The composition of the Ministerially-led Task Force was a model of the multi-stakeholder spirit inspired by Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Action. Ministerial membership of the Task Force, included fisheries ministers from Australia, Canada, Chile, Namibia, New Zealand and the UK.
In addition to Ministers, other key stakeholders from NGOs, philanthropic foundations, institutes and business were invited to join the Task Force. Members included the Earth Institue, IUCN-World Conservation Union, WWF International and the Marine Stewardship Council.
The Task Force was established under the auspices of the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the OECD. The Round Table on Sustainable Development acted as the sponsor of this initiative, and the Chairman of the Round Table, Rt. Hon. Simon Upton, acted as the Director of the Task Force, responsible for the overall management of the process and ensuring that the Task Force members were kept abreast of the substantive work.
The advantage of using the Round Table in this way was that it was already embedded in the OECD as an independent body which enjoyed OECD Ministerial endorsement as well as strong buy-in from an established core of stake holders including non-OECD Ministers, leading international NGOs, business and IGOs. Ensuring independence by attaching the Task Force to the Round Table was important, not least because developing country Ministers, NGO and business representatives on the Task Force could be assured that they were treated as equals in formal discussions.
A small secretariat for the Task Force was hosted at the OECD’s Paris headquarters.
It is important to note that the work of the Task Force, which was broad-based and not constrained by institutional or disciplinary boundaries, was not institutionally linked to the work of the OECD Committee on Fisheries which, under its 2003–2005 programme of work, was considering the environmental, economic and social arguments in support of measures in relation to IUU fishing as well as the economic and social impacts of IUU fishing. Nevertheless, the Task Force worked closely with and drew upon the work of the OECD Committee on Fisheries to aid it in its analysis and to avoid any duplication of work.
UNITED KINGDOM Ben Bradshaw, MP (Minister for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare)
Ben Bradshaw has been MP for Exeter since May 1997. During the 1997–2001 Parliament Ben was a member of the European Scrutiny Committee and the Ecclesiastical Committee. He piloted a Private Member's Bill, the Pesticides Bill, though the House. The bill became law in 1998. Ben was Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group, a position he relinquished when appointed PPS to the then Health Minister John Denham in December 2000.
In the 2001 election Labour held Exeter , the first time it had ever done so, and Ben Bradshaw was re-elected with an increased share of the vote. He was appointed a junior Foreign Office Minister after the election and in the May 2002 reshuffle Ben was moved to become Deputy Leader of the House of Commons in June 2003 he was appointment Minister for Nature Conservation and Fisheries.
Ben is a member of several organisations including the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform, SERA (the Labour Party's environmental group), the Christian Socialist Movement, the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights, Stonewall and the Campaign for Real Ale.
Before his election Ben was a journalist. He trained on the Express & Echo in Exeter before working for BBC Radio Devon for three years. In 1989 he was appointed the BBC's Berlin correspondent and in 1991 returned to Britain to work as a reporter and presenter for Radio 4's World at One and World This Weekend.
AUSTRALIA
Senator Eric Abetz (Commonwealth Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation)
Senator Eric Abetz was chosen by the Parliament of Tasmania in February 1994 to fill a casual Senate vacancy. He was re-elected in October 1998 and again in October 2004. In December 1998 Senator Abetz was appointed to the Howard Government's second Ministry as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence. He was promoted to the position of Special Minister of State in January 2001. On 27 January 2006 Senator Abetz was promoted to the position of Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation.
Senator Abetz has served as Chairman of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee and as the Chairman of the Native Title and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Fund Committee. Senator Abetz has also served as Chairman of the Attorney-General and Justice Government Members' Committee.
Senator Abetz was educated at the University of Tasmania where he graduated with an Arts Degree in 1978 and a Law Degree in 1981. Prior to entering Parliament he was a practicing Barrister and Solicitor. He was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Tasmania in August 1983 and admitted to the High Court of Australia in 1986.
CANADA
Hon Loyola Hearn (Minister of Fisheries and Oceans)
Loyola Hearn was elected as a Member of Parliament in a federal by-election in 2000. He was re-elected in 2004 and 2006.
Mr. Hearn most recently served as Official Opposition Critic for Fisheries and Oceans. Prior to this, he was Critic for the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, for Public Works and Government Services and for Canadian Heritage.
Mr. Hearn also served as Conservative Party House Leader and was a member of a number of standing committees and parliamentary subcommittees.
Prior to his election to the House of Commons, he served in the Newfoundland House of Assembly as the Member for the riding of St. Marys-The Capes from 1982 to 1993, and was Minister of Education from 1985 to 1989.
Mr. Hearn was born in the fishing village of Renews , where he received his early education. He studied at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of New Brunswick . After graduating from Memorial University in 1969, he returned to Renews to teach.
Mr. Hearn lives in Renews with his wife, Maureen, and they have two children.
