Deal struck to tackle the crisis in fish stocks by 2015

The UN's world summit in Johannesburg achieved its first breakthrough yesterday after the United States joined Britain and other European countries in signing an agreement to save dwindling fish stocks.

But environmentalists said the deal, aimed at replenishing fishing stocks to commercial health by 2015, was a classic example of "too little to late".

Members of the British delegation hailed America's decision to agree to some form of timetable for restoring depleted fish stocks as a "positive move". The US had been opposed to setting any new targets. At Washington's insistence the commitment to restoring stocks by 2015 was qualified by the term "where possible".

The essence of the agreement is to achieve sustainable fisheries by encouraging rich nations to form partnerships which increase the capacity of coastal developing nations to tackle and manage their fish resources . It also seeks to encourage governments to ratify the United Nations treaty on the law of the sea as well as the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) convention.

Sian Pullen of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said the phrase "where possible" to qualify the deadline was worrying. "We certainly would have preferred a short and tighter deadline than this one. This is as good as no deadline at all," said Dr Pullen.

She warned of the risk of greater poverty in coastal communities which relied on fish in developing countries if stocks were not restored sooner. A tighter deadline of about 2010 would have been preferable.

Dr Pullen said the draft agreement's clauses on combating illegal fishing contained little new. "We needed more specific measures to address illegal fishing with specific deadlines," she said.

Fish stocks worldwide are in crisis with more than 70 per cent of commercially important stocks either over-exploited, depleted, slowly recovering or close to the maximum sustainable level of exploitation, according to the UN. Its statistics show that consumption of fish worldwide has increased by 240 per cent since 1960.

One key agreement in the draft action plan reached yesterday is a pledge to eliminate the subsidies that contribute to overcapacity in the fishing industry – in other words the phenomenon of too many boats chasing too few fish.

Gordon Shepard, the director of international policy for the WWF, estimated the number of commercial boats on the water at 2.5 times the maximum possible for sustainable fishing.

Environmentalists have repeatedly cited the EU as the main culprit in over exploiting fish via agreements reached with poor coastal countries in Africa and elsewhere.

The world's richest nations faced calls during yesterday's plenary session of the summit to eliminate billions of pounds in subsidies to their farmers. These payments are blamed for encouraging protected European and American farmers to "dump" unwanted produce on Third World markets squeezing farmers in poor countries out of business. "We sit here talking about sustainable agriculture and families are dying," said Lebohang Ntsinya, Environment Minister for Lesotho, one of six countries in the region battling severe food shortages. "We appeal to you to put your policies right."

But few are expecting the summit to reach any far reaching conclusions which would tip the balance in the developing nations' favour.