by IUF Asia/Pacific | Dec 10, 2025 | Environment, Food Security, Human Rights, Sustainable Fisheries, Sustainable Tourism
On 10 December 2025, the IUF-affiliated Bodu Kanneli Masveringe Union (BKMU), the Yellowfin Tuna Fishers’ Union in the Maldives, renewed its call for the government to enforce fair prices for their catch as previously committed. This year, the action grew significantly, with 50 boats with over 500 members joining the rally highlighting the pressure on fishers’ and their families’ incomes and livelihoods. BKMU members use handline methods to catch yellowfin tuna sustainably, avoiding over-fishing and protecting the ocean ecosystem.
Following repeated actions by BKMU, the government committed to buy yellowfin tuna at a fair price to protect fishers’ livelihoods. However, despite continued calls, this commitment has not been implemented.
This year, the IUF-affiliated Tourism Employees Association of the Maldives (TEAM) joined BKMU in calling on the government to prioritize locally and sustainably sourced seafood to be served in the resorts. Their join proposal supports the BKMU members, their families and the local communities as well as the Maldives government’s international commitments.
“We are catching sustainably sourced seafood here in the Maldives, yet resorts are flying in frozen fish from thousands of miles away. It damages the environment but also the livelihoods of local communities. Serving locally sourced seafood across, more than 200, resorts is more environmentally, economically, socially, and ethically sustainable.” Mauroof Zakir, TEAM General Secretary
Both unions emphasize that government action on pricing and local sourcing is essential to meeting the Maldives’ commitments under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Their demands align with SDG 8.9 and SDG 12.b (Decent Work & Responsible Consumption and Production), ensuring fair income and decent livelihoods for fishers while promoting sustainable tourism. Encouraging resorts to source locally is a concrete step toward fulfilling these obligations, reducing the carbon footprint of imports, and supporting sustainable fishing methods.
SDG 13 and SDG 14 (Climate Action & Life Below Water) are deeply interconnected in the Maldives. Fair prices help secure the future of responsible fishing, while local sourcing by resorts reduces emissions and protects marine biodiversity.
“Our members care fighting to protect their livelihoods and the local communities. Allowing unfair pricing that undermines handline fishing directly contradicts government’s commitment. We want the government to fulfill it’s promise of fair price and promote locally sourced seafood.” Hussain Nasheed, BKMU President
BKMU and TEAM are urging the government to invest in small-scale processing facilities through which resorts can source tuna directly from within the Maldives. Such facilities would create local employment, sustainable food, and increase income for fishers and local community.
What’s good for fishers’ and their families is also good for Maldives.
by IUF Asia/Pacific | Aug 6, 2024 | Environment, Food Security, Human Rights, Sustainable Fisheries
IUF Asia/Pacific and BKMU joint statement condemning the Maldives Government’s decision to re-introduce commercial longline fishing:
The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations [IUF][1] and its affiliated union Bodu Kanneli Masveringe Union [BKMU], the Yellowfin Tuna Fishers Union in the Maldives condemn the Government’s action to re-introduce commercial longline fishing in the Maldives which would have catastrophic social, environmental and climatic consequences. This decision will have devastating impact on the ocean ecosystems and prioritizes the interests of large tuna buyers, potentially threatening the livelihoods of 17,000 local fishermen and affecting a community of 50,000 to 60,000 essentially infringing on their human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, right to freedom of association and collective bargaining and economic stability.
- Damaging ocean ecosystem, the environment, and its impact on human rights
Human rights are considered interrelated, inter-dependent and mutually reinforcing, where one right is violated, others cannot be realized. Consequently, human rights and the environment are interconnected. People cannot fully enjoy their human rights without access to a safe, clean, and healthy environment. The Government’s unilateral decision to re-introduce commercial longline fishing violates the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as well as right to food, right to health, an adequate standard of living, cultural rights as well as right to freedom of expression and association.
- The human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment
The Maldives government was one of the member countries in 2022 to present the resolution to the UN General Assembly which resulted in the UN General Assembly recognizing the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment which obligates the States to respect, protect and promote human rights, including in all actions undertaken to address environmental challenges, and to take measures to protect the human rights of all, as recognized in different international instruments.[2]
The BKMU members employ sustainable and responsible fishing methods, such as handline fishing, to catch yellowfin tuna. They also relocate to different fishing sites when tuna stocks are low or not yet mature. These efforts resulted in replenishing of the tuna stock in the Indian Ocean.
This sustainable approach was highlighted by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment in the Statement at the conclusion of a country visit to the Maldives from April 16-25, 2024. The Special Rapporteur emphasized the impressively sustainable practices of the Maldivian tuna fishery, particularly those of skipjack and yellowfin tuna fishers, who constitute 98 percent of the fisheries in the Maldives. Fishers use sustainable gear, including pole and line and handlines, resulting in low levels of bycatch, relatively low fuel consumption, and adherence to catch levels below the quotas established by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission.[3]
However, the Maldives government’s move to re-introduce commercial longline fishing threatens the progress on protecting the stock of tuna and more than 10 endangered species in the Maldives, mostly corals, along with turtles, sharks, rays and birds, which will inadvertently get caught and killed. The proposed guidelines of the Maldives Government allow for the longline fishing vessels to catch sharks, which will be devastating for the ecosystem.
To re-introduce longline fishing is detrimental to the environment and livelihoods, income, and food security of the entire communities who depend on locally sourced tuna for their nutritional needs and is a clear violation of the Maldives government’s commitment to human rights particularly the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. In addition to that, to fully exercise their rights, fishers through their union must have access to information and be able to participate in the decision-making process. However, the Maldives Government’s unilateral decision violates fishers’ ability to access their human rights.
- Right to Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining
The introduction of commercial longline fishing threatens the livelihoods of local fishermen as they risk being replace by fishing fleets directly operated by the large tuna buyers in the Maldives and foreign companies, which most likely will deploy distant water fishing vessels.
This was highlighted in the protest by the Bodu Kanneli Masveringe Union [BKMU] members on June 12, 2024 where 38 tuna boats with more than 570 fishers joined at the sea calling on the government to stop licensing commercial longline fishing. At the protest site, the Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Resources of Maldives agreed to stop licensing of longline fishing until effective consultation with the union.[4]
However, the government’s decision undermines BKMU’s right to represent its members and collectively bargain which includes effective consultation with the union.
The IUF Asia/Pacific and BKMU call on the Maldives government to immediately reverse the decision to re-introduce commercial longline fishing in the Maldives, protect and promote sustainable fishing and negotiate with the union on demands of fishers fighting for their livelihoods, incomes, and the environment.
[1] The IUF is a global union federation representing 12 million members working in the food sectors and across food systems in 126 countries. The IUF Asia-Pacific is a regional organization of the global IUF.
[2] In historic move, UN declares healthy environment a human right (unep.org) [28 July 2022]
[3] Maldives end of mission statement 25 April (ohchr.org) [25 April 2024]
[4] Maldives Yellowfin Tuna Fishers’ Union: historic protest defends ocean ecosystem and livelihoods, continues fight for fair price | IUF Asia-Pacific (iufap.org) [25 June 2024]
