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FAO. Report of the third session of the Advisory Committee on Fisheries Research. Rome, 5-8 December 2000. FAO Fisheries Report. No.639. Rome, FAO. 2001. 44p.

ABSTRACT

The Advisory Committee on Fisheries Research (ACFR) held its third session in Rome from 5 to 8 December 2000. The Committee examined its work since the second session, undertook an appraisal of FAO's fisheries research-related programmes and activities in small-scale fisheries, inland fisheries and aquaculture, reviewed some emerging issues in capture fisheries and aquaculture and elaborated the Committee's work for the intersessional period (2000-2002). The Committee welcomed the proposal and draft International Plan of Action on Status and Trends (IPOA-STATUS&TRENDS) reporting on fisheries and commended the Working Party on Status and Trends for its work which was a good response to ACFR's request at its first session in 1997. The Committee recognized that if adopted, the IPOA-STATUS&TRENDS would be central to the implementation of several parts of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and particularly for Fisheries Management (Article 7). The Committee suggested refinements to the proposal and draft IPOA and strongly endorsed that the draft IPOA-STATUS&TRENDS should be submitted to the twenty-fourth session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) for consideration.

The Committee suggested that it was necessary to undertake research aiming to obtain a more detailed nuanced understanding of the various types and states of poverty in fishing communities and that empirical research on the subject could be divided into several areas including: the importance of the institutional/governance setting for the origin and persistence of poverty, processes/mechanisms that have permitted communities to escape poverty and, equally important, of mechanisms that have caused fishing communities to become poor, etc. The Committee recommended that once a thorough understanding of the mechanisms of poverty had been obtained, it may be useful to look into the possibility of developing an instrument for "Poverty Impact Assessment" analogous to environmental impact assessment.

The Committee acknowledged that there was a research merit in using sustainable livelihoods analytical framework for understanding the place of traditional/local knowledge systems in fisheries. It however cautioned that understanding traditional/local knowledge alone should not be the ultimate goal, and that it was essential to recognize the limitation of traditional/local knowledge in dealing with new problems arising from new and untraditional technology/changes. The Committee therefore underlined the need for a more systematic approach to including traditional/local knowledge in research and management systems, pointing out that this could be enhanced through the development of collaborative research projects between scientists and fishers. Research on rights-based fisheries regimes in small-scale fisheries was identified as one of the most important opportunities for such collaboration.

The Committee agreed that appropriate genetic biotechnologies should be made available, and encouraged the access and transfer of modern genetic technologies in a realistic manner. It emphasized that a key consideration in transferring genetic technologies to the aquaculture sector is that they should be applied in an environmentally sound manner with due protection of native aquatic diversity. The Committee envisioned FAO's involvement in research in genetic biotechnologies to be important in terms of its forward looking nature, albeit of limited scale. The Committee affirmed FAO's role as a source of information on capture fisheries and aquaculture and as an honest broker in assisting members, and recommended that FAO should keep abreast of developments and monitor the application of research results in order to assist members.

The Committee agreed that the quality of science was impacted adversely by poor data and that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing served to reduce the reliability of data. It suggested that electronic vessel monitoring systems (VMS) highlighted in the draft IPOA-IUU Fishing, if properly designed from the outset with scientific requirements in mind, have the potential to enhance the quality and timeliness of data for scientific assessments. The Committee foresaw a need for international cooperation to coordinate current and future forensic and related work and for readily accessible global databases to be established for the implementation of IPOA-IUU Fishing.

The Committee endorsed the FAO's activities in attempting to improve CITES Listing Criteria for Commercially-exploited Aquatic Species by using fisheries knowledge, experience and assessment techniques. It encouraged FAO to share with CITES such experience in their attempts to improve their listing criteria and procedures. The Committee suggested that the implications of the "look-alike" criterion/provision in fisheries should be carefully evaluated. The Committee endorsed the proposal that CITES listing criteria and their implications for fisheries should be discussed at the next meeting of regional fisheries management organizations in February 2001.

The Committee recommended that its Working Group on the Impacts of Trade and Benefit Distribution should continue its work. It noted the desire for some of its members to remain involved with the IPOA-STATUS&TRENDS initiatives during the intersessional period. The Committee identified several topics that might be themes for Working Parties during the intersessional period and recommended that priority be given to ecosystem approaches for small-scale coastal and inland fisheries.