Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission

Report of the Thirty-fifth Session of the Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission (APFIC)

Category Meeting Reports and texts

This document is the final report of the Thirty-fifth Session of the Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission (APFIC) convened in Cebu, the Philippines from 11 to 13 May 2018. The event was hosted by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Department of Agriculture, the Philippines. It was attended by 14 APFIC member countries, two non-APFIC FAO members and ten partner organizations. The Commission reviewed the intersessional programme activities of APFIC and endorsed the report of the meeting of the Seventy-sixth APFIC Executive Committee. The Commission endorsed the recommendations of the Seventh Regional Consultative Forum Meeting in full and recommended that these should inform the future biennial work plan of APFIC. The Commission endorsed the recommendations of the APFIC ‘Regional Consultation to Promote Responsible Production and Use of Feed and Feed Ingredients for Sustainable Growth of Aquaculture in Asia-Pacific’, convened from 7 to 9 March 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand as well as the recommended strategies stemming from the APFIC ‘Regional Consultation on Building Climate Resilient Fisheries and Aquaculture in the Asia-Pacific Region’, held from 14 to 16 November 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand. The Commission welcomed FAO’s expanded ‘Regional Initiative on Blue Growth in Asia-Pacific’ and endorsed the proposed programmatic framework and implementation plan for 2018 to 2019. Several members that were not included as the initiative’s focus countries expressed interest to participate in the implementation of the initiative from 2018 to 2019. The Commission confirmed that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing remains a major threat to sustainable fisheries and welcomed the continued efforts of FAO and other international and regional organizations to support the members in combating IUU fishing in both inland and marine fisheries. The Commission recognized the contributions of Official Development Assistance (ODA) and of the regional and country Global Environment Facility (GEF) projects with which they have engaged and noted that the outputs of these programmes have relevance to fishery management and capacity in the region. Many member countries expressed interest in becoming more involved in these and future initiatives. The Commission welcomed the proposed 2018-2023 APFIC strategic plan and endorsed the 2018-2019 biennial work plan with a number of amendments. The Commission elected new officers and agreed that the Thirty-seventh Session of APFIC will be convened in Thailand in 2020.