Lusophone countries adopt the Namibe Declaration to promote sustainable fishing
Portuguese-speaking countries meet in the south of Angola to adopt a roadmap for the establishment of a network of cooperation in combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing
The representatives of Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe, and Timor-Leste met in the province of Namibe, the richest in fisheries resources, in Angola, to agree on a roadmap to combat IUU fishing through a cooperation network.
The Workshop, organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Republic of Angola with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Secretariat of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), was held in hybrid format and in parallel with the Angolan Oceans Week (18-27 February 2022), under the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture.
The event was opened by the Secretary of State of Fisheries of the Republic of Angola, Dr Esperança da Costa, who underlined the need to increase cooperation and coordination at the regional level to combat the global threat of IUU fishing. She also emphasised the importance of the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA) to which four of the CPLP member States are Parties, two are signatories and the remaining three are concluding their respective processes of accession.
The Workshop followed the side event organized in Mozambique, in November with a view to establishing a platform for the CPLP Member States to promote sustainable fisheries.
The representatives of the CPLP Member States adopted the Namibe Declaration under which they decide to establish a cooperation network through a legally binding instrument focused on several priority cooperation axes, to which they assign different priorities which will be reviewed annually during the implementation of the instrument. The priority cooperation axes are the following:
- the review and harmonization of the policy, legal and institutional frameworks;
- the review of the monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) tools and mechanisms in place;
- capacity building and training.
They also agreed that the legally binding instrument should be adopted at an Extraordinary Meeting of Ministers for Sea Affairs of the CPLP, or relevant sectoral area, preferably to be held on the sidelines of the Second United Nations Ocean Conference, in Lisbon (27 June on July 1, 2022). For that purpose, the representatives of the CPLP Member States agreed on an ambitious roadmap which includes the establishment of a working group of legal and policy experts to draft such legal instrument and the coordination with relevant national institutions, including the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, to discuss the terms of the instrument. Virtual monthly meetings will be organized by CPLP, with the technical support of FAO, to collect the contributions of each country to the legally binding instrument and on 5 June, the International Day for the Fight against IUU Fishing a special meeting will be convened to commemorate the day.
More Information about FAO’s work to combat IUU fishing: www.fao.org/iuu-fishing