11. This agenda item was introduced by the Secretariat on the basis of document ACFR/V/2004/2. The Committee was reminded that the FAO Constitution gives FAO and ipso facto the Fisheries Department a clear mandate to undertake, promote and support technical, policy and prospective studies relating to fisheries management and sustainable development at the international, regional and national levels. Although "pure" research in the traditional sense is not undertaken within the Fisheries Department, a range of activities by FAO staff do fall within the broader category of "applied" research, in the sense of all knowledge-generating activities leading to a better understanding of fisheries resources, their environment and ways in which they are exploited and managed.
12. It was noted that the Fisheries Department promotes broad based research programmes focused on development and management issues and concepts necessary for the elaboration of policy advice. This work has four principal aims, as follows:
Develop, maintain and make available global and regional databases as tools to monitor and evaluate the status and trends of capture fisheries and aquaculture as well as management systems at regional and global levels. National information systems are also developed on request.
Develop/adapt and transfer methodologies, guidelines, analytical and modelling software and other tools (including GIS) with the view to improve countries' capacity to deal with their fisheries;
Undertake analysis of priority and emerging issues, as a means to better understand the evolution of the sector and keep FAO members fully informed of policy developments (including the implications of non-fisheries agreements and international law), options and needs for new global initiatives.
Inform FAO's constituency and partners of the results of the above activities through a flow of publications in the form of background papers for meetings, formal publications in or outside FAO, newsletters, communications at conferences, CD-ROMS and websites.
13. The Committee was further informed that the Fisheries Department cooperates with a diverse range of national and international institutions and organizations in the execution of its research related activities. Such short- or long-term partnership arrangements are implemented in a contractual, collaborative, cooperative or collegiate mode depending on the activity concerned, and the type of relationship between FAO and the partners and their capabilities and strengths.
14. Two longer-term research-related partnership arrangements have been of importance to the Fisheries Department in recent years. These are SIFAR (Support unit for International Fisheries and Aquatic Research) and FAO's umbrella FishCode Programme. Work undertaken through field projects, such as the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Programme involving 25 countries in West Africa, also contribute in enhancing the quality of policy advice provided by FAO to its members.
15. Committee members were also reminded that FAO operates a network of regional fishery bodies. Many of these bodies have a scientific advisory committee which together with their ad hoc working parties stimulate and coordinate research undertaken by member countries or those carried out jointly by members under the aegis of the regional fishery body in such fields as stock assessment, statistics, economics, etc.
16. The main thrusts of some research-related activities were reviewed, and it was underlined that a wide array of issue areas were covered. These included:
impact of towed fishing gear on benthic communities;
discarding practices;
poverty analysis and poverty profiling in fishing communities;
fleet capacity studies, including the question of "genuine link" between vessels and their flags;
markets for fish and fishery products;
the use of socio-economic indicators in community-based fishery management;
a variety of issue areas addressed through projects under the FishCode Programme.
17. It was further emphasized that the recently evolving concepts in fisheries were heavily policy-oriented and this was reflected in the nature of the work of the Department, the work of the Committee, and the recommendations and output of Committee deliberations.
18. The Committee appreciated the extensive range of research activities undertaken by the Fisheries Department and its partners. The Committee stressed that these partnerships were essential and should be maintained. Concerning discarding practices, the Committee noted the strong attention that had been given to the first report on global discards and advised the Department that, in publishing the results of its new work which indicates a drastic reduction of discards worldwide, the Department should explicitly describe the methodology, the possible reasons for this sharp reduction in estimating discards as well as the implications on the overall status of stocks. The Committee indicated that some of its members would be willing to provide comments on the report.
19. The Committee undertook a review of the work of the Department in aquaculture and inland fisheries as well as fish utilization and trade.
20. The Committee considered specific presentations on aquaculture and inland fisheries contained in ACFR/V/2004/2 and ACFR/V/2004/Inf.5. The Committee addressed issues regarding inland fisheries and aquaculture separately, and then discussed areas on conflict or complementarities.
21. The Committee appreciated the potential of commercial aquaculture in alleviating poverty and enhancing economic growth, but stated that the maximization of profits should not lead to negative impacts on resources or communities. The Committee took special note of the role of fishmeal/oil in feeding farmed fish and appreciated the Fisheries Department's efforts to conduct research on feed inputs and alternatives to using fish to feed fish. The Committee recognized the usefulness of the "consortium" approach, as established for marine shrimp, to promote partnerships and increase information exchange in order to improve aquaculture productivity and sustainability. The Committee stated that the role of States as regulators should be examined as should the impact of aquaculture on other sectors.
22. The Committee recommended that the Fisheries Department examine issues related to species choice in aquaculture, i.e. domestication processes, genetic improvement, and genetic conservation. The Committee noted that this is being planned in collaboration with partners, such as NACA, WorldFish Center and academic institutions, and suggested that the ACFR may be able to play a role in this area.
