Vietnam's marine economy moves towards green standards from efforts to remove IUU "yellow card"

VTV.vn - Not only overcoming the EU's warning, Vietnam also affirmed its commitment to developing an environmentally friendly marine economy.

Unlicensed fishing vessels absolutely do not go to sea.

The IUU "yellow card" is a form of warning from the European Union (EU) to countries whose fishing activities do not fully comply with regulations on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. After many years of efforts to overcome this, Vietnam is aiming to soon remove this warning, aiming to complete it this year.

In preparation for the European Commission’s inspection scheduled for November, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh recently chaired the 18th meeting of the National Steering Committee on Combating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing to review implementation results, remove difficulties and encourage localities to be determined to achieve the set goals.

The Prime Minister assessed that the fight against IUU fishing has had positive changes, with the number of licensed fishing vessels increasing by more than 1,100. More than 99% of the total number of fishing vessels have been installed with VMS. However, there are still more than 5,700 vessels that have not been licensed. The Prime Minister requested that this week, localities must complete the licensing process; if they do not meet the conditions, they will definitely not be allowed to go to sea.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired the 18th meeting of the National Steering Committee on IUU.

The Prime Minister requested that this week, localities must complete the installation of VMS positioning devices on 100% of fishing vessels. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment shall set up control tools, not allowing fishing vessels to go to sea without connection to the VMS center; urgently issue a set of temporary criteria to determine fishing ports recognized as qualified to confirm the origin of exploited aquatic products. The Ministry of National Defense shall continue to patrol to prevent fishing vessels from violating foreign waters; put into use a system to control fishing vessels and fishermen in sea areas; direct Viettel Group to coordinate with VNPT to complete the data connection system to monitor fishing vessels, put into use a warning system for loss of VMS connection, to be completed before October 30.

The Ministry of Public Security focuses on investigating, prosecuting, and strictly trying IUU cases, especially those involving fishing vessels that cross the border. Ministries, branches, and localities coordinate to prepare documents, evidence, and technical reports to serve the work with the 5th EC Working Group. The Prime Minister criticized the Vietnamese Ambassador to Malaysia for not completing the assigned tasks related to the IUU issue, and requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to seriously consider and review responsibilities.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized: "The Government Office, the Ministry of Agriculture, you guys monitor, then the ministries and branches monitor, evaluate for me every week to see how the provinces are, how the ministries and branches are, and the ministries, branches, provinces and local cities are the leaders. I propose to have a very specific report to the Politburo, in accordance with regulation 366 of the Politburo, clearly stating who is doing well, who is not doing well, who is responsible for this."

8-year journey of efforts to remove the IUU yellow card

It can be affirmed that over the past 8 years, Vietnam has made great efforts to implement the recommendations of the European Commission (EC) in perfecting the legal framework on fisheries exploitation, fleet monitoring; and traceability of aquatic products. This improvement has also been recognized by the EC through many inspections.

In 2017, Vietnam issued the Fisheries Law 2017 - the most important legal foundation for sustainable fisheries management and IUU compliance. Along with that, 19 decrees, circulars and guidelines were issued to specify the law.

Not only that, the monitoring and management of fishing vessels is increasingly strict. More than 97% of fishing vessels over 15m have been registered, marked, and granted fishing licenses; 99% of fishing vessels over 15m have been required to install, and data is transmitted to the National Fisheries Monitoring Center (VNFishbase); 28 provincial fisheries monitoring centers have been established - connected online with the national center.

Regarding traceability at ports, up to now, there have been 176 designated fishing ports qualified to confirm the origin of aquatic products from exploitation.

Vietnam has also signed and participated in 26 international treaties and agreements related to the exploitation, protection and development of aquatic resources, closely cooperated with the EC through 4 inspections, received delegations, updated periodic progress reports; strengthened regional cooperation with ASEAN, FAO, RFMOs, shared information on fishing grounds, fishermen violating, and migrating resources.

Localities have also organized training on IUU regulations for more than 200,000 fishermen, organized interdisciplinary inspection teams and severely handled many violations, prosecuting some serious cases.

Quang Ngai fishermen go offshore and strictly implement regulations against IUU fishing.

"Diagnosing" to stop fishing vessel violations

Identifying and correctly assessing the current situation to have effective measures to prevent IUU violations is the way that the Vietnam Coast Guard - the focal point, coordinates with forces on the field, to promptly prevent violations such as lack of documents, turning off monitoring equipment, even falsifying registration numbers, changing or deleting vessel names when fishing at sea.

