Model Legislation Review

At the national level, the OFM Project will assist Pacific SIDS to undertake legal reforms associated with the implementation of the UN Fish Stocks Agreement and the WCPF Convention and other relevant international legal and policy instruments. A number of key new provisions will be specifically required for implementation of the UN Fish Stocks Agreement and the WCPF Convention but more broadly the legal reforms will assist Pacific SIDS by:

• putting the key principles of the Code of Conduct, the UN Fish Stocks Agreement and the WCPF Convention into national law, including the precautionary approach, the ecosystem approach, protection of biodiversity and preservation of long term stock sustainability following existing model draft legislation from Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu;
• providing a statutory base for processes of stakeholder consultation;
• giving statutory force to Management Plans, using existing models from Papua New Guinea and Cook Islands;
• overhauling decision-making processes, especially for licensing, to increase transparency; and
• creating new institutional arrangements, including consideration of options such as independent self-financing authorities for fisheries management and cost recovery programs.

The attached review provides a basis for setting up a checklist and a template that can be used for gauging the best practices when reviewing fisheries legislation. Some provisions are dealt with in more detail than others, with greater attention being devoted to those aspects of a fisheries law which will need revision in order to bring the law into line with modern conservation and management approaches, as well as looking at novel aspects designed to give effect to UNFSA and WCPFC.