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37 fisheries government officials from 15 countries in Asia and the Pacific completed the first two-week FAO international course on Fisheries Law Enforcement, launched under FAO’s Global Capacity Development Programme to support the implementation of the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA).  

This new course is an applied programme that examines fisheries enforcement’s most challenging legal issues from a practical perspective. Officials who follow this course are then able to contribute to improve their countries’ enforcement of fisheries laws, including in prosecuting and adjudicating fisheries-related legal offences and crimes – a crucial aspect following any port State measures taken by a country in its efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.  

The first participants of this new course travelled from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Viet Nam.

The FAO international course on Fisheries Law Enforcement covers 42 lectures across four thematic areas (fisheries law and policy, management, monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) and enforcement processes and procedures), and a ‘moot court’ practical exercise. Participants were also taken on a field trip to the Busan Fisheries Monitoring Center, and the patrol vessel No.16 Mu Gung Hwa in the port of Daebyeon, Busan.

The first FAO international course on Fisheries Law Enforcement was delivered at the PSMA Busan training hub hosted by Pukyong National University (PKNU), in the Republic of Korea, through funding by the European Union and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Republic of Korea, and the technical collaboration of the Pukyong National University, and the Overseas Fisheries Cooperation Center. 

The FAO international course on Fisheries Law Enforcement is one of several training possibilities under the FAO fisheries training programme in support of the implementation of international instruments, and other capacity development initiatives carried out by FAO under its global programme, to assist States in implementing the PSMA and complementary international instruments to combat IUU fishing.  

More information is available here. Contact can be made with FAO here: [email protected].