News - Fisheries and Food Security
A blog post by John Virdin (Nicholas Institute) and Raian Divanbeigi (World Bank) summarizes the findings of a World Bank Learning Engagement Note on maximizing potential job benefits in fisheries projects.
Agreements allowing foreign vessels to fish in the waters of West African states look to be bad deals for both host countries and foreign companies. It’s time to look at the alternatives, writes John Virdin, director of the Oceans and Coastal Policy Program at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, in an op-ed published by China Dialogue.
In a new commentary in 360info, John Virdin, Director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy Program, explains how illegal fishing threatens small-scale fishers and the global fishing industry's sustainability efforts. Virdin says lessons from transparency initiatives in the fashion, timber, and oil and gas industries could help end illegal fishing.
John Virdin was among the experts who spoke to New Scientist for a cover story on how the rapid increase in ocean-based industry can be balanced with vital environmental protections.
A major new assessment finds that aquatic foods present a potential solution to malnutrition around the globe. John Virdin told Axios that it is "important to get ocean food systems into the global conversation about ending hunger."
John Virdin will be part of a high-level advisory council formed by the Environmental Defense Fund to focus on accelerating technological progress toward greater ocean conservation, ecosystem health, and sustainable marine fisheries.
Policies that more strongly recognize the value of sustainable seafood as a source of nutrition, not just a source of livelihoods, could strengthen global food security and help take a big bite out of world hunger, a new analysis by an international team of experts shows.
Despite the huge potential of Africa’s small-scale fisheries to boost the region’s food security, ramp up nutritional levels, alleviate poverty, and enhance environmental conservation, decision makers across the continent have given the sector little attention—largely because of inadequate data to support its potential role in sustainable development.
A new partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Duke University will build on ongoing research collaborations between the two to shed more light on the role that small-scale fisheries play in sustainable development. The agreement also opens the door for FAO and Duke to collaborate on additional areas of study, potentially including seafood markets, aquaculture, mangrove restoration and forests.
More than 300 experts from over 50 countries are contributing to the Illuminating Hidden Harvests (IHH) study, which will provide never-before-seen insights into global small-scale fisheries when the results are released in February 2021. Led by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Duke University, and WorldFish, the study will assess the con