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CLOSURE OF THE WORKSHOP

65. On behalf of the FAO Sub-Regional Representative for the Pacific, Mr Izumi, the Workshop Coordinator, thanked all participants, resource persons and FAO staff for their cooperation and active participation in the Workshop. He expressed FAO's continued commitment to assist countries in the further implementation of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries at national and regional levels, and in the development of their national plans for the implementation of the provisions of the International Plans of Action, particularly for IUU fishing. He also thanked FAO Headquarters' Fisheries Department for initiating the Workshop, for securing funding and for its continued support to small island developing States in the Pacific. In addition, FAO's general technical assistance progamme was referred to further enhance its activities at national and regional level.

66. Mr Doulman, Technical Secretary of the Workshop, expressed his thanks to the participants and observers, FAO colleagues and consultants for their support and hard work before and during the Workshop. He especially thanked the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Food Safety of the Netherlands for facilitating the participation of Mr van der Heijden in the Workshop by meeting part of his expenses through the Ministry's financial contribution to the International Agricultural Centre (IAC, Wageningen-UR). Mr Doulman encouraged participants to focus attention on the implementation of IPOA-IUU after their return to their countries. He underscored the importance of developing NPOAs-IUU and then taking action to implement them. The Technical Secretary stressed that the international community and FAO gave high priority to the implementation of the IPOA-IUU as a means of combating IUU fishing in capture fisheries. Mr Doulman concluded by noting that the Pacific Islands region had a head start over other regions because of the model NPOA-IUU that had been developed by FAO consultant Colin Brown. Finally, the Technical Secretary thanked the FAO FishCode Programme for funding the participation of several participants to the Workshop. These funds, which supplemented Regular Programme funding, had come from the Programme component Project GCP/INT/823/GPN (SIDS: Responsible Fisheries for Small Island Developing States).

67. On behalf of the participants, Mr Thoulag thanked FAO for organizing this Workshop. He also expressed his appreciation to Mr Izumi for the logistical arrangements he had undertaken for the Workshop. In addition, Mr Thoulag thanked Mr Doulman and Ms Hermanus for coming from Rome and for their contributions to the success of the Workshop. He noted that Mr Doulman was no stranger to the Pacific Islands region and had the interest of the region at heart from his earlier work in Papua New Guinea and at FFA. Even though Mr Doulman was now in Rome he continued to contribute to fisheries development and management in the region and the participants thanked him for that.

68. Mr Thoulag expressed his thanks to the FAO consultants, Mr Brown and Mr van der Heijden, for facilitating the participants' better understanding of IUU fishing issues and for providing them with the tools to develop their countries NPOAs-IUU. These plans would greatly assist in combating IUU fishing in the Pacific Islands.

69. Mr Thoulag added that Pacific Islanders were highly dependent on their marine resources for food security and economic development. IUU fishing and related activities deprived them of both of these. He noted that the Workshop had been very useful and timely and expressed the view that it would assist Pacific Island countries combat IUU fishing and help ensure that future generations were not deprived of their livelihoods.

70. The Workshop closed at 12.00 hours on 2 September 2005.


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