23. The Committee took note of the high profile given to aquaculture and the diversity of aquaculture farming systems, their use of resources, their different impacts, and their varied objectives (i.e. providing food security, maximizing profits, etc.). Some members of the Committee alluded to the perception of some groups that aquaculture is not an efficient user of resources, that it is unsustainable, and that there have been many aquaculture failures. These perceptions are mainly based on salmon and shrimp mariculture. The Committee recognized that, while there are some misconceptions, real concerns exist over the environmental and social impacts of some aquaculture systems. The Committee also recommended that FAO produce an authoritative and balanced review of the aquaculture sector, including commercial aquaculture, and the role of aquaculture in poverty reduction. The Committee stated that FAO needs to monitor and, in some circumstances, be involved in research that will address environmental and social impacts of aquaculture.
24. The Committee stressed that, because of its integrity and the confidence of its Members, FAO is well positioned to provide an authoritative review. The Fisheries Department should strive to survey lessons learnt from past experiences, including successes and failures, and advise its Members on key issues in aquaculture accordingly. Efforts in this field would be similar to the pronouncements on fishing capacity and stock assessments in marine capture fisheries.
25. In addressing inland fisheries, the Committee noted a decline or levelling of production in many areas and requested information on the methodologies of collecting the statistics used to generate the information. The Committee was informed about the particular problems of acquiring accurate information on the status of fishery production in inland waters, the species harvested, the numbers of people dependent on inland fishery resources, and the contribution those resources make to food security. The Committee acknowledged that inland fishery resources are extremely important to food security and that efforts should be made to improve information on the status of inland fisheries and fishery stocks, in particular through implementation of the Strategy for Improving Information on Status and Trends of Capture Fisheries (Strategy-STF).
26. The Committee was further informed on how changes in fishery management, such as limiting access, enhancements, and habitat rehabilitation may further complicate interpretation of information on the status of the resource. The Committee acknowledged that traditional survey methods may be difficult to implement in many inland fisheries and that a range of alternative and novel approaches such as household surveys and consumption studies should be developed. Sampling strategies and techniques to increase the efficiency of information collection should be developed and the Fisheries Department may wish to conduct further training courses in sample design, research methodologies, etc., appropriately tailored for the needs of the sector. The Committee made special note that an ecosystem approach, including rapid appraisals of the status of inland aquatic ecosystems, should be adopted and may make fishery management more tractable. The Committee was informed that it is planned to develop and promote low cost rapid appraisal survey methodologies as one of the elements of the FishCode project on implementation of the Strategy-STF.
27. The Committee was informed that many of the problems facing the inland fishery sector arise from outside of the sector. Some Committee members cautioned that overfishing should not be neglected as a concern for inland fisheries and that overfishing could be even a more significant threat in inland areas than in marine and that linkages with the water management sector was often critical.
28. The Committee noted the diversity of the inland fisheries sector; from part-time, small-scale informal fishers in small wetlands, to highly industrialized fisheries on the world's large lakes and inland seas. Committee also noted that most inland fishers are among the least empowered and vulnerable members of society and, in particular, in comparison with small-scale inland aquaculturists. Many governments appear to give priority for the use of inland waters for other high earning endeavours in policy decisions, e.g. hydro-electric development, draining wetlands for agriculture, and marine export fisheries, over inland fisheries development. Thus the Committee remarked on the importance of improving information base on the role and contribution of inland fisheries, so that the governments and policy makers would be informed when making decisions that affect inland fisheries or pay adequate compensation where inland fisheries were sacrificed. The Committee noted that a viable first step would be to raise awareness of the importance of inland fisheries and to internalize many of the costs associated with poor inland fisheries management and poor development decisions that do not take into account the true value of inland fishery resources
29. The Committee pointed out that several of the problems of the inland fishery sector derive from problems with governance and ownership of the living resources, and the land and water resources. Existing institutions may be inappropriate or inadequate in many areas to address accurately inland fisheries leading to the objectives of fishery management and development decisions being also inappropriate or inadequately addressed. The Committee suggested that the Fisheries Department and regional fishery bodies dealing with inland fisheries should request better information from members on inland fisheries. It was noted that information collection methods for inland fisheries will not be the same as for marine fisheries and that FAO should assist Members put in place appropriate data collection systems, especially in regards to lake and reservoir habitats.
30. The Committee noted the existence of conflicts and complementarities between the inland fishery and aquaculture sectors. Culture based fisheries and fishery enhancements were areas identified where the sectors can work together. The Committee noted that conflicts may arise in regards to cage culture in open-water bodies limiting access to resources and pollution as well as introduction of alien species. The efforts to train fishers to become fish farmers had often not been successful.
31. The FAO research-related activities in fish utilization and trade were introduced by the secretariat. The presentation highlighted the fact that: i) Developing countries contribute around 50 percent (in value) of international fish trade; and ii) the main importing countries or the integrated Economic Union are the European Union, Japan and the USA, with around 80 percent (in value) of fish imports. These three major markets have stringent market access requirements. This presents FAO with two critical challenges: to meet the needs and requests of developing countries to conform to the requirements of highly demanding, but lucrative markets; and to ensure that trade promotion goes hand in hand with food security and responsible fisheries.
