Research into fisheries equity and fairness—addressing conservation burden concerns in transboundary fisheries

Conservation and management of transboundary fisheries must account for diverse national interests while adopting compromises necessary to develop and implement robust conservation and management measures. The United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement requires states to ensure that conservation and management measures for straddling and highly migratory fisheries do not transfer a disproportionate burden of conservation action onto developing states. However, fulfilling this obligation in transboundary fisheries is undermined by the lack of agreed transparent frameworks for assessing the impact of alternative conservation and management measures, and distributive decision making processes for adopting measures that meet scientific and equity obligations. A new informal and multi-disciplinary research partnership, the Fisheries Equity Research Network, has been established to encourage international research into the equitable distribution of conservation limits in trans-boundary oceanic fisheries. The Fisheries Equity Research Network will research transparent and equitable rules and frameworks for assessing and distributing conservation burdens in transboundary fisheries.