RECOMMENDATIONS AND OUTCOMES OF THE 27<SUP>TH</SUP> FAO COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES

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RECOMMENDATIONS AND OUTCOMES OF THE 27TH FAO COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES

73. The Secretariat informed the Executive Committee on recommendations and decisions of the 27th Session of FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) which are of importance to the region as outlined in document APFIC:ExCo/07/08.

74. The 27 Session of the Committee on Fisheries was held in Rome, Italy, from 5_9 March 2007. Of special importance to the APFIC region it was noted that the lack of management organizations in Bay of Bengal, South China Sea, Yellow Sea and several other small ecosystems in the region continues to constrain effective fishery management at national and regional level. Resolving this is likely to be a significant overall thrust of APFIC's work for the next decade at least.

75. The Secretariat further informed the Executive Committee that COFI, in its 27th Session identified the following points: 1) evaluation of state of implementation of the CCRF provided some insight into how countries are trying to apply the code, but mainly focused on the IPOA aspects; 2) Called upon FAO to assist in the area of catch documentation as a means to prevent sale of products from IUU fishing. FAO was also requested to provide technical inputs to the area of fishing subsidies for submission to the WTO negotiations; 3) Endorsed the strategy in aquaculture for information and statistics and requested FAO to support the area of aquaculture certification; 4) Highlighted the importance of aquaculture and small-scale fisheries as means to increase fishery production to generate income and foreign exchange to alleviate poverty, to increase food security and to provide for diversification of employment; 5) Called for greater application of NPOA's though introduction of the related measures for controlling IUU fishing. Since many countries in the APFIC region do not yet have a functioning NPOA on IUU fishing this is somewhat redundant and the members in the region need to reflect on how they may develop or implement an NPOA more effectively; and 6) Placed focus on recent evaluations of performance of RFMO's and the conclusion that they were not adequately performing their management role due to the lack of appropriate compliance or support from their member countries.

76. It was brought to the attention of the Executive Committee that additionally, during COFI, the following issues of relevance for the APFIC members were: i) Fishing capacity has increased in some areas over that prior to the Tsunami catastrophe; and ii) One agenda item on the ecosystem approach at COFI was covered.

77. The Executive Committee was informed of the FAO planned work on the socio-economic impacts of aquaculture and the intention to convene a meeting of socio-economic impacts in aquaculture in Thailand during 2008. It is expected that this will include country case studies in some APFIC member countries.

78. The Secretariat informed the Executive Committee that COFI identified a need for the development of a Coordination Party for aquaculture statistics. The CWP-Aquaculture will be a collaboration between FAO and NACA and the first meeting, with APFIC participation, will be held in early 2008.

79. The Executive Committee acknowledged the Secretariat's ongoing collaboration with the PROFISH global project on the global number on small-scale fishers including participation and economics. It was informed that the APFIC Secretariat would review data for a similar project on aquaculture, which will be part of the APFIC publication Status and potential of fisheries and aquaculture in Asia-Pacific, 2008. The result of this work will be communicated to the members during the next RCFM and session.

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