1. The Norway-FAO Expert Consultation on the Management of Shared Fish Stocks was opened by Mr Peter Gullestad, Director-General of Fisheries, Norway, and Mr Serge Garcia, Director, Fishery Resources Division, Fisheries Department, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Rome, Italy.
2. Mr P. Gullestad welcomed the Experts to the Consultation on behalf of the Government of Norway. He noted, inter alia, that Norway had committed itself to arrange this Expert Consultation for two reasons. One was Norway’s history of supporting the work of FAO, both by financing programmes and by cooperating with FAO staff, especially in the field of fisheries. The second reason was Norway’s long and comprehensive experience in the management of shared fish stocks as nearly all fishery resources occurring in Norwegian waters were shared with one or more parties.
3. Mr S. Garcia welcomed the participants on behalf of Mr Jacques Diouf, Director-General of FAO and of Mr Ichiro Nomura, Assistant Director-General, Fisheries Department, FAO, Rome. He stressed the very important contribution of shared stocks to world fisheries production and the useful experience accumulated in international cooperation on fisheries. He pointed out, however, that in many areas of the world, cooperation had not led to effective and explicit sharing, in terms of allocations, and that more had to be done worldwide to develop and implement more rational sharing agreements for jointly managed resources, particularly for shared exclusive economic zone (EEZ) resources. He wished the meeting could highlight issues, opportunities and potential solutions, sharing experiences and approaches and outlining a path for future progress. Mr Garcia also thanked all participants for their collaboration in the endeavour. He finally expressed the grateful thanks of FAO to the Government of Norway for its continuing support to the FAO Programme in Fisheries in general and for this meeting in particular.
4. Mr P. Gullestad assumed the Chair for the Consultation. It was attended by 37 Experts in their personal capacities. A list of participants is attached as Appendix B.
5. The Agenda for the Consultation is attached as Appendix A.
6. The documents for the Consultation are listed in Appendix C.
