The marine fishery resources is an important resource in the Near East sub-region

23 February, 2016 – Tunisia --  The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) today launched in Tunisia the "Workshop to enhance the sub-regional cooperation on fisheries, aquaculture and oceanographic research through the network RIMSMER", in collaboration with the directors and focal points from the oceanographic and fisheries research centres and institutes from Algeria, Lybia, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, that have endorsed the initiative to create a Marine Research Centers Network RIMSMER in 2011. This network is believed to be highly instrumental to enhance the scientific cooperation among countries in the sub-region; setting priorities for research, coordinating data collection and compilation, standardizing analyses and assessments, ensuring the availability of adequate equipment and human capacity, and enhancing the capability to deal with data-poor situations.

"The exploitation of the marine fishery resources is an important resource in this sub-region. The enhancement of the scientific knowledge on marine ecosystems and their reactions to the different changes caused by the human activities and the climate change is essential to preserve a sustainable exploitation of the resource. The cooperation among the different scientific research institutions of the region is an indispensable tool to keep the needed knowledge available for the sustainable management of our marine resources." Mr. Cherif Toueilib, FAO SNE Regional Fisheries and Aquaculture Officer, said.

"During 4 years we have been identifying crucial sub-regional marine research priorities, we don't have to let the geographic barriers stop the marine scientific cooperation" Mr Lamourdia, FAO SNE Sub-Regional Representative, added.

Mr Piero Mannini, FAO HQ Senior Fisheries Liaison Officer, remarked that "FAO has been supporting the network since its start in 2011, now is time to move ahead, to agree on  clear objectives and priorities of common interest for the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture resources in the region, and to make fully operational  the implementation of the network among the five countries and with the needed technical support from FAO and other relevant organizations, CSOs  and donors. The network of marine research institutes of the Maghreb region will play a key role to unleash the Blue Growth potential of the region".

The three days' workshop, from the 23rd to the 25th February 2016, will discuss the actual situation of the marine research institutes of the Maghreb region ; the presentation of a regional project proposal for the consolidation and operationalization  of the network  (RIMSMER) and its cooperative research activities; the presentation of different regional and sub-regional partnership opportunities; and the discussion of the institutional support to RIMSMER.

The North African sub-region is characterised by a wide and dispersed marine environments and fishing and aquaculture activities. The marine resources are an essential resource of income, employment, livelihood protection and food security in the sub-region. To ensure the responsible management and sustainable exploitation of these resources the best scientific collection and analysis of trustful data, proper research infrastructure, a sharing information and knowledge system, and the strengthening of regional cooperation is needed.