After a preparatory process which was initiated in 1995 by the Fisheries Department of FAO, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in December 1998 decided to fund a Project Development and Preparation Facility (PDF) of a project entitled “Reducing the impact of tropical shrimp trawling fisheries on living marine resources through the adoption of environmentally friendly techniques and practices”. In the process leading up to the project approval, several countries with important shrimp fisheries in tropical regions were invited to participate. Thirteen countries decided to participate in the project development phase.
A workshop involving the National Coordinators of each of the participating countries was held at FAO Headquarters on 17-19 March 1999 with the primary objective of agreeing on a common approach to development of a full project.
Each participating country conducted basic studies on the environmental impact of their shrimp fisheries. These findings were summarized in national reports developed in a common format. The national reports will be published in a supplement to this report.
To evaluate the impact of shrimp trawling in a regional context, four regional workshops were arranged in Nigeria, Costa Rica, Iran and Indonesia. These workshops also discussed priorities for project activities to be executed in each region in a full project.
This report provides a summary of findings and discussions in all four workshops. The text has been prepared by the FAO Secretariat based on notes taken at each of the workshops.
Distribution:
National Coordinators
Workshop participants
Fisheries Officers in FAO Regional and Subregional Offices
GEF Focal points in participating countries
Directors of Fisheries
UNEP
