Target 5:
Ensure Sustainable, Safe, and Legal Harvesting and Trade of Wild Species

Introduction

Policy Proposals for National Implementation

• Establish national mechanisms to ensure that the presence of threatened species automatically triggers knowledge-based management assessments, including harvesting bans, species-specific action plans, and prioritisation.
• Ensure assessment of populations of harvested species is scientifically justified from an ecosystem perspective, incorporating long-term population variations.
• Strengthen efforts to prevent and combat environmental crime both within the national authority for investigation and the prosecution of environmental crime and in the individual police districts, as well as at customs/border checkpoints.
• Link the management of wild species to ecosystem-based management, rather than focusing solely on individual species and species of commercial interest. Introduce new reference points that account for intra or inter-species dynamics, and for the impacts of climate change on the ecosystems. Acknowledge the importance of species´ roles in sustaining natural ecosystems.
• Develop and implement multi-species models for fisheries management that consider both commercial and non-commercial species, including marine mammals and seabirds.
• Develop and implement guidance, indicators, and practical tools to help fisheries’ managers minimise the impacts on non-target species and ecosystems.
• Develop and implement national policy instruments to prevent the destruction of fauna, poaching and the exploitation of endangered species for trade, including restricting or banning trade in hunting trophies.
• Tighten national regulation of hunting.
• Ensure that actions to implement sustainable use, harvesting and trade of wild species do not restrict the customary sustainable use of natural resources by Indigenous Peoples and local communities considering their spiritual, cultural, economic, and subsistence needs.
• Identify, recognise and develop collaborative management plans with Indigenous Peoples and with local communities ensuring their full, equitable, and inclusive representation and participation in relevant decision-making processes.

• Strengthen the capacity of officials to enforce the decisions of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and make agreements with importing countries in this regard, as well as strengthen the due diligence practices.

Policy Proposals for Inter­national Implementation

• Strengthen cooperation between the Nordic countries on preventing and combating environmental crime.
• In close cooperation between relevant Nordic countries, implement stricter regulations for both commercial and recreational fishing in the Skagerrak, in line with scientific recommendations, including stopping trawling and purse seining in degraded marine ecosystems and particularly vulnerable fjord areas.
• Promote an international ban on the use of bottom trawls and Danish seines and ensure that areas not previously exposed to trawling are protected from it.
• Review the existing international treaties and other agreements dealing with sustainable fisheries management (UNCLOS, UNFSA, SDGs, etc.) and identify the additional steps needed to minimise impacts on non-target species and ecosystems.
• Strengthen the protection of red listed species in all ecosystems and encourage the creation of protected nature areas without hunting, fishing or other exploitative use, while respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples to sustainable customary use.
• Ensure that states do not engage in activities that diminishes the effectiveness of international nature agreements like the Bern Convention and CITES, hence ensuring proper protection of endangered large predators.
• Facilitate the sharing of best practices and traditional knowledge to enhance Indigenous Peoples and local communities management systems and encourage cross border cooperation.
• Support capacity building in trade partner countries in the Global South to enforce CITES convention.