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Table 4.2 Fisheries lawsActs Descriptions (...)Environmental Protection and Conservation Act CAP 283 Contains a range of general provisions relating to the protection and conservation of the environment. It provides for the establishment of community conservation areas and of environmental impact assessments(...)

When the Fisheries Act was promulgated in 2014, Vanuatu was removed from the EU illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities yellow card, which had been issued by the European Union in 2012. Also in 2014, a Fisheries Management Advisory Council was established to provide recommendations to the Director of the VFD on policy matters relating to fisheries conservation and management.

In 2017, the MALFFB issued the National Fisheries Sector Policy 2016-2031. The focus is on sustainable stock management and biodiversity conservation, as well as: a. advancing small-scale sustainable domestic fisheries and aquaculture development using local operations; and(...)

Table 4.4 Main measures
Main measures Description (...)Gear restriction A ministerial order (Conservation and Management Measure for Deep-Bottom Fish Fishery Order No. 87 of 2012) prohibits the use of deep-bottom longline gear and restricts the number of hooks on a vertical dropline to 10

(...) The Director of the VFD monitors the deep-bottom fish fishery catch in all locations comprising more than 20% of issued licences. The ruby snapper, the saddle-back snapper, and the comet grouper are indicator species; a minimum of 50% of the catch of these species must be measured for length and weight, and their otoliths must be extracted. No further licences may be issued if the Director determines that: a. 25% of the ruby snapper catch has a fork length of less than 54 cm; b. 25% of the saddle-back snapper catch has a fork length of less than 33 cm; or c. 25% of the comet grouper catch has a fork length of less than 44 cm.

In these cases, licences are not issued until appropriate limit reference points for the deep bottom fish fishery are set and accepted, or the trend in the proportion of juveniles in the catch decreases to below the above levels over a five-year period.

If the latest annual catch record of the deep-bottom fish fishery in the fishery waters clearly exceeds the average yearly catch record of the past five years, the Director will review the impact of this catch, and may reduce the total number of licences approved. The Director may apply additional limits to fishing with the approval of the Minister of the MALFFB and after consultation with the provincial governments, the relevant fishers' associations, key stakeholders and the Fisheries Management Advisory Council (FMAC), if he/she is of the opinion that it is in the interests of the sustainability or economic viability of deep-bottom fish fishery in Vanuatu.

In 2014, the VFD, with the assistance of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), issued a revised tuna fishery management plan. The plan revised the management limits in Vanuatu's longline fishery exclusive economic zone (EEZ), taking into account bio-economic analyses. The plan stipulates various strategies for the conservation and management of Vanuatu's fishery resources, through imposing a maximum number of licences and total allowable catch for some tuna species, as well as designating areas closed to or restricting fishing. It revised the licensing fees for foreign fishing vessels, locally based foreign fishing vessels, and local fishing vessels (Table 4.3). According to the plan, no more than 70 fishing licences are to be issued each year under Vanuatu's longline fishery EEZ. (...)

(...) Currently sea cucumber and green snails are banned from fishing and trade, and exports of coconut crab and rock lobster are prohibited.

The Department of Energy, within the Ministry of Climate Change and Natural Disaster, is responsible for the development of energy policies, legislation and regulations to guide the development of energy services in Vanuatu. In 2013, the Government developed a National Energy Road Map (NERM) with a view to energizing Vanuatu's growth and development through the provision of secure, affordable, widely accessible, high quality, and clean energy services. (...)