Halt the overexploitation of wild, freshwater species and ensure sustainable use

While many marine fisheries management plans have reduced catch levels and allowed stocks to rebuild, they could not have done so without stock assessments. A stock assessment provides an overview of the state of fishery resources to inform policy, decision-making, management and monitoring for long-term sustainability.

Although catch rates of freshwater fish are rising globally, available data on catch levels — especially for small-scale fisheries — is still limited. This lack of geographically representative data limits the ability of authorities to monitor illegal activities in the rare cases where an inland fishery has regulations, and for fisheries managers to understand potential collapses and what actions are required to protect or recover overexploited populations. Most of the world’s fish species remain under- or unassessed: An estimated 40% of wild fish that are caught are not identified or reported at the species level, drastically limiting the ability to manage fisheries sustainably.

Stock assessments tend to concentrate on high‑volume or economically important fisheries. Within this subset, approximately three‑quarters of globally fished species (75% of 336 unique species with available assessments) are now covered by formal stock assessments, increasing from 47% in 2000. However, global stock assessment data rarely distinguishes between marine and freshwater species, meaning inland fisheries are often poorly represented. As a result, freshwater species remain largely absent from global fisheries management frameworks, reflecting persistent data gaps and limited monitoring of inland fisheries.

Accordingly, while monitoring of fish stocks does appear to be increasing over time, this trend does not mean the world is on track for maintaining and sustaining healthy fish stocks, especially given the underrepresentation of inland fisheries in global policy and elsewhere.

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are “the most significant sites on Earth for nature,” identified because they are “crucial for maintaining the health of our planet and ensuring various species can survive.” They play a vital role in conservation — particularly for freshwater ecosystems, which often support high numbers of endemic and threatened species that are highly localized and depend on specific habitats, such as fish nurseries and breeding or spawning grounds.

KBAs are located around the world, but many remain outside formal protected and conserved areas. Identifying and delineating KBAs is a continuous process. As of 2024, 44% of freshwater KBAs were estimated to be fully or partially covered by protected and conserved areas, improving since 2000, when 27% of freshwater KBAs were estimated to be covered by protected and conserved areas.

KBAs help focus conservation efforts, and possibly legal protection, on habitats that are most at risk from threats such as pollution, damming, water extraction and invasive species. KBAs are identified based on specific criteria related to their genetic, species and ecosystem composition.

Conservation, restoration and sustainable use of freshwater ecosystems are central to Goal 15 of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. KBAs and protected areas are important approaches to help ensure the sustainable use of unique freshwater biodiversity. However, habitat protection alone is inadequate, especially for areas connected to larger systems, and recovery plans may be necessary for some overexploited species.

Water tenure rights define how people can access, use, manage and make decisions about water resources. Secure and well-defined water rights are central to safeguarding Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples and local communities’ access to water and enabling them to manage resources sustainably and equitably.

By contrast, threats to communal waters held by Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples and local communities can undermine water-based livelihoods and deepen water insecurity among already marginalized communities. Recognizing and establishing secure water rights for these communities is therefore critical to protecting their human and territorial rights and supporting sustainable, community-led resource management and resilient livelihoods.

Adapted from the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) land and forest tenure methodology, the RRI and Environmental Law Institute developed a framework that defines community-based water tenure regimes as systems in which a local community has legally recognized rights to use and manage a freshwater resource and decide who is allowed to use it. Examples include the right to manage the rivers and lakes in their region or to set up and control small-scale irrigation systems stemming from communal freshwater sources.

In their 2020 report “Whose Water?” these partners identified 39 community-based water tenure regimes across 15 countries, providing a baseline for tracking legal recognition of community freshwater rights. The report also evaluated these regimes based on their ability to support community survival, culture, livelihoods and development — particularly for Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendant Peoples and local communities.

While the report finds that rights to use and govern freshwater exist in 14 of the 15 countries assessed, significant legislative gaps and administrative barriers continue to limit communities’ ability to effectively manage and protect their freshwater resources. Data for more countries is also needed to more comprehensively assess global trends.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing places significant pressure on the world’s fisheries, threatening our ability to safely manage resources by fishing in violation of laws, failing to report or misreport catches, and exploiting stocks with no management measures in place.

While the exact toll of IUU fishing on freshwater ecosystems is unknown, in marine ecosystems these activities can cost developing nations billions of U.S. dollars in annual economic losses. Weak fisheries governance and IUU fishing have contributed to declines in biologically sustainable fishing practices and overexploitation of marine fish stocks. One in every five fish caught in marine and coastal ecosystems around the world every year is thought to originate from IUU fishing.

Beyond ecological impacts, IUU fishing has cascading effects on people and ecosystems alike, disrupting food webs and exacerbating food insecurity, increasing zoonotic disease outbreaks and harming nontarget species such as marine and coastal mammals and birds. These risks are particularly acute in freshwater fisheries, which support the diets and livelihoods of millions of people but are often characterized by limited monitoring, fragmented governance and weak enforcement.

Legally binding national policies are needed that establish clear rules, monitoring obligations and enforcement mechanisms to deter illegal fishing and reduce incentives for noncompliance. Without such frameworks, detection and enforcement will likely remain inconsistent, particularly in freshwater systems where monitoring capacity is often limited.

To assess national progress in addressing these risks, this analysis draws on a newly compiled dataset of national‑level, legally binding policies from FAOLEX (the database of the Legal Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) that explicitly aim at preventing IUU fishing in inland and freshwater fisheries, including regulations governing industrial and large‑scale operations. As of 2024, 82% of the world’s population lives in countries with national-level legally binding policies that prevent IUU industrial or large-scale freshwater fishing, up from 21% in 2000.

This increase reflects growing recognition of the need for enforceable legal frameworks to prevent overexploitation of freshwater species. However, the existence of legally binding policies does not guarantee effective enforcement or reduced IUU fishing, particularly in freshwater systems where monitoring and management and governance capacity remain limited.