020 - Valuing and protecting inland fisheries

020 - Valuing and protecting inland fisheries

Latest version in this language: Version for electronic vote | Published on: 30 Sep 2021

RECOGNISING that inland fisheries are a critical source of food security for nearly a billion people, particularly in developing countries;

FURTHER RECOGNISING that inland fisheries have an estimated economic value of US$ 38–44 billion;

ALSO RECOGNISING the potential co-benefits among fishing communities, fish biodiversity and environmental integrity through sustainable inland fisheries;

NOTING that more than 60 million people globally are directly employed in the fisheries and aquaculture sector, and that women play a particularly large role in the secondary sector;

MINDFUL that inland fisheries are frequently degraded by other freshwater sector activities that alter the health of freshwater ecosystems;

AWARE that inland fisheries are data limited, hence underrepresented in planning;

CONCERNED that the productivity of inland fisheries is gravely threatened by habitat degradation, flow management, overharvesting, and climate change;

FURTHER CONCERNED that inland fisheries may be insufficiently addressed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with SDG 14 (Life below Water) focused on marine fisheries, and SDG 15 (Life on Land) worded so that the value of inland fisheries may be missed in development plans;

AWARE that Aichi Biodiversity Target 6, addressing sustainable harvesting of fishes, is generally applied to marine rather than freshwater fisheries, as evidenced by the marine focus of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) ‘Scientific Assessment of Progress towards Aichi Target 6’;

CONFIRMING the need for integrated river basin management for improving access to affordable food, such as through fisheries, as requested by Resolution 4.065 Freshwater biodiversity conservation, protected areas, and management of transboundary waters (Barcelona, 2008);

RECALLING that Resolution 5.106 Safeguarding the contribution of wild living resources and ecosystems to food security (Jeju, 2012) highlights that unsustainable use of wild living resources or ecosystems for food systems leads to a decline in biodiversity and ultimately undermines people’s food security; and

REITERATING guidance contained in Resolution 2.29 IUCN Policy Statement on Sustainable Use of Wild Living Resources (Amman, 2000) that enhancing sustainability of wild living resources, like inland fish, requires on-going improved management;

The IUCN World Conservation Congress, at its session in Marseille, France:

1. URGES the IUCN Director General, Commissions, Members and states to:

a. support more explicit inclusion of inland fisheries in the post-2020 biodiversity framework, especially through the post-2020 zero draft target 5 (ensure by 2030 that the harvesting, trade and use of wild species, is legal and at sustainable levels) or through the finalised equivalent of this target, and through reference to inland fisheries in SDG Targets 14.4, and 14.6 (regulate harvesting and prohibit subsidies contributing to overfishing), or in 15.1 (sustainable use of freshwater ecosystems);

b. support assessment of inland fisheries in the SDGs, such that the national status of inland fisheries should not decline from their current state, or should be improved where the existing state is degraded;

c. enhance the collection of data to document the status and trends of inland fisheries; and

d. strengthen IUCN’s focus on sustainable inland fisheries as part of IUCN’s programmes on species, water and ecosystem management;

2. REQUESTS the Commission on Ecosystem Management Fisheries Expert Group to address equally both inland and marine fisheries; and

3. CALLS ON government agencies to:

a. support ecosystem-based management of inland fisheries;

b. adopt recommendations made in the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization ‘Rome Declaration for Responsible Inland Fisheries’; and

c. consult local fishing communities at the start of planning infrastructure projects that impact their inland fisheries.

This motion notes inland fisheries are a critical source of food and nutrition security for nearly a billion people, particularly in developing parts of the world (source: McIntyre et al., 2016). It also notes the economic value of inland fisheries as US$38-44 billion (source: FAO, 2018). It is noted here inland fishery catch represents almost 40% and 30% of small and large-scale marine fisheries, respectively; and that inland fisheries employ three times and two times more people than small- and large scale marine fisheries, respectively (per 1000 tonnes of fish caught) (FAO-World Fish Center, 2008). The motion notes threats to inland fisheries and the ecosystems that support them. Also worth noting is many of the main inland fisheries are supported by transboundary migratory species vulnerable to poor watershed management, including water and land uses.

The motion calls for support of ecosystem-based management of inland fisheries, recognizing the relationship between inland fish catch and freshwater fish biodiversity. The >15,000 freshwater fish species equate to about half of all fish biodiversity and 25% of vertebrates. As sources of food and livelihoods, inland fisheries connect resident communities to their environment and underpin greater stewardship of freshwater ecosystems and fish conservation. Hence, ecosystem-based management of inland fisheries can contribute to food security and biodiversity. The motion encourages governments to recognize sustainable inland fisheries as a development opportunity of equal importance to other productive activities and development objectives related to land and water uses, such as agriculture, and urban and industrial development. Inland fisheries should be governed for ecological sustainability and resource equity to safeguard their production and value. This motion pursues inclusion of inland fisheries in the objectives of the SDGs and the post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to reflect their importance, and builds on an analysis and recommendations made by InFish (infish.org) an international team of inland fisheries experts (Lynch et al. in review). The motion also recommends monitoring and assessment of the state inland fisheries in different parts of the world, including indicators for the status of inland fisheries, that can be broadly applied. The Commission on Ecosystem Management’s Fisheries Expert Group should provide equal focus on both inland and marine fisheries, to recognize the differences in fish and fisheries in both systems.

Publications cited:
CBD Technical Series No. 87: Scientific Assessment of Progress towards Aichi Biodiversity Target 6 on Sustainable Fisheries.
FAO. 2015. The Rome Declaration: Ten Steps to Responsible Inland Fisheries. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5735e.pdf.
FAO-World Fish Center. 2008. Small-scale capture fisheries: A global overview with emphasis on developing countries. World Bank Other Operational Studies 16752, The World Bank.
Funge-Smith, SJ. 2018. Review of the state of world fishery resources: inland fisheries FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular No. C942 Rev.3, Rome. 397 pp.
Lynch, A. (in review). Inland fish and fisheries integral to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Nature Sustainability.
McIntyre, P.B. et al. 2016. Linking freshwater fishery management to global food security and biodiversity conservation. PNAS 113 (45) 12880-12885.



  • Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History - New York [United States of America]
  • Conservation International [United States of America]
  • European Bureau for Conservation and Development [Belgium]
  • NatureServe [United States of America]
  • Synchronicity Earth [United Kingdom]
  • The Nature Conservancy [United States of America]
  • Wetlands International [The Netherlands]
  • World Wide Fund for Nature - International [Switzerland]

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