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	Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing expanding at a time of growing ocean crisis by Isabel Hilton International Politics and Society   Over the last 18 months Chinese distant water fishing vessels have been involved in a series of worrying incidents. Among the most dramatic was the sinking in March 2016 of a Chinese trawler by Argentinian coastguards, following a dramatic chase in which the rogue fishing vessel attempted, unsuccessfully, to reach international waters.   The coastguard first fired across the bow, then into the hull of the Chinese vessel, after being obliged to manoeuvre to avoid attempts by the Chinese crew to force a collision. The coastguard rescued four of the 32-man crew, including the captain; the rest were picked up by another Chinese vessel that had been shadowing the drama.   Last August meanwhile, Ecuador’s government apprehended a Chinese reefer in the sensitive protected waters around the Galapagos islands. In its hold, the authorities found almost 300 tons of fish, including more than 6,600 sharks, among them the endangered and protected hammerheads.   Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (commonly shortened to ‘IUU’) is expanding at a time of growing ocean crisis. Global marine life is facing unprecedented threats, including from the impacts of marine pollution and climate change. For Ecuador and the other fishing nations that have succeeding in arresting rogue Chinese vessels, such episodes represent rare victories in the long war against practices that are threatening global fish stocks.   They are also a reminder that China now boasts the largest distant water fishing fleet in the world. Unfortunately for EU efforts to combat IUU fishing, the Chinese fleet, its ownership and operations are also among the most opaque and secretive.   The scale of Chinese IUU fishing is uncertain. China routinely over-reports its domestic catch because local officials inflate the statistics to meet centrally set quotas. But catches in more distant waters are routinely under-reported. Environmental groups accuse China of failing to cooperate in international monitoring and enforcement efforts, and of being reluctant to sanction the owners of vessels caught fishing in the territorial waters of other states or harvesting protected species on the high seas.   China accounts for 45 per cent of the approximately 500 foreign fishing vessels operating in the South Atlantic. According to Argentine reports, repeated illegal incursions into Argentina''s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) have prompted the South American country to raise the issue in the Argentina/China Subcommittee on Fisheries, an annual meeting now in its eight round, under the respective Ministries of Agriculture.   China has promised to make available the satellite positioning system of its international fishing fleet and Argentina has handed over a detailed map of its own EEZ. Ignorance of the boundaries will no longer be a plausible excuse. However, China has failed to disclose what sanctions, if any, it has applied to the companies involved in recent episodes.   IUU fishing is a widespread problem, and the European Union, the world’s largest market for marine products, has been slow to move. Now, as the block tries to ensure that illegal fish can no longer enter the EU market, the emergence of China as a major fishing power presents new challenges.   The practice of transhipment – where goods are taken to an initial destination, before being shipped somewhere else alongside other goods – makes it difficult to identify the origin and legality of disparate elements of the resulting mixed catch. Transhipment allows criminal operatives to mix illegal and legal catches – effectively fish ‘laundering’ on the high seas – and the reefers themselves are not always inspected in the ports where they land their cargo. Since they do not themselves fish, they may not be required to produce evidence of fishing permits. Without rigorous inspection and documentation the catch cannot be traced.   The scale of China’s distant water fishing is a relatively recent phenomenon, driven both by a growth in domestic demand due to rising living standards, and a concurrent collapse in China’s coastal resources because of pollution and over-fishing.   Much of China’s domestic appetite for fish is served by its own substantial aquaculture industry which, in turn, has driven a growing need for wild fish to feed the cultivated stocks. In 1985, as China’s coastal fishing went into decline, the Chinese government ordered the creation of the distant water fleet. Today, that fleet – estimated at between 2,500 and 3,000 vessels – survives on generous government fuel subsidies and tax breaks, and fishes in the waters of 93 countries around the world, and Antarctica.   To export fish to the EU, the world’s largest market, requires both a certificate of origin and a health certificate. The efficacy of the system depends on rigorous enforcement in China. Dozens of local agencies are tasked with controlling the catches as they land. Lax and inconsistent labelling further confuses the picture. What is more, China is one of the world’s most important fish processing countries. It re-processed and re-exports imported catches, offering further opportunities for mixing and laundering hauls of fish.   Chinese authorities insist that they do not tolerate illegal fishing and following recent episodes, China''s Ocean Fisheries Management authority has promised that fishing companies found to be engaged in, supporting, or assisting in any illegal fishing will be barred from overseas fleets. But the industry’s activities continue to be shrouded in secrecy. Details of China’s fishing agreements with other countries are not publicly available, and data on China’s fleet lack key elements, including ownership details, essential to effective enforcement.   European efforts to bring China into international monitoring and conservation efforts have been slow to yield results. Although China has improved its cooperation with Regional Fisheries Management Organisations, there has been little progress in the adoption of international agreements, and China has tended to oppose any proposed changes to IUU rules. Nor has China signed or ratified the Port State Measures Agreement, which seeks to bar access to port to any vessel reported to have engaged in IUU fishing.   The Chinese fleet, of course, is not unique in its responsibility for IUU fishing, but the scale of Chinese operations, the inherent overcapacity of the Chinese fleet and the lack of transparency of its data raise particular concerns at a time when the EU is working to verify the origins of the fish its people consume. The cumulative impact on the ocean of IUU fishing and other ocean stresses have the making of a perfect storm. Visit the related web page
