve seen brave efforts in the establishment and expansion of marine protected areas around the world and have made commendable advances in combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing,” Thomson added.
Because of overfishing the ocean, Thomson said “We’re very close to Word Trade Organisation bans on harmful fisheries subsidies and can demonstrate growing support for small-scale fishes and economic benefits to Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries from marine resources. But implementation is not advancing at the speed or the scale required to fully meet SDG 14.4 by 2030.”
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsides, adopted in June, is a significant step towards promoting sustainable development in the fisheries sector according to online reliable source.
Mr Thomson said to meet its goals, “we have to carefully consider what is going on in the ocean as a whole. The ocean is acidifying, it’s warming, resulting in movement of species, in changing ecosystems, and the demise of coral and rising sea levels. We are continuing to pollute and overexploit the ocean with what seems at times to be scant regard for the tipping points that will make a life on this planet so difficult for coming generations of humans and animals.”
He emphasised that the purpose of this summit must be the why and where of that overexploitation and the when and how of rectifying it.
Thomson told the representatives of the regional fisheries bodies and the regional fisheries management organisations who have traveled to Honiara for the summit that their presence gives the global viewpoint that ‘we are determined to respect the expected deliberations of the Honiara Summit.’
The theme for the Honiara Summit is “Iumi Tugeda Delivering on SDG14.4: Achieving Sustainable Fisheries.”
By LACHLAN SHYVES EDDIE
Solomon Star, Honiara
