Report on challenges and suggestions for improvements (following analysis of governance and socio-economics in the FarFish case studies)

The EU is obliged to ensure sustainable utilization of the fisheries’ resources to which EU fleets have access to, both in the high seas and through bilateral agreements, based on the principles of good economic and social governance. This is mainly done through cooperation with Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) and national authorities in partnership countries to improve knowledge and management of the fisheries. Inadequate governance of these fisheries can hinder the goal of sustainable utilization of fisheries’ resources, resulting in suboptimal or over-exploitation of shared and straddling fish stocks. On the other hand, limited knowledge regarding the processing and market conditions in partner coastal states has contributed to substantial criticism regarding the social and economic benefits that the international fisheries actually bring to the partners’ countries.

In line with the overall objective of the FarFish project to ensure sustainability and profitability in EU fisheries outside of Europe, this report utilises the knowledge acquired across the different work packages in the FarFish project to identify challenges and opportunities for improvements in the FarFish case studies regarding governance structure, social and economic issues. This analysis is twofold: 1) identification of institutional challenges obstructing the achievement of the intended governance principles as expressed in the relevant fisheries agreements; 2) analysis of the processing and market strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the selected case studies, which are then summarized in the form of road maps, which visualize the pathways towards achieving the ambitions identified for the FarFish project.