NEW ZEALAND
Hon Jim Anderton (Minister of Fisheries)
Jim Anderton is Leader of the Progressive Party, coalition partner with Labour in government. He is the Minister of Agriculture, Minister for Biosecurity, Minister of Fisheries, Minister of Forestry, Minister Responsible for the Public Trust, Associate Minister of Health, and Associate Minister for Tertiary Education.
In the last term, 2002-2005 he was Minister for Economic, Industry and Regional Development, Minister of Forestry, Minister Responsible for the Public Trust, and Associate Minister of Health. Jim Anderton was the Deputy Prime Minister in the 1999-2002 term of Parliament.
He was instrumental in setting up the economic development work of government. The Ministry of Economic Development and Industry New Zealand (later merged with Trade New Zealand to form New Zealand Trade and Enterprise) were created as a condition of the 1999-2002 Coalition Government, reflecting Jim Anderton's commitment to full employment and pro-active engagement to lift economic growth and living standards. Investment New Zealand has been added to NZTE forming a One Stop Shop for business support.
NAMIBIA
Hon Dr Abraham Iyambo (Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources)
Established in 1991, the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources was tasked with the sustainable utilisation of Namibia's fish resources. Before independence the former administration had jurisdiction over 12 nautical mile territorial waters, while the remainder was managed by the International Commission for South East Atlantic Fisheries (ICSEAF).
Namibia established a 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and has successfully managed to eliminate illegal fishing activities by foreign fleets. By implementing stringent fisheries management policies, Namibia is re-building fish stocks. Special incentives for fisheries industrial development have attracted foreign and local interests and shore based processing plants have grown both in number and in diversity.
CHILE
Felipe Sandoval Precht (Fisheries Undersecretary)
During his time as Minister, Felipe Sandoval has carried out the following key reforms; institutional restructuring, with the separation of regulation and marketing activities within public companies; measures to promote small and medium businesses and the privatization of electricity, rail, maritime and water sectors and of the national Radio.
From 1997 -1998, Felipe Sandoval was the President and Director of the Company’s Administration System (CAS), and he was in charge of create the institutional reform of public companies. He was again made president of CAS in March 2000, leading the efforts to privatize sanitation companies.
During his professional career he has carried out a range of different tasks for the public service. He was the coordinator of the Employment Special Program in 1999, in which he created 100,000 jobs; Executive Director of the Chile Neighborhoods Program; Executive Director of Pro Rural, in charge of the creation, installation and operation of a intersector program to overcome poverty in agricultural areas; Vice-president of the ENAP (Petroleum National Company); President of ESVAL (Valparaiso Sanitary Works Company); and Vice-president of Metro, S.A.
He took over the role of Undersecretary of Fisheries on 29 August 2001.
THE EARTH INSTITUTE 
Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is also Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on a group of poverty reduction initiatives called the Millennium Development Goals.
Sachs is internationally renowned for advising governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia and Africa on economic reforms and for his work with international agencies to promote poverty reduction, disease control, and debt reduction of poor countries. He was recently named among the 100 most influential leaders in the world by Time Magazine. He is author of hundreds of scholarly articles and many books. Sachs was recently elected into the Institute of Medicine and is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to joining Columbia, Sachs spent over twenty years at Harvard University, most recently as Director of the Center for International Development. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Sachs received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard University.
WORLD CONSERVATION UNION
Achim Steiner (Director General)
He has worked both at grassroots level and at the highest levels of international policy making to address the interface between environmental sustainability, social equity and economic development.
In recent years, his professional focus has been on developing both conceptual and institutional bridges among very diverse interests and agendas. In Washington, where he was Senior Policy Advisor of IUCN's Global Policy Unit, he developed new partnerships between the conservation community and the World Bank and United Nations system. In South-East Asia where he worked as chief technical advisor on a programme for sustainable management of Mekong River watersheds, he contributed to a new dialogue and policy process with governments and local communities to introduce political reforms for community-based natural resources management. In his most recent assignment - Secretary General of the World Commission on Dams, based in South Africa - he brought together the public sector, civil society, and the private sector in a global policy process on dams and development.
WWF INTERNATIONAL
Dr. Claude Martin (Director General)
A Swiss national, Claude Martin was born in Zurich in 1945. His WWF career started in the early 1970s, when he lived in Central India studying the ecology of the threatened barasingha deer in Kanha National Park. From 1975 to 1978 he served as director of several protected areas in the Western Region of Ghana, before becoming director of WWF-Switzerland in 1980. Under his leadership, WWF-Switzerland emerged as one of the strongest of the National Organizations within the WWF Netowrk.
Claude Martin joined WWF International in 1990 as Deputy Director General (Programme). Three years later, in 1993, he was appointed Director General of WWF International. Since then, he has initiated several new approaches in conservation, such as the Target Driven Programmes, as well as partnerships, for example with the World Bank and business/industry groups. He is a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) – a high level advisory body to the Chinese Government – as well as a board member of numerous other environmental bodies.