Forget the money, conservation is all about people | Wietse van der Werf | TEDxAUCollege

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

When dealing with serious issues such as illegal fishing, maritime security, and enforcement, we look to governments to act. But what if the necessary budgets for enforcement are non-existent?
Van der Werf presents unique and cost-effective ways to strengthen maritime enforcement and argues that making an impact for conservation relies in principle on your relationships with people, not the availability of money.
Wietse van der Werf is a conservationist with a big heart for nature and on a mission to fight wildlife crime through unconventional means. Having founded a number of civilian enforcement services, Wietse works with regular citizens to collect evidence and prosecute wildlife criminals.

Five years ago,

I started an organization
called The Black Fish

to address the issue
of illegal overfishing.

It was when I spent time sailing
on the Mediterranean Sea,

and I saw more waste floating around
in the ocean than wildlife

that I realized

protecting the world's oceans
is the big issue of our time.

Tonight, I could start this talk
by talking to you

about the huge issues
we face in our oceans:

species extinction, biodiversity loss,

coastal degradation, ocean acidification,

industrial pollution, rampant overfishing,

modern slavery on board fishing vessels.

Yes, the list is huge.

But I'm not going to do this.

The usual way to talk about
environmental issues such as these

to an audience like you is to confront you

with the frightening urgency
of the problems.

And it's probably going
to make you think, "OK, I get it.

So, what am I supposed to do about it?"

Instead, let's look

at what can be done about it
and has been done about it.

There have been amazing achievements
by thousands of people, organizations,

states' environmental leaders
around the world.

In recent decades, we've seen
a huge push towards sustainability:

wildlife trade is regulated
better than ever before,

and major global treaties
have been passed

concerning most
of the issues we face today,

the most recent example
being the Paris Climate Agreement.

Many people would say
that such agreements don't go far enough,

but actually, there is
an even bigger issue at stake.

There is a big obstacle
that is stopping us

from truly achieving
environmental protection,

and it's called enforcement.

These guys look pretty good, don't they?

But the reality is

that these two fishing inspectors
are the only ones out there,

protecting an area of sea
the size of Texas.

There is a serious lack
of enforcement of environmental laws,

and it's making those laws only worth
as much as the piece of paper

they are written on.

Let's look how, traditionally,
in the environmental sector,

we have worked to create change.

It starts with the analysis.

This is where science
and investigative work come in.

It's about identifying problems
and understanding what's happening.

That understanding,
in turn, leads to awareness,

and that awareness
turns into protest and lobbying,

creating the political momentum
we need to push governments to act.

When these governments act,

they enact new laws
or introduce new policies,

which is the real result, right?

Well, not quite.

It should not be our objective
to have good laws or good policies,

it should be our objective to have
actual protection for nature.

The reason it's not happening
is because those laws we write

are not properly enforced.

Let's see how this applies to our oceans.

Scientists have identified
a major overfishing crisis.

Mankind has a huge appetite for seafood,

and the industry has become
too efficient at catching fish.

Estimations now predict a collapse
of all major fish stocks

within the next few decades.

There has been growing
awareness for this issue,

growing attention; protests have erupted.

World leaders have vowed to take action.

In the EU, 200 new fishing laws
and regulations have been put forward

in the last five years alone,
which is awesome.

However, the problem is
that out there in the field,

those fishing inspectors
and coast guard officers

are understaffed and under-resourced;

they lack the ships,
the aircraft, and the budgets

they need to properly enforce the law.

And it's making those laws only worth

as much as the piece of paper
they are written on.

So, how bad are these things really?

How much of the fish we find
on our supermarket shelves

do you think could be illegal,
could it be 10%?

How about 20 or 30%?

Anyone 30, 40%?

Estimations now predict that up to half
of all the fish traded through Europe

has illegal origins.

That means that every other fish
can be traced back to acts of crime.

There is growing political momentum
to do something about these issues.

However, the process is simply too slow.

In certain areas,

corruption is making
governments ineffective.

Another aspect of the problem
is the lack of money.

Especially poorer nations are struggling
to police their own waters,

and even in rich nations,

national parks and protected areas
are easily established on paper,

but protecting them on a daily basis
poses a real challenge.

I think it's time we acknowledge

that governments cannot fix
these problems alone.

The need our help.

And we have come up
with a serious game plan

that does just that,

without the need to spend millions.

At The Black Fish, we started looking
for the resources that would be necessary

to strengthen enforcement
of environmental laws.

And we found them, right here,
in front of us, readily available.

We realized that many people

are very willing to contribute
to meaningful change.

The problem is that there is a huge gap
between being just a passive donor

or becoming a full-time
professional conservationist.

On the flip side,

there are many people
with amazing talents and skills

that they can contribute
to make a difference -

be it as a pilot, or as a tourist,

or perhaps as a diver, or a chef,

maybe as a businessperson, or nurse.

These people can help us
increase monitoring capacity,

they can help collecting evidence
to prosecute wildlife criminals.

We find that tourists are already
out there in those fishing ports

where we look to investigate
illegal fishing.

We find people owning sailing yachts

who we can train to identify
and report on criminal activity at sea.

We've even founded a civilian air service

to mobilize private pilots

to donate their flying hours
and to help give us eyes in the sky.

All this -

All this means we are
very close to proving

that for only 25% of traditional
enforcement budgets,

we can increase enforcement levels

up to ten times.

How?

By re-purposing people's holidays,
family activities,

by simply asking people
to do what they love to do,

by asking them to contribute
what they feel they're good at,

and in the process,

get them to contribute
in a small way to a big goal.

