Introduction

Two-thirds of the world’s population live in the Asia-Pacific region, and fish constitutes a staple diet for millions of these people. During 1993-1995, whilst the average global per capita consumption of fish was 14.5 kg/year, it was 25.4 kg/year in East Asia, 21.2 kg/year in Southeast Asia and 20.1 kg/year in Oceania¹. This attests to the important role of fish in food security and the preference for fish as food in this vast region of the world.

Fisheries has played a significant role in the economies of the majority of the Asian countries, especially since the end of the second world war. In 1995, the Asian fisheries engaged about 28 million fishers, which constituted 85 percent of the total number of fishers in the world; however, 90 percent of them were small-scale, and millions still live in poverty. The 1996 fishery production of the region, excluding the Southeast Pacific (South America) was 66.5 million tons, representing 55 percent of the total world fishery production and 91 percent of world aquaculture production². Fish sales also provide important foreign exchange earnings; the annual export of fish and fishery products from Asia and the Pacific was worth more than US$ 19 billion in 1995³.

The Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission (APFIC), formerly titled the Indo-Pacific Fisheries Council (IPFC), was established in 1948 and was the first of ten regional fishery bodies established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (Appendix 2). It has played a significant role in assisting its member countries to achieve accelerated fisheries development. The majority of the members of this regional fishery commission have agreed that in the course of the development of their fisheries, the Commission has been a source of inspiration and guidance, influencing their national fisheries development policies and planning. The beneficial role of the Commission was reaffirmed by its Members at the Twenty-fifth Session of the Commission in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in 1996.

During its half century of existence, APFIC has witnessed many changes experienced by the region’s fishing industries and has endeavoured to adjust its role and functions so as to better assist the Members in the development and management of their fisheries. However, with the depletion of fishery resources and escalated environmental degradation, especially in the inshore and coastal waters of the majority of coastal States in the world, the increasingly essential role of regional bodies such as APFIC in the protection of the environment and conservation of living aquatic resources has become more evident. This role was stipulated in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and supported by recent global fisheries and fisheries-related initiatives and instruments, including:

• Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1992);
• the FAO Agreement to Promote Compliance with International Conservation and Management Measures by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas (1993);
• the Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982, Relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks (1995);
• the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (1995);
• the Rome Consensus on World Fisheries (1995); and
• the Kyoto Declaration and Plan of Action on the Sustainable Contribution of Fisheries to Food Security (1995).

The Twenty-second Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI, March 1997) recommended that FAO regional fishery bodies be evaluated in depth by their members so that they could be strengthened. This recommendation of COFI was reinforced by the FAO Conference at its Twenty-ninth Session (November 1997) by the adoption of Resolution 13/97 “Review of FAO Statutory Bodies”. The Resolution, inter alia, stressed the importance of moving towards increased self-financing for statutory bodies with a regional focus and of enhancing the responsiveness of these bodies to the needs of their members.

To commemorate the fifty years of service of APFIC to the region, the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and the Secretariat of the Commission deemed it appropriate to publish an historical account of this fishery commission, including the achievements and difficulties experienced in the course of its work. A statement of options for the future direction of the Commission in its endeavour to assist its Members to achieve sustainable fisheries development was also thought appropriate. Dr. Deb Menasveta, Fisheries Consultant, was commissioned by the APFIC Secretariat to undertake this study; his terms of reference appear as Appendix 3. Some information taken from a report entitled “Twenty-five Years of IPFC”, also prepared by the Consultant and published by the IPFC Secretariat in 1974, was incorporated in the present report.