Inspiring action for sustainable fisheries: Today and the future
In the wake of predictions that the oceans will be fishless by 2050, IIED has produced an animation to showcase its work on the economics of marine and coastal fisheries.
With more than one billion people relying on fisheries to survive, IIED is pioneering the use of economic incentives to stop the decline in fish stocks due to the effects of habitat destruction, over-fishing and climate change.
Among research carried out to date is the publication of a study of a pioneering scheme that could boost stocks of a fish that feeds millions of people in Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.
The research describes how the government of Bangladesh has implemented a system to compensate fishing communities that act to conserve the threatened hilsa fish. The study recommends five ways to improve the scheme, and note that if it works in Bangladesh it would set an important precedent for direct payments to encourage sustainable fisheries elsewhere.
IIED's Sustainable Markets research group has also created an online FishNet platform to bring together people with an interest in sustainable fisheries and connect policymakers, researchers and citizens.
Other related work on sustainable fisheries saw the publication last year of Economic Incentives for Marine and Coastal Conservation, a book edited by Essam Yassin Mohammed — a researcher in IIED's Sustainable Markets research group.
