Strengthening US Cooperation on Marine Protection in Latin America

On the margins of the Our Ocean Conference in Panama, the Wilson Center’s Latin American Program, in partnership with the State Department, hosted a high-level dialogue on efforts to support marine protection and combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Eastern Tropical Pacific and to promote international cooperation to advance large-scale marine conservation in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR).

The Eastern Tropical Pacific is one of the world’s most marine biodiverse places and millions of people rely on its marine resources for food and employment. Combatting IUU fishing in the Eastern Tropical Pacific and CMAR is not only a conservation issue; IUU fishing in this region has serious economic, food security and national security implications. Solutions to IUU fishing—most notably, strong maritime governance—must include science-based management for the fisheries sector, robust monitoring and surveillance to detect illegal activity, and enforcement and prosecution to promote accountability. Implementing these solutions will require international support and partnership, as well as greater engagement between governments, civil society and environmental organizations to generate policy recommendations in support of ambitious marine conservation targets across the Western Hemisphere.