The Pew Environment Group The mission of the Environment program is to promote policies and practices that protect the global atmosphere, preserve healthy forests and marine ecosystems. For the past two decades, the Environment group of The Pew Charitable Trusts has been a major force in driving conservation policy in the United States, and increasingly internationally. The group’s work is focused on reducing the scope and severity of three major global environmental problems: - Dramatic changes to the Earth’s climate brought about by the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the planet’s atmosphere;
- The erosion of large wilderness ecosystems that contain a great part of the world’s remaining biodiversity; and,
- The destruction of the world’s marine environment, with a particular emphasis on global fisheries.
The Environment Group’s Marine Program For over a decade, the Pew Charitable Trusts has played a major leadership role in successfully promoting policies, both in the United States and abroad, that protect the ocean environment and the life it contains. We have been instrumental in bringing about many of the major improvements in fisheries management and marine conservation that have occurred in the United States since the mid 1990’s. These accomplishments include passage of the strongest conservation measures ever enacted by Congress to protect the nation’s marine fisheries; issuance of court ordered restrictions on destructive fishing practices in millions of square miles of federal waters; creation of the world’s largest marine reserve in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands; passage of the strongest restrictions ever enacted into law to protect sharks in U.S. waters; and internationally, adoption of severe restrictions on the use of highly destructive bottom trawls in approximately one-quarter of the world’s high seas. In addition, we have sponsored a large number of groundbreaking research studies published in recent years that have fundamentally changed the way in which the scientific community, the public, policymakers and the media think about the world’s marine environment. The Global Tuna Conservation Campaign According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, seven of the 23 commercially fished tuna species, including bluefin tuna, northern albacore, bigeye and yellowfin are overfished or depleted. An additional nine species are at the brink of being overfished, and considering the impact of illegal fishing, those species are overfished as well. The boats seeking these tuna are responsible for more hooks and nets in the water than is any other fishery globally. In addition, tuna is a highly valued fish in the northern hemisphere and as such has become a prime target for illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing fleets that, according to a recent report, are responsible for up to 30 percent of all the bluefin tuna landed every year and at least 10 percent of the remaining catches; that figure is most likely significantly higher as there is a lack of monitoring and verifiable reporting of catches by countries. The Pew Environment Group’s Global Tuna Conservation Campaign will focus its work on transforming the management of these species on the high seas through work in various countries and regions, as well as through some of the key Regional Fisheries Organizations tasked with managing access to these species on the high seas. We will also seek an Appendix I listing for Atlantic bluefin tuna at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and engage at the United Nations and UN FAO when there are meetings where tuna and issues related to its management are on the agenda. The Global Tuna Conservation Campaign is designed as a four-year effort, subject to renewal by the PCT board at the end of the second year. The position currently is approved for a 24 month term period through September 2011. Position Overview The senior associate, Global Tuna Conservation Campaign provides program support to the senior officer and manager for the Global Tuna Conservation Campaign and reports to the senior officer.
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