Presentation of law proposal to promote fisheries transparency in Peru

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Presentation of law proposal to promote fisheries transparency in Peru

By Nicolás Rovegno

Lima, 10 May 2022. Today, multiple actors from Peru’s congress, the country’s fisheries sector, as well as representatives from civil society and academia, met at a dialogue workshop in Peru’s capital, convened by the Office of Congressman Arturo Alegría. As part of this workshop, Congressman Alegría presented Bill proposal No. 1477/2021-2022-CR, which aims to promote transparency in the fishing sector following the principles established by the FiTI, ensuring effective accountability regarding the sustainability of marine resources and public access to information related to fishing in Peru.

The FiTI International Secretariat provided technical advice prior to as well as during this workshop, as officially requested by the organising workshop committee, headed by Congressman Alegría. The workshop was co-organised by the International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF).

Congressman Alegría stressed that “at a time when public access to information is essential, this law proposal is now presented in order to avoid that Peru’s fishing sector is excluded from the duty to make necessary information available to citizens.” He further emphasized that “with this law, we achieved their trust as well as active and responsible participation.”

Through this law proposal, it is sought that transparency mechanisms will be implemented within Peru’s public sector entities linked to the marine fishing sector, so that diverse information of public interest is published in these organisation’s institutional portals in an accessible and updated manner. Likewise, it is proposed that the Ministry of Production leads the implementation of the FiTI, in coordination with the responsible public administration entities, in order to be qualified as a country that complies with the FiTI Standard.

To support the public debates regarding the need for enhanced transparency in marine fisheries in Peru, the FiTI has recently released its first TAKING STOCK assessment for the country, which assessed the level of government transparency in Peru’s fisheries sector.

  • The assessment showed that, inter alia, 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.
  • Furthermore, 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.

Therefore, this assessment showed that while Peru’s authorities provide already information on the country’s marine fisheries sector, several improvement opportunities exist.

The meeting offered the opportunity for attendees to discuss the findings of this transparency assessment and to contribute their views and expectations towards this legislative project. In order to proceed with this proposal, the Ministry of Production has been requested to submit its official comments to this proposal.

You can watch the event at the following link: https://youtu.be/JFlaC5KS4zs