Illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing is a significant global issue, contributing to major environmental, economic, and social challenges.
IUU leads to biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, and the depletion of fish stocks, impacting marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of legal fishers. IUU fishing can undermine food security, particularly in regions dependent on fish as a primary food source, and may also be associated with human rights abuses, including forced labor and poor working conditions.
Although it is hard to measure, it has been estimated that IUU fishing accounts for between 11 and 26 million tons per year (more than 20% of the global catch) valued at USD 10–23.5 billion annually.
Key seafood markets such as the European Union, the United States, and Japan have developed Import Control Rules (ICR) to combat IUU fishing and incentivize legal and regulated fishing to support more sustainable fishing and management of marine resources.
We are providing research services to support the Walton Family Foundation and other stakeholders to understand if ICRs are limiting IUU fishing (or not) and to better understand what factors enable ICRs to be more effective and where the gaps are.
History of Import Control Rules
2010: the EU IUU Regulation entered into force, requiring catch certificates for all imports and utilizing a yellow/red card system to identify and penalize non-compliant countries.
2018: the US launched the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), requiring documentation for certain imported species.
2022: Japan introduced the Act on Ensuring the Proper Domestic Distribution and Importation of Specified Aquatic Animals and Plants.
Our role
Itad is leading this research assignment, working with a combined team of internal and external experts to conduct the research.
The research covers a review of the impact of ICRs globally through an evidence review. We are building on this with case studies, including in-country primary data collection in four case study countries. We’ll present findings in a workshop with the Walton Family Foundation and other stakeholders to co-create recommendations.
Methods and approaches
Our assignment includes:
- Inception phase to refine the research methodology and approach.
- Literature review of selected documents to assess available evidence of change/impact in terms of ICR design, implementation and results. This has provided us with a broad understanding of how ICRs are impacting the fishing sector globally.
- Systems mapping of systems around which the EU, US and Japanese ICRs operate.
- Case study featuring a deep dive research into key fisheries in selected countries to understand in detail how ICRs are initiating change. These will start with outcome-harvesting workshops supported by key informant interviews and focus group discussions. Our focus is on understanding more about supply-side perspectives of changes and obtaining more granular details to understand the ICR impact in different contexts.
Outcomes and impact
We aim to provide evidence of how ICRs are disincentivising IUU fishing and identify gaps to show how the Walton Family Foundation and other funders can allocate funding to address these. On a greater scale, we aim to contribute to a reduction in IUU fishing and more sustainable management of our marine resources globally.
