Beyond the prohibition list: redirecting negative subsidies into positive incentives could mitigate overfishing and protect coastal communities in WTO fisheries reform
Abstract
The World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies is a landmark in multilateral environmental governance, yet its current phase of negotiations on addressing subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing is contentious due to perceived welfare risks for small-scale fishers. In framing the debate around prohibiting subsidies, negotiators have thus far given little attention to which financial instruments could take their place, which is a missed opportunity. Here we argue that positive incentives — financial instruments designed to encourage sustainable fishing actions or reward positive environmental outcomes — are a neglected but powerful complement to prohibition. Drawing on evidence from co-designed, rigorously evaluated pilot programs in Indonesian small-scale fisheries, we show that positive subsidies could mitigate overfishing while protecting small-scale fishing communities. We propose that the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, and analogous national reforms, should explicitly distinguish capacity-reducing from capacity-enhancing instruments, preserve policy space for transparent and evidence-based positive subsidies, and recognise community co-designed programs within special and differential treatment. Reframing fisheries subsidy reform from prohibition to redirection would advance the goals of the Agreement: decoupling public support from fishing effort, protecting small-scale fishing communities, and creating new mechanisms to incentivise ecosystem recovery. It could also facilitate negotiations by addressing the concerns of fisher folk and developing coastal states.
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BibTeX
@misc{booth2026beyond,
title = {{Beyond the prohibition list: redirecting negative subsidies into positive incentives could mitigate overfishing and protect coastal communities in WTO fisheries reform}},
author = {Hollie Booth and Luky Adrianto},
howpublished = {EcoEvoRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.32942/x27965},
url = {https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15108/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Beyond the prohibition list: redirecting negative subsidies into positive incentives could mitigate overfishing and protect coastal communities in WTO fisheries reform
AU - Hollie Booth
AU - Luky Adrianto
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/22
PB - EcoEvoRxiv
DO - 10.32942/x27965
UR - https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15108/
AB - The World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies is a landmark in multilateral environmental governance, yet its current phase of negotiations on addressing subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing is contentious due to perceived welfare risks for small-scale fishers. In framing the debate around prohibiting subsidies, negotiators have thus far given little attention to which financial instruments could take their place, which is a missed opportunity. Here we argue that positive incentives — financial instruments designed to encourage sustainable fishing actions or reward positive environmental outcomes — are a neglected but powerful complement to prohibition. Drawing on evidence from co-designed, rigorously evaluated pilot programs in Indonesian small-scale fisheries, we show that positive subsidies could mitigate overfishing while protecting small-scale fishing communities. We propose that the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, and analogous national reforms, should explicitly distinguish capacity-reducing from capacity-enhancing instruments, preserve policy space for transparent and evidence-based positive subsidies, and recognise community co-designed programs within special and differential treatment. Reframing fisheries subsidy reform from prohibition to redirection would advance the goals of the Agreement: decoupling public support from fishing effort, protecting small-scale fishing communities, and creating new mechanisms to incentivise ecosystem recovery. It could also facilitate negotiations by addressing the concerns of fisher folk and developing coastal states.
ER -