Committee on Fisheries (COFI) - Fisheries Division ![]() PRINCIPAL AUTHORITYCOFI, COMMITTEE ON FISHERIESWHAT IS COFI? COFI membership is open to any FAO Member and non-Member eligible to be an observer of the Organization. Representatives of the UN, UN bodies and specialized agencies, regional fishery bodies, international and international non-governmental organizations participate in the debate, but without the right to vote. The Committee has held 31 sessions. The First Session in 1966, and thereafter annually till 1975. Since 1977 the sessions have been held biennially. COFI may establish sub-committees on certain specific issues, for example the Such subsidiary bodies meet in the intersessional period of the parent Committee. FUNCTIONS OF COFI The two main functions of COFI are to review the programmes of work of FAO in the field of fisheries and aquaculture and their implementation, and to conduct periodic general reviews of fishery and aquaculture problems of an international character and appraise such problems and their possible solutions with a view to concerted action by nations, by FAO, inter-governmental bodies and the civil society. The Committee also reviews specific matters relating to fisheries and aquaculture referred to it by the Council or the Director-General of FAO, or placed by the Committee on its agenda at the request of Members, or the United Nations General Assembly. In its work, the Committee supplements rather than supplants other organizations working in the field of fisheries and aquaculture. |