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75. The Committee welcomed information provided to it by the Assistant Director-General of the Fisheries Department concerning the organization of the Twenty-sixth Session of COFI and the Ministerial Meeting 2005. The Committee invited the Department to draw attention to the Strategic Framework on Human Capacity Development and make it available to COFI. It also welcomed the continued importance given to small-scale fisheries.

76. The Committee recalled the high profile that was given to fisheries at the WSSD in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002, and noted that this profile was due in part to the excellent work of the FAO Committee on Fisheries. ACFR noted that COFI has the recognized competences at the international level to address the WSSD time-bound targets related to fisheries. The Committee encouraged a more active involvement of the Department in the WSSD follow-up process. The Committee suggested that the Department should purposefully inform the Committee on Fisheries and the international community on ongoing work to address the key targets of WSSD-2002. In this regard it pointed out that the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) should be seen as an evolution of conventional fisheries management which needed to be implemented incrementally through the incorporation of such issues as bycatch, the rebuilding of fish stocks, the management of fishing capacity, the creation of marine protected areas etc. It was further suggested that these matters should figure as operational paragraphs in the Declaration of the Ministerial Meeting 2005 as appropriate.

77. The Committee expressed appreciation to Dr Jacques Diouf, Director-General of FAO who, despite his heavy schedule, particularly during the preparations for World Food Day 2004, dedicated time to personally welcome and interact with members of the Committee. The Director-General urged the Committee to feel free to be sharp and critical in its work. The Committee was encouraged by the positive remarks made by the Director-General about the importance of the work of ACFR and its recognition as a high level panel of experts in fisheries. The Committee welcomed the proposal that it should continue to expand the scope of its work and that it should keep up the thorough examination of the Organization's work in the fisheries sector.


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