Ocean governance for the Commonwealth The evolving Commonwealth agenda The origins of the evolving Commonwealth policy on ocean governance trace directly to the Trinidad and Tobago CHOGM in 2009, where the final communiqué recognised ‘that many developing states are particularly vulnerable to illegal fishing by foreign fleets and that urgent action is needed to strengthen fisheries and marine management in member states’ waters, particularly in the case of the more vulnerable member states’. At the Perth CHOGM in 2011 these concerns gave rise to a set of proposals developed by the Commonwealth Human Ecology Council (CHEC) and a call for the development and adoption of a Commonwealth Fisheries Policy (CFP) to provide a framework within which Commonwealth nations could begin to address several interrelated problems. One is the acute over-fishing of marine wildlife especially that associated with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by large fleets. A second problem is the deterioration of marine ecosystems from pollution, both in coastal waters and on the high seas. And the third and most insidious set of problems stem from climate change, including sea level rise, ocean acidification and fish stock migration. The 2011 Perth Declaration on Food Security principles, which emerged from a pre-meeting of small island developing states (SIDS) and were adopted at the end of the Perth CHOGM, make frequent and explicit reference to the contributions that fisheries and the ocean make to food security in Commonwealth countries. There are subsequent commitments in the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Strategic Plan for 2013–17 to more inclusive economic growth and sustainable development (Pillar 5), particularly through strengthened equitable and sustainable management of maritime and other natural resources (5.4), Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2013/14 113 Nicholas Watts Bonthe, Sierra Leone. Fishing community representatives going home from a meeting with the Environmental Justice Foundation and CHEC on threats from illegal fishing in the Inshore Exclusion Zone Nicholas Watts
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