32. The Committee was informed that FAO research activities were both normative and field oriented in nature. The normative activities stemmed from the deliberations and requests of the FAO Committee on Fisheries Sub-Committee on Fish Trade (COFI:FT) and of the relevant Committees of the Codex Alimentarius Committee (CAC), especially the Committee on fish and fishery products. The field oriented activities were related aspects of fish technology, fish safety and quality, fish marketing and trade.
33. The Committee noted that the Sub-Committee on Fish Trade provided a neutral global forum to discuss and decide on issues relevant to fish utilization and trade, as well as the preparation of relevant technical guidelines, normative documents and papers. These issues have evolved to include safety and quality regulations, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) implementation, implications of the Uruguay round of negotiations for fish trade, responsible fish trade and the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, implications of SPS/TBT agreements for fish trade, fish trade and food security, fishmeal and the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) listing criteria, ecolabelling, harmonization of catch documentation, impact of subsidies on fish trade, traceability in the fish industry, access of small scale fisheries to international fish trade. The Committee further noted that in fulfilment of the role of the Sub-Committee on Fish Trade as an International Commodity Body for the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), FAO had implemented, in collaboration with the InfoService, seven fishery commodity related projects. The projects were in the field of product and market diversification, with a strong capacity building component.
34. The Committee welcomed FAO's initiatives in support of access of developing countries to timely marketing information, analysis and forecasts in order to promote international fish trade. It noted that these initiatives have been expanding to address the increasing needs of developing countries where fish processing and trade play a major role as a source of employment and foreign exchange earnings. The information requirements of the fish industry and the support to government institutions in developing countries cover market analysis by fisheries commodities, price developments and statistics, in addition to an understanding of market access requirements and the availability of trade contacts.
35. The Secretariat informed the Committee that FAO had organized or actively contributed in several commodity and investment conferences, to allow matchmaking and information exchange. The International Shrimp Conferences, the Tuna Conferences, the Squid Conferences, the Small Pelagic Conferences and the EAST WEST Conferences have become milestones for fish industry and governments during the last 10 years.
36. The Committee noted that, faced with increasing requests for the exchange and dissemination of timely and relevant information on fish processing technologies, safety and quality, FAO had launched the Aquatic Food Product Initiative (AFPI) in partnership with other institutions such as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the International Association of Fish Inspectors (IAFI). This long-term initiative is harnessing the competence of renowned scientists to create an integrated global knowledge based on safety and quality of aquatic food products.
37. The Committee was informed that the implementation of the FAO Fisheries Department work plan in fish utilization and fish trade relied on strategic partnership arrangements with several divisions within the Organization as well as many national, regional and international institutions. Similarly, the FAO Fisheries Department has initiated and animated the work of several networks of fish technologists, fish inspectors or women in fisheries in Latin America, Asia or Africa as well as establishing a network of six Fish Information and technical advisory services, the FishInfoNetwork, coordinated through the Rome based Globefish.
38. The Committee strongly supported FAO work in fish utilization and trade and noted the emphasis placed on tariffs and tariff escalation, safety and quality, traceability, value addition, implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements in the fish industry, ecolabelling, CITES, fish trade and food security. It expressed the view that many of these activities were of importance especially to developing countries which are in need of assistance to meet more and more stringent market access requirements.
39. In addition, the Committee recommended that FAO should strengthen its work in a number of areas. These include promotion of South-South and regional fish trade, development and trade of value added products in developing countries, certification and quality requirements, aquaculture issues (safety, environmental impacts), fish trade and resources management, trade-related measures to combat IUU, comparative studies on fish trade in small- and large-scale fisheries and also investigate how the access of small-scale fishers markets, and their terms of trade could be improved.
40. FAO-Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Norway) study of the impact of international fish trade on food security was presented by the Secretariat. The Committee was appreciative of the study and its important conclusions and policy recommendations. The Committee highlighted the need to take measures to make hard copies of the report widely available at the earliest. It also recommended that consolidation of the country case studies be published where appropriate.
41. The Committee recommended that the gender dimension should be given a particular attention, as the proportion of women deriving their livelihood from post-harvest fisheries was very important in all countries.
42. The Committee noted the various mechanisms which the Department was presently using to disseminate information. It advised that, in the face of growing pressure of fisheries and marine ecosystem issues, and the tendency of interest groups to interpret or "spin" information to support their own views that FAO needs to take the "high ground" as an objective, science-based, information source. To be effective, it must recapture the communication agenda rather than being reactionary. The Committee advised that FAO should not respond to individual reports. It recommended that FAO consider convening a small informal high level meeting of scientists and policy makers to review the matter and consider how to recapture the communication agenda. The panel should address the subject from the view point of science ethics, particularly within the framework of the FAO Internal Committee on Ethics in Food and Agriculture.