And remarkably, it is working.

Let me give you three concrete examples.

First, let's go
to the west coast of Sweden.

This is an area where codfish reproduce,

where they lay their eggs.

For this purpose, there is an area at sea,
which is entirely closed off to fishing.

Illegal fishing is suspected
to take place in this area,

but the Swedish fishing inspectors
don't have their own aircraft or ships;

they rely on the coast guard
for this purpose.

But in turn, they are often
preoccupied with other tasks.

So, right now, we've started
planning with our air service,

which is called the Wildlife Air Service,

ahead for patrols to start
in this area next January.

We would carry out
three-hour patrol flights

every night for ten nights.

We've just worked out
that in those ten nights,

we will carry out
more fisheries enforcement flights

than the Swedish government
does in an entire year.

Even though they have an estimated
quarter of a million budget

assigned for this purpose.

Our budget: 7,500.

Let's give you another example.

Let's go to southern Italy,
the island of Sicily.

Along the north coast is an area
where illegal fishing is widespread;

especially where the use of so-called
drift nets is a major concern.

These illegal nets
which can be many miles long

catch everything in their path:

wales, dolphins, sharks, turtles.

The United Nations banned
the use of these nets in 1992,

but their use continues to this day.

In this area, there are
only a few fishing inspectors

who have to cover multiple ports.

What we can do is we can come in,

and at the height
of the drift net fishing season,

we can cover multiple ports
at the same time, day and night.

Our volunteers or "citizen inspectors",
as we call them, are trained up

to go into these ports

and to monitor, identify, document,
and report illegal fishing.

Because our inspectors crowdfund
for their own involvement,

70% of all the costs to realize
this type of monitoring

is raised by the participants themselves.

Let me give you another example
of how we can do a lot with limited funds.

We've been preparing
to start patrolling at sea,

in the most problematic areas,
especially around the Mediterranean Sea.

Once we have a ship,

we can start tracking illegal fishing
from land, air, and sea.

Traditionally, we would go to funders

and ask them for the hundreds
of thousands of euros

we would need to purchase a ship.

But instead, we found Mercon,
a Dutch shipbuilder.

Mercon donated the use of his skills,
and we donated materials.

He is now building
a steel expedition vessel for us.

It's a sailing vessel,

which means it is
remarkably cheap to operate.

Regardless of how cheap it is
to operate a vessel like this,

it would cost an excess
of 2 million euros to build this ship.

However, we believe we found a way
that by the end of this year,

we'd be able to build this ship
and get it operational next year

for an estimated 50,000 euros.

How?

We approach businesses, maritime
training colleges, and volunteers,

and we ask them to contribute
in kind, products, time, expertise.

When people with common passions
come together, a lot is possible.

But when people with common passions,

but perhaps with different disciplines,
come together, nothing is impossible.

So how do we find each other?

Last year, I visited
an airfield in the UK,

and there was a guy named Bob.

Bob is in his 50s, he recently
went into early retirement,

and he just loves to fly.

This guy is crazy about airplanes.

So I met Bob and started talking to him,
and I told him about the oceans

and how our tuna species are dying out,
and that we have to take action.

And you know what?

He didn't care.

He doesn't care; he loves aviation,
he doesn't care about conservation.

The next day, I was back at the airfield,

I saw Bob again and walked over to him
and asked him about his aircraft.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up,
and he started talking passionately

about his Cessna aircraft
and recent flying he'd been doing.

Right there and then, I realized

that we had been approaching this
the wrong way all along.

Bob doesn't care about the environment,
he doesn't care about overfishing,

Bob cares about flying.

If we asked Bob what lies
close to his heart,

if we asked him to contribute
what he loves to do for a good cause,

then he's excited and ready
to jump into action.

That fact -

that very simple fact that by appealing
to people at their level

and asking them to contribute
what they love to do

and what they're good at,

that is what will make conservation
a far bigger and more powerful force

than it is today.

Similarly, we met a couple last year,

Libby and Andy, both professionals
in executive jobs, busy life, careers,

but also keen to do more
than just donate money.

So we gave them
an opportunity to train with us,

to be trained up as citizen inspectors.

During their holiday time,
two weeks a year,

they join us
in our undercover investigations.

Increasingly, the photographs
they take in those fishing ports

serve as criminal evidence

necessary to prosecute
those breaking the law.

We have close to 100 trained
citizen inspectors at the moment,

and we hope to bring this up
to 150 people by the end of this year,

thereby making us the largest
civilian fisheries monitoring network

in the world.

Let me make one thing very clear here:

in terms of environmental
protection in general,

we are not winning.

Unless we can get proper implementation
of all those hard-fought laws,

the legacy of all those
who have made sacrifices

for the conservation of nature before us

will be lost.

A cliche way to finish
a talk like this would be to say,

"Now it's all up to you."

You know, you can become
a full-time eco-warrior

or make a donation.

Just to be clear, we're not
opposed to receiving donations

(Laughter)

but it's not our primary goal.

But for a moment,
let's forget about the money.

Conservation, like many other issues,
is all about people.

You don't have to give up your life
to fight global problems.

What makes a true difference
is that you apply your skills,

that you make available
the time you have available

to do what you love
or what you feel you're good at.

And if you're willing to do that,

if you're willing to take
that simple, yet very meaningful step,

then we, at The Black Fish, welcome you

and commit to helping you
turn your personal contribution

into having an amazing impact.

Thank you.

(Applause)