Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning and welcome to the Third Session of the Advisory Committee on Fisheries Research. At the outset, I wish to express my pleasure to see that your Committee is meeting at an appropriate time to make invaluable contributions to the preparations by the Fisheries Department for the next session of the Committee on Fisheries and the Second Meeting of FAO and Non-FAO Regional Fishery Bodies or Arrangements and to the Programme of Work and Budget 2002-2003.
It is our intention to hold sessions of your Committee once every two years a few months before the session of the Committee on Fisheries. Ad hoc working groups, that you may decide to establish to address specific emerging issues, will meet during the intersessional period.
Mr Chairman,
I note that you have designed the agenda for this session to permit your Committee to fulfil its principal task of studying and advising the Director-General of FAO on the formulation and execution of the Organization's Programme of Work in respect to all aspects of fisheries research.
The substantive items of the agenda for this session include a review of the work of the Committee since its Second Session, an appraisal of FAO fisheries research related programmes and activities, in small-scale fisheries, inland fisheries and aquaculture as well as a review of some emerging issues in capture fisheries and aquaculture.
The document that refers to the work of your Committee since its last session twelve months ago addresses an important issue: the need for improved status and trends reporting on fisheries. It is worthy to note that at your First Session, this was one of the three top priority areas that you indicated needed to be addressed in a systematic manner.
Accordingly, FAO established and managed the First Session of the ACFR Working Party on Status and Trends of Fisheries whose report recommended the development of a proposal for an International Plan of Action on Status and Trends Reporting on Fisheries for eventual consideration by the Committee on Fisheries. Your Committee not only endorsed this recommendation, but some of you have participated in the interactive electronic process over the past ten months in pulling together elements that needed to be considered if status and trends reporting on fisheries were to be improved.
The advice of your Committee will be taken into account by the Secretariat, as appropriate, in refining this draft international plan of action for consideration by COFI at its Twenty-fourth Session.
Mr Chairman, and colleagues,
Under Agenda item 4, the Advisory Committee on Fisheries Research will have the opportunity to complete the initiative begun at the last session in appraising and providing advice on research related activities on capture fisheries and aquaculture programmes of the Fisheries Department. As your Committee requested at its Second Session, the emphasis is placed on some emerging issues in small-scale fisheries, inland fisheries and aquaculture. In this regard, your advice is sought on three thematic subjects which are over-arching principles in the corporate strategies of the FAO Strategic Framework 2000-2015. These principles are "poverty alleviation", and, in particular, in fishery and aquaculture dependent communities, "the use of local and traditional knowledge in improving sustainable livelihoods in fishing communities" and "research and development of appropriate genetic biotechnologies for the fisheries sector in developing countries". In each of these thematic subjects, your views in assisting the Secretariat identify and address the appropriate research issues with FAO Members and other partners will be most appreciated.
Mr Chairman,
The Fisheries Department, in collaboration with FAO Members and other organizations, is addressing a number of emerging issues in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors. A number of these issues will be submitted to COFI for policy decisions. The views of your Committee will be sought on two of these issues, namely illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and CITES listing criteria for commercially-exploited aquatic species.
The issue of IUU fishing was discussed at the First Meeting of FAO and Non-FAO Regional Fishery Bodies or Arrangements in February 1999 and at the Twenty-third Session of COFI that same month. Subsequently, following the directives of the FAO Council, as well as the recommendation of the FAO Ministerial Meeting on the implementation of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries held in Rome on 10 and 11 March 1999, the Fisheries Department has been elaborating through a participatory process, a draft international plan of action on IUU fishing. Your Committee will be informed of the process and the main thrusts of the proposed international plan of action.
At its Twenty-third Session, COFI endorsed the report of the FAO ad hoc expert group on CITES and agreed that FAO's work on the review of the CITES listing criteria for commercially harvested aquatic species should continue. A technical consultation to move this process forward was held in Rome in June 2000.
The Twenty-fourth Session of COFI will make a decision on whether to express an opinion and recommendations to CITES on the existing CITES listing criteria as they apply to commercially-exploited aquatic species and, if so, the nature and contents of these. CITES is currently undergoing a review of its criteria and may take any material submitted by COFI into account in its review process.
Finally, your advice is sought on an issue that has in recent years taken centre stage in international fisheries and is likely to be even more important in the years ahead. I wish to refer in this instance to ecosystem-based fisheries management. In this regard, FAO, and the Governments of Iceland with co-sponsorship from the Government Norway, is organizing an International Conference on Responsible Fisheries in the Marine Ecosystem at Reykjavik, Iceland, in October 2001 and your Committee will be informed in detail on its preparation.
In concluding, Mr Chairman and colleagues, I wish to reiterate that we value your opinions and that we will use your advice to guide our work in fisheries and aquaculture research-related activities.
Thank you for your attention. I wish you a successful meeting.
