Latin America’s first TAKING STOCK assessment: Government transparency in the marine fisheries of Peru

Lima, 27 April 2022. Today, the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI) launched the findings of its first TAKING STOCK assessment for the Latin American region, evaluating public access to marine fisheries management information in Peru.

Conducted in collaboration with WWF Peru, the assessment examines the level of information that Peru’s national authorities publish on government websites against the transparency requirements of the FiTI Standard – the only internationally recognised framework defining what fisheries management information should be published online.

Overall, this assessment shows that Peru’s authorities provide substantial information on the country’s marine fisheries sector and that there is a genuine interest in sharing important information with the public: information for 26 out of 35 transparency elements (74%) is publicly available on government websites, although information is of varying quality.

However, beyond simply evaluating what is and is not published on government websites, the assessment also considers the quality of published information – namely if it is freely accessible, up to date, and easy for people to find. These are all important factors to consider in terms of supporting public understanding around the current state of the sector. In this regard, transparency in Peru’s marine fisheries sector can be summarised as follows:

• Out of the 26 transparency elements for which information is published by the Peruvian authorities, only 42% fully meet the requirements of the FiTI Standard. Similarly, information for only 31% of the transparency elements can be easily found by a layperson.
• Fisheries information published by Peru’s national authorities is usually up to date (69%).
• For eight transparency elements, no information is published online at all, even though such information is available to national authorities. This includes important aspects, such as payments made by fishing vessels, information on labour standards, subsidies, or public access to Peru’s beneficial ownership registry.

The findings of Peru’s TAKING STOCK assessment are published in a Summary Assessment Report as well as an in-depth Detailed Assessment Report.

The assessment for Peru was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and conducted under the supervision and responsibility of the FiTI International Secretariat.