Transparency is often promoted as an essential element of good governance, including in industries like fisheries.
It can help to improve accountability and compliance, strengthen the legitimacy of decision-making processes and open opportunities for collaboration and innovation. But transparency also comes with some risks to commercial sensitivities and personal privacy. ANCORS researchers Kamal Azmi and Quentin Hanich, together with Global Fishing Watch, held a workshop in July 2022 with vessel operators and other experts to strengthen understanding of these sensitivities and to ensure that efforts to improve transparency do not undermine those sensitivities. The workshop report – Towards responsible transparency: understanding why fishers are cautious about sharing data – was tabled as an observer paper for the 19th Regular Session of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and will be submitted to other regional fisheries management organisations in the coming months.