	The Fortunate Few and the Forgotten Many by Winnie Byanyima Executive Director, Oxfam International   The Global Economy is Broken   Eight billionaires own the same wealth as half the world’s population. That’s right – eight individuals own as much as the poorest 3.6 billion people. Meanwhile, every day 1 in 9 people go to bed hungry.   Such extreme inequality is outrageous. Families living in poverty around the world are forced to suffer impossibly low wages, inhumane working conditions, and a total lack of even the most basic public services like water, education and healthcare. Governments are doing too little to help. And all the while, the usual suspects make billions from a system bent in their favour.   It doesn’t have to be this way. We can choose another future. A future where governments act to help everyone, where people are put before profits, and everyone is given a fair chance. We can help end poverty, and the rich and powerful need to play their part. Send billionaires a message: help build an economy that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.   The Fortunate Few and the Forgotten Many, by Winnie Byanyima - Executive Director, Oxfam International   In 2015, the 62 richest people in the world held as much wealth as the 3.6 billion poorest and most vulnerable. In 2016, a mere eight people did, and they were all men.   As Oxfam International’s Executive Director, I am not pointing this out to be bombastic; rather, new data on global inequality reveal that the world’s poorer half has less wealth than we previously thought. When we apply the more detailed figures that we had this year to last year’s estimate, we find that nine men, not 62 men and women, held as much wealth as the bottom 3.6 billion in 2015.   The effects of this gap between the fortunate few and the rest of us are felt everywhere, but they fall hardest on the forgotten poor; women constitute a disproportionate share.   One in nine people goes to bed hungry each night, and 10% of the world’s population still earns less than $2 a day. Meanwhile, the super-rich are accumulating wealth so rapidly that the world could see its first trillionaire in the next 25 years. This is much more than a numbers game: these figures reflect an economic system that has left hundreds of millions of people behind, and is ruling out a better, fairer, and more prosperous future.   Oxfam’s latest inequality report, which coincides with the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, exposes our deeply unjust economy’s inner workings, and offers solutions to rebalance it. It describes how big corporations, led by the super-rich, are dodging taxes, driving down wages, cutting prices paid to producers, and investing less in their businesses in order to maximize returns for their wealthy shareholders. There are countless examples of super-rich elites – to whom our political leaders seem beholden – pursuing their naked self-interest and profits at any cost.   Wealth does not “trickle down” to the poor. Oxfam, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank all know this now; poor people have always known it. So, when governments try to boost GDP at all costs, they are buttressing an exclusive economic system that harms hundreds of millions of people who are already stricken by poverty, illness, exploitation, and destitution.   Meritocracy is a myth as well. The world’s wealthiest did not earn their spoils through their own hard work. More than half of the world’s billionaires either inherited their wealth, or accumulated it in industries prone to corruption and cronyism.   The good news is that these wrongs can be righted. Bold, sensible, and practical solutions are already available. Building an economy that works for the 99% is an achievable goal. It is also long overdue, as evidenced by last year’s political upheavals, including the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum, Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte’s victories in the United States and the Philippines, respectively, and falling support for South Africa’s ruling African National Congress. In all of these cases, the masses have been voicing their frustration.   We live in an increasingly unstable and violent world, where poor people – and women in particular – are seen as less valuable than others. But it is in everyone’s interest that we reverse the trend toward ever-greater inequality. There will be more than enough to go around in an economy that works for everyone, rather than the fortunate few. But if we continue on our current path, we could undermine the work that we have already done to eradicate poverty.   The theme for this year’s World Economic Forum Annual Meeting is “responsive leadership.” And, while governments have a pivotal role to play in creating a world where all can enjoy the fruits of prosperity, so, too, do the super-rich – many of whom are here in Davos.   The message for them should be clear: Building a more inclusive economy requires redistribution. To end poverty, governments must combat the extreme concentration of wealth, not just by cracking down on tax evasion, but also by increasing taxes on wealth and high incomes. This will level the playing field, while also generating billions of dollars to invest in health care, education, and job creation.   But redistribution alone is not enough. To achieve prosperity for all, we will need to change our economic model. Governments must stop using market forces and technological change as alibis for their own failings. They need to push businesses to consider the social impact of their decisions, set the direction of technological development, and regulate markets to prevent a race to the bottom on wages and corporate taxation.   Humanity has the talent and the ingenuity to do better. We don’t have to accept an economy that doesn’t work, just because some people have profited from the status quo. That is not democracy. It makes both political and economic sense to put people first; and to create a world where everyone is fortunate, and no one is forgotten.   http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/just-8-men-own-same-wealth-half-world http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-01-16/just-8-men-own-same-wealth-half-world http://actions.oxfam.org/international/davos-international/petition/ http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/making-tax-vanish http://blogs.oxfam.org/en/blogs/16-12-16-worlds-worst-tax-havens-are-state-denial http://blogs.oxfam.org/en/blogs/16-09-07-tax-justice-are-victims-inequality-global-table http://blogs.oxfam.org/en/blogs/17-02-21-its-not-really-about-oxfams-shocking-inequality-stat-is-it http://blogs.oxfam.org/en/blogs/1859 Visit the related web page
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