Coral Triangle Countries Agree on Joint Actions to Sustainably Manage Live Reef Fish Trade

Fifty two government and private sector representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam attended an inter-governmental forum in Bangkok, Thailand on January 31-February 1, 2013 and developed a concrete roadmap to address the negative impacts of live reef fish trade in the Coral Triangle region. The forum was organized by USAID’s US Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) Support Program in collaboration with the CTI Interim Regional Secretariat and the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC).

At the end of the forum, the government representatives from the six countries signed a resolution to establish marine protected areas that will protect fish species involved in live reef fish trade trade; develop an accreditation system designed to encourage live reef fish trade suppliers to follow sustainable and fair trade practices; consider developing a reporting system to capture relevant data and support traceability; address illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing practices; and promote collaboration among participating countries.

The trade in live reef food fish in the Coral Triangle represents one of the biggest threats to coastal and marine environments, characterized by overfishing and illegal fishing practices and unsustainable mariculture that largely remain unaddressed on a regional scale.

Mr. Matheus Eko Rudianto, Vice Chair of the CTI CFF Interim Regional Secretariat for Coordination and External Affairs highlighted the summary from the Workshop on Market-based Improvements in Live Reef Fish Food Trade (LRFFT) in Bali in 2011. “As a pervasive industry, the live reef fish trade in our region has its specific and complex characteristics. I believe such collaboration and experience sharing can be backbone to address challenges in live reef fish trade as well as to achieve or RPOA Goal and to support and promote sustainable practices of our business in live reef fish trade. I welcome the proposal for a multi-stakeholder forum on live fish trade as an informal dialogue and partnership mechanism on sharing information and to advance a collaborative work program on live reef fish food trade.  ” he added.

“We applaud this positive move of governments to institutionally come together to tackle common issues critical to the live fish trade in the Coral Triangle region, but we are especially buoyed by the decision of the meeting delegates to pursue the establishment of a regional intergovernmental forum to improve the management of the live reef fish trade,” said Dr. Geoffrey Muldoon, WWF Coral Triangle Global Initiative Strategy Leader, one of the forum’s resource persons.  “This intergovernmental forum on live reef fish food trade presents itself as an effective platform to bring government commitments in this region to life” he added.

“The establishment of this intergovernmental forum comes at a time when we see even more alarming issues coming out in the trade,” said Dr. Chumnarn Pongsri, Secretary General of SEAFDEC.  “Coral Triangle governments should use this forum to demonstrate their collective commitment to improve the management of the trade, and to stabilize the welfare of their shared ecosystems and resources for the benefit of the millions of people who depend on these for food and livelihood,” added Dr. Chumnarn.

Reef fish are a highly valuable resource whose unsustainable trade is driven by a persistently rising demand for seafood, mainly in Hong Kong, mainland China. High value species such as Humphead wrasse is sold for as much as HK$250 per kilo in Hong Kong and more than US$500 per kilo in Beijing and Shanghai. The trade has been estimated to be worth around US$ 800 million.

Follow this link to download a copy of the declaratio, this link to obtain an electronic copy of the forum proceedings and this link to see more photos from the event.

Photo Caption: Representatives from SEAFDEC and CTI-CFF at the signing of the live reef fish trade resolution (L-R): Dr. Chumnarn Pongsri, Tri Hariyanto, Mohamed Razali, Asis Perez, Alex Meloty, Julio Da Cruz, Pham Anh Tuan, and Eko Rudianto Credit: US CTI