After more than two decades of negotiations, the World Trade Organization achieved a historic milestone in 2022 with the adoption of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. This landmark treaty represents the first global, legally binding framework specifically targeting subsidies that undermine sustainable fishing practices. The agreement entered into force on September 15, 2025, following ratification by two-thirds of WTO members.
The Agreement—commonly referred to as "Fish 1"—establishes critical disciplines prohibiting subsidies to vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, subsidies for fishing of overfished stocks where rebuilding measures are absent, and subsidies for unregulated fishing on the high seas. With over 35% of marine fish stocks currently overfished, these rules address situations where government support most acutely threatens marine biodiversity and the livelihoods of vulnerable fishing communities.
Implementation preparations are now underway, supported by a dedicated WTO funding mechanism providing technical assistance to developing countries. Governments will need to assess their domestic situation with regards to the new rules, identifying necessary domestic policy adjustments and capacity-building needs to align with their new legal obligations. Strong national implementation efforts will be crucial to ensuring that the Agreement leads to healthier marine resources and more secure livelihoods.
Importantly, the WTO's work also remains incomplete. Members committed in 2022 to negotiate additional disciplines—so-called "Fish 2"—to address the root cause of subsidized overfishing more comprehensively. These ongoing negotiations aim to establish broader rules preventing subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing before stocks reach alarming levels. Significant progress has been made towards agreeing on this second set of rules, but more effort will be needed to cross the finish line, particularly in the current challenging environment for multilateral cooperation.
This presentation will examine the progress achieved so far in WTO work on fisheries subsidies and highlight the required next steps to ensure that new global rules deliver on their potential to promote more sustainable fisheries and enhance marine biodiversity protection for generations to come.
How to cite: Irschlinger, T.: The WTO and Fisheries Subsidies: Progress and Prospects, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-204, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-204, 2026.
Marine fisheries subsidies remain one of the most controversial—and inequitable—drivers of global marine fisheries outcomes. Building on the 2018 global estimates by Sumaila et al. (2019), this update provides a timely and policy-relevant analysis of the scale, composition, and distribution of fisheries subsidies worldwide. Our analysis draws on newly compiled data from over 35 of the world’s top subsidizing countries, collectively responsible for over 85% of total global fisheries subsidy provision. These new figures directly support the evidence base for ongoing ‘Fish 2’ World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations and the implementation of ‘Fish 1’, the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies that came into force on September 15, 2025. More than a technical update, this analysis embeds an equity lens. Our analysis explicitly considers disparities between high- and low-Human Development Index (HDI) countries. To address gaps in country-level reporting, we use a benefit-transfer modelling approach that estimates missing subsidy values based on medians drawn from countries with similar economic and regional profiles. The model disaggregates by subsidy type, HDI grouping, and total fisheries revenue, allowing us to scale subsidy estimates proportionally to the size and structure of each country’s fishing sector. Fisheries subsidies are categorized as beneficial (e.g., support for fisheries management, conservation, or research), capacity-enhancing (e.g., fuel subsidies, vessel construction grants), which often increase fishing effort and risk overexploitation, and ambiguous (e.g., fisher assistance programs), whose impacts depend on implementation context. This typology allows for a more nuanced understanding of how different subsidy types incentivize overcapacity and overfishing, disproportionately undermining the viability of fisheries and threatening marine biodiversity. Our findings suggest that addressing harmful subsidies is not just a matter of ecological necessity but of economic and social justice. Effective reform must recognize who benefits and who bears the costs. By combining robust quantitative analysis with a call for transparent reporting mechanisms, this work contributes to a more inclusive and accountable global subsidy landscape that aligns with global biodiversity goals.
How to cite: Schuhbauer, A., Bari, M. A., Skerritt, D., Teh, L., Lam, V. W. Y., and Sumaila, U. R.: Revisiting Global Fisheries Subsidies: Equity, Biodiversity, and the Urgency of Transparent Reform, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-424, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-424, 2026.
Governments typically support fisheries to manage fish resources, protect fisher livelihoods, and guarantee food security. But subsidies that make it easier and cheaper to fish can drive overfishing and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Eliminating or reforming these subsidies is key to achieve Target 18 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which calls for eliminating, phasing out, and reforming subsidies harmful to biodiversity by 2030. Eliminating harmful fisheries subsidies is also a long-standing objective of on-going negotiations at the WTO, and a key target of SDG 14, which aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.
Negotiations at the WTO have recently led to the entry into force of a first Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which prohibits subsidies to IUU fishing, to the fishing of overexploited stocks, and to fishing on the high seas outside the competence of regional fisheries management organizations. The focus should now be on how to operationalize these disciplines. In April 2025, the OECD adopted a new legal instrument to tackle illegal fishing through subsidies reform. With the OECD Recommendation on Eliminating Government Support to Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, OECD Members and other adherent countries committed to implement a series of measures to ensure no public money unintentionally ends up in the hands of unscrupulous actors. The Recommendation therefore provides unique guidance for governments seeking to implement some of the key disciplines of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.
Further, it is essential to understand, more generally, where and why fisheries support can pose risks to fish resources and ecosystems and to mitigate those risks through better policy design and targeting. To this end, the OECD Review of Fisheries 2025 monitors government support to fisheries across 41 fishing nations accounting for 70% of global landings; it also assesses the risks of unsustainable fishing posed by support policies and provides concrete recommendations for reform.
How to cite: Delpeuch, C.: Eliminating government support to unsustainable fishing: practical recommendations for targeted subsidies reform, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-48, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-48, 2026.
Beyond its socio-economic importance, fishing is a true pillar of Senegalese culture and identity, inseparable from the daily lives and lifestyles of coastal populations. The fisheries sector provides thousands of jobs, generates significant foreign exchange earnings and contributes more than 3% to the GDP. The export value of fisheries products is estimated at 300 billion CFA (about 10% of total exports). Annual per capita consumption of fisheries products is around 29 kg on the national level and can reach 40 kg in coastal cities.
The sector faces several challenges stemming primarily from a lack of control over access to fisheries resources and imperfect knowledge of the catch potential. As a result, there is a mismatch between fishing efforts and the ability of fish stocks to regenerate. Also noteworthy are weak governance and management bodies, inappropriate fishing practices—particularly illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing—as well as climate change, ecosystem degradation, pollution, and coastal erosion.
A task force was established to conduct the self-assessment. Representatives from the Ministries of Trade and Fisheries were appointed to lead the process, with support from Pew and the IISD. A pilot project allowed participants to gradually become familiar with the International Institute for Sustainable Development's (IISD) self-assessment tool for implementing the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, to gather the necessary information, and to complete the checklist. Following the inventory and consolidation phases, the review and validation of the responses collected in the tool's alignment tables brought together stakeholders and relevant organizations at a workshop.
Combating the decline in fish stocks by addressing overfishing and other harmful fishing practices will enable Senegal to ensure the long-term sustainability and viability of its fisheries resources. Identifying and objectively assessing gaps allows for precise targeting of areas requiring technical assistance and capacity building. Access to the Fisheries Fund will enable the implementation of the identified disciples.
How to cite: Diallo, M.: Self-assessment for the implementation of the WTO agreement on fisheries subsidies: What is at stake for Senegal?, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-311, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-311, 2026.
