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handong and Fujian provinces recently announced they will start paying “fishery stewardship” subsidies this year to fishing boat owners based there. These will replace the fuel subsidies that have been paid to China’s coastal fishers for the last 15 years.
Those fuel subsidies were seen as a “blood transfusion“ for the fishing sector. But as they were available to all vessels, they encouraged overfishing and were considered an inefficient fossil fuel subsidy.
During WTO (World Trade Organization) talks on fishing subsidies, China has said it supports a ban on harmful payments that encourage overcapacity and overfishing, and wants to see negotiations concluded by the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in June.
China is making the switch from subsiding fuel to rewarding responsible behaviour as part of efforts to make fishing sustainable. But as we will see, tax and finance policies such as subsidies need constant monitoring and evaluation to ensure their outcomes are in line with targets, and with the overall aim of sustainability.