FAO to promote new fisheries management course in global webinar

Rome and online - As adoption of management procedures (MPs) expands worldwide, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will host a global webinar to highlight its new e-learning course series: Management procedures for sustainable tuna fisheries, designed to help meet growing demand for technical training and capacity building.

The event on 11 February will bring together fisheries specialists, policymakers and practitioners from around the world to explore the strategies strengthening the resilience of fisheries and ensuring sustainable management of marine resources. Senior representatives from FAO, together with experts from Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) and NGOs, will share examples from the field, recent results and lessons learned from the application of MPs in diverse regions.

The five course FAO elearning series was developed under the FAO Common Oceans Tuna Project, with support from The Ocean Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts and the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation.

Growing demand for stronger fisheries management

Oceans serve as a vital resource for global food security, livelihoods and environmental sustainability, yet are under mounting pressure from pollution, overfishing and warming waters. Declining catches, combined with warnings that a significant share of assessed stocks are fished at biologically unsustainable levels, are driving renewed interest in approaches that can enhance the long-term stability of fisheries and protect marine biodiversity.

Five-course series unveiled recently

FAO first introduced the elearning series in October 2025. It provides step-by-step training on designing, testing and implementing management procedures (MPs), also known as ‘harvest strategies’. MPs are pre-agreed decision-making frameworks that determine allowable fishing levels under different stock conditions. They aim to keep fisheries within sustainable limits while reducing the risk of stock decline.

Traditional fisheries management typically relies on stock assessments, which can be uncertain because of limited biological data, environmental variability, and the challenge of estimating fish abundance. MPs are stress tested through Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE) simulations to see how they perform under uncertainties such as climate change, illegal fishing and data gaps. The result is more predictable management that can also reduce conflict in decision-making.

Building momentum

Harvest strategies or MPs have already delivered significant gains in several fisheries. The Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) adopted an MP for southern bluefin in 2011; within a decade, the stock had recovered enough for allowable catch to increase by 90 percent. Today, ten of the world’s 23 tuna stocks – representing about half of all commercially caught tuna – are managed under harvest strategies, with development underway for nine more. MPs have also been adopted for ten small pelagic and other species such as swordfish, with additional strategies under development, including for blue sharks.

FAO representatives say the new e-learning course series: Management procedures for sustainable tuna fisheries is designed to help further accelerate this progress on harvest strategies. “Management procedures offer strengthened transparency, predictability and resilience in fisheries management,” said FAO fisheries officer Joseph Zelasney, who was involved in the development of the course series. “This training gives countries and RFMOs the practical tools they need to design, test and implement these strategies effectively.”

RFMOs Welcome New Training

RFMO representatives say the training arrives at a pivotal moment. “Many delegations want to move toward harvest strategy-based management but lack the technical grounding to engage fully,” said the Executive Director of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) Rhea Moss-Christian. “As species come under pressure, MPs are ever more essential—not just for tuna, but across global fisheries.”

What the Five Courses Cover

The five course series guides users through the full MP development process:

• Course 1: Management procedures for sustainable tuna fisheries – Introduction outlines the core components of MPs and how they function in modern fisheries management.
• Course 2: Setting the vision provides guidance on defining long-term objectives and performance targets for a fishery.
• Course 3: Management strategy evaluation (MSE) explains the simulation process used to test MPs under uncertainty and compare their relative ability to achieve the agreed objectives.
• Course 4: Training adventure uses a game style simulation to place learners in the role of a fisheries manager making real world decisions.
• Course 5: Lessons learned summarizes best practices and common pitfalls in MP development and implementation.

Although the examples focus on tuna, the training applies broadly to other fisheries, including other highly migratory species, small pelagics and groundfish, in both domestic and international contexts.

The webinar, which is free and open to everyone, will take place at 13:00 CET on 11 February, 2026. To join the webinar session on Zoom, all interested participants are requested to kindly register here.

The Common Oceans Tuna Project, led by FAO and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), brings together all five tuna RFMOs, scientific institutions, governments, civil society and the private sector to promote responsible, efficient and sustainable tuna fisheries while conserving biodiversity in a changing ocean environment.

To learn more:

https://elearning.fao.org/course/mp-series-en

https://www.fao.org/in-action/commonoceans/en

https://harveststrategies.org/

https://www.fao.org/gef/en

FAO releases the most detailed global assessment of marine fish stocks to date