 |
June 2007 |
 |
Bringing Sustainability to the Marine Aquarium Trade A booming market exists for marine aquarium fish—estimated at $200-330 million annually. The largest markets for these products are in the United States and Western Europe, with Japan and Hong Kong rapidly increasing their demand. Overfishing and environmental degradation of the fisheries habitat, particularly coral reefs, pose a grave danger both to this trade and resources it depends on. The International Finance Corporation-GEF supported Marine Aquarium Market Transformation Project (MAMTI) is working to put the trade of aquarium ornamentals on a sustainable path in Indonesia and the Philippines—the world’s largest exporters of marine tropicals. The Marine Aquarium Council is implementing the project, which has a high potential to be replicated and to become a global best practice. To obtain the marine tropicals, the Philippines and Indonesia overwhelmingly rely on the harvest of wild organisms. Many thousands of coastal communities in these countries depend on collection of aquarium organisms for their livelihoods. Often three generations of collectors can be found among the poor families living in the coastal villages. In prior times, these families would only fish in front of their houses. But today, the families need to journey progressively further away, because of overexploitation of coral reefs. These long journeys increase stock mortality rates and pose serious risks to the safety of the collectors. For the marine aquarium industry to genuinely flourish and prosper in the longer term, the MAMTI project is championing a number of fundamental changes:
Sustainability also requires the scientific assessments of the aquarium fishery resources and management plans of the collection areas, which is being implemented in the two countries. The collectors and collector groups, supported by local government, are in the front line in terms of learning to manage their resources more carefully. They need to be encouraged to use a precautionary approach to resource exploitation, and this is not easy at a time when there is increasing competition for dwindling resources. Control of sales and species selection must also become more rational as the two-way information flow between exporters, importers, and retailers improves. The future of the marine aquarium trade not only requires greater cooperation between collectors, suppliers and exporters, but needs a strong commitment from importers, retailers, and hobbyists. Through the MAMTI project and GEF support, the International Finance Corporation sees hope that this challenge can be met. Photo credit: MAMTI
|
|