On fishing vessel KG 95552 TS, the captain turned off and removed the monitoring equipment on the pair of trawlers, including two, in the waters bordering countries in the Southwest Sea region that had just been captured.

"It was broken, I took it apart to send it home, I didn't know that taking it apart was against the law," said Mr. Tran Duy Thang - Captain of fishing boat KG 95552 TS.

In the country's seas, authorities have recently discovered a number of tricks and methods of violations, thereby promptly taking measures to prevent them.

Major Nguyen Tuan Anh - Captain of Team 1, Law Department, Coast Guard Region 2 said: "We have identified some of the current tricks of fishing vessels to violate the law, such as taking advantage of the night, taking advantage of areas without authorities, turning off the journey monitoring device, removing the journey monitoring device, changing the vessel's registration number, forging documents, to take the vessel to illegally exploit seafood."

In Ho Chi Minh City recently, there has been a situation where some ship owners have chosen fishing ports in other localities with easier procedures and management to register for port entry and exit.

Ms. Pham Thi Na - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City said: "We hope that provinces and cities will closely coordinate, especially law enforcement forces at sea, closely coordinate and promptly inform about violations of IUU regulations so that we can take measures to work with ship owners, direct localities where ship owners reside, strictly manage and educate them not to violate."

The above violations have all been identified by the authorities, from which solutions have been found to prevent them completely. The Vietnam Coast Guard said that, in addition to the number of ships assigned to regularly prevent violations by fishing vessels, all ships operating at sea of ​​this force are responsible for detecting and handling violating fishing vessels.

"We set up a battle formation, from the shore, to the sea, on the sea surface and even coordinated with the functional forces of other countries... hoping to soon end the violations of fishermen," said Major General Vu Trung Kien - Captain of fishing boat KG 95552 TS.

Currently, the Vietnam Coast Guard has connected and exchanged information with provinces, cities, and coastal military regions to create smooth communication and close coordination. This will help all forces, not just one agency, to prevent fishermen from running away, avoiding ports, turning off monitoring devices, transferring GPS to other ships, etc., thereby ending IUU violations and building a responsible and sustainable fishing industry.

From IUU commitment to sustainable marine economy

Not only stopping at managing fishing vessels or fishing in the right areas and on the right routes, Vietnam is expanding its IUU commitment in a deeper direction - protecting the life of the ocean. Vietnam has established 16 national marine reserves, protecting rare species such as sea turtles, corals, green turtles, dolphins; implementing prohibited fishing seasons by area and species. Keeping the sea blue is not only to remove the "yellow card", but also to affirm the image of a country responsible for the environment and developing a sustainable marine economy.

In Quang Ninh, nearly 7,000 fishing boats have been equipped with voyage monitoring devices. Each boat going out to sea is monitored 24/7, entering and leaving ports and must declare and record its fishing log. Along with that, fishermen pledge not to use destructive fishing gear, not to catch rare marine animals such as turtles, green turtles, or whales.

Not only tightening exploitation management, Quang Ninh is aiming to restore the marine ecosystem. In Bai Tu Long Nature Reserve, coral reef restoration and seagrass planting projects are being implemented - not only to preserve the landscape, but also to recreate natural breeding grounds for marine life.

From preserving each coral reef, releasing each sea turtle, to controlling each ship and export shipment - these coordinated efforts are helping Vietnam move closer to the goal of removing the IUU "yellow card". But further than that is the journey to preserve the blue sea - to preserve the source of life, where the marine economy develops in parallel with nature conservation for today and for the future.

In the context of increasingly competitive export markets, especially when exports to the US are affected by tariffs, maintaining and expanding the EU market - which has strict but sustainable standards - is a strategic goal.

The meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son and Vice President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas on the sidelines of the recent Second Global Gateway Forum in Brussels demonstrated the spirit of cooperation and shared commitment to sustainable development. The EU acknowledged Vietnam’s progress in combating IUU fishing and the plan to send a working delegation in November is seen as an important opportunity for Vietnam to affirm its efforts for a responsible fishery and international integration.

Source: https://vtv.vn/kinh-te-bien-viet-nam-huong-toi-chuan-xanh-tu-no-luc-go-the-vang-iuu-100251025053503283.htm