Climate Change Impact and Structural Reforms in Kiribati
KIRIBATI
FISHERIES DEVELOPMENTS IN KIRIBATI:
SUSTAINABILITY AND GROWTH1
This paper reviews the development and sustainability of Kiribati's fishery industry, and examines the
literature on the marine protected areas (MPAs) and the impact of different fishery management
regimes on sustainability. The note also discusses the recent development of the Phoenix Islands
Protected Area (PIPA). Over time, sustainability of Kiribati's fisheries has improved, but more could be
done to ensure sustainable fishing.
A. Introduction
1.
Kiribati is a small Pacific Island country in the Western and Central Pacific (WCP), but
with a large exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Kiribati is one of the smallest countries in the world
with only 800 square kilometers of habitable land. However, its ocean territory spreads across
3.5 million square kilometers, making Kiribati the thirteenth largest country in the world if the EEZ is
accounted for. Kiribati is one of the most productive tuna fishing grounds in the WCP and receives a
large share of fiscal revenues from selling access rights to its waters to the distant-water fishing
nations.
2. Tuna is the largest source of revenue for Kiribati. Tuna catch in the WCP has grown
10-fold from 265,000 tons in 1960 to 2.7 million tons in 2020, and its share of global tuna catch
increased from 38 to 54 percent. Kiribati accounted for 7.6 percent (209,000 tons) of the total WCP
catch. Tuna fishing license and access fee revenue accounted for 70 percent of Kiribati's fiscal
revenues in 2020. Therefore, the ocean is central to Kiribati's economic development and poverty
reduction.
3.
Over time, Kiribati's tuna catch and stock management have changed significantly,
with a key role for regional cooperation agreements. Before the 1980s, each country set its own
rules and risked overfishing and undervaluation of natural assets. In 1982, the Nauru Agreement
came into force among eight Pacific Island countries, i.e., Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA),²
that aimed at the coordination and harmonization of their tuna purse seine fisheries management
and their approaches to fishing for common stocks. In 1992, the Palau arrangement further
expanded the coordination by limiting the amount of effort (number of fishing days) by the purse
seine vessels in the PNA waters plus Tokelau, which culminated in the Vessel Day Schedule (VDS),
which started in 2006. While official data are scare, Kiribati is likely to account for roughly one
quarter of VDS fishing days, reflecting high catch volumes thanks to its large EEZ and large biomass
(Yeeting et al., 2018).
1 Prepared by Nico Valckx (AFR).
2 These PNA eight countries include the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau,
Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.
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