8. This agenda item was introduced by the Chairperson on the basis of document ACFR/IV/2002/2. Mr Sissenwine stated that, the document provided comprehensive review of the work undertaken by the Committee. The Chairperson noted that, when the Committee met at its First Session, it was struck by the shift in the emphasis of the research-related programmes of the Department from the concern with fisheries resources which predominated in the past to a substantial emphasis on the human dimension of fisheries.
9. At its First Session, the Committee agreed on its modus operandi and made an extensive review of the world fisheries environment. It identified eight areas of research emphasis, elaborated research agenda briefs on these areas and recommended that three working groups be established to address the implications of the globalization of trade and distribution of benefits, status reporting methodology and data needs and new research methods, traditional knowledge and approaches. At its Second Session, the Committee had, inter alia, reviewed the Fisheries Department research-related activities. The Chairman sought the opinion of members as to whether they might wish to undertake a similar exercise in 2004. Finally, the Chairperson informed the Committee that at its Third Session, the Committee had reviewed progress of the work of its working parties, particularly that of improving reporting on status and trends in capture fisheries as well as provided advice on the science-components in a number of emerging issues.
10. After commending the quality of the document, the Committee expressed satisfaction with regard to the influence it had over the years on the research-related work of the Fisheries Department as reflected in the outcome of the work of various working parties and the sourcing of extra-budgetary resources to undertake specific activities. The Committee noted that one of its most important roles had been to bring into the work programme of the Fisheries Department ideas which were not necessary available in-house. It further pointed out that an important aspect of its work had also been the interaction with staff of the Fisheries Department. The Committee expressed its continued wish to be informed of the extent its advice had been useful to the Fisheries Department.
11. The Committee recognized that its mega priority cross-cutting issue during the last three sessions, the development of a draft strategy on Improving Information on the Status and Trends of Capture Fisheries would be submitted for consideration by the Committee on Fisheries at its Twenty-fifth Session in February 2003. It acknowledged that if the Draft Strategy were adopted it was likely to have significant implications for the work of Fisheries Department and the ways in which national, regional and international organizations would be able to contribute to better information and improved understanding of fisheries at all levels. It noted that while emphasis had been placed on this mega priority issue the other activities which had been identified and pursued over the years were equally important. It then proceeded to provide advice on the following specific activities.
12. The Committee recalled that an Email Conference on Fish Trade and Food Security had been undertaken. It noted that the detailed results contained a large amount of useful information and opinion on food security, ecolabelling, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP), and other issues including trade barriers (tariff and non-tariff). It further noted that this information had been complemented through studies on experiences with provisions of the technical barriers to trade agreements (TBT) and informal trade barriers using questionnaire techniques, the outcome of which was discussed at the Eighth Session of the COFI Sub-Committee on Fish Trade in February 2002.
13. The Committee expressed the view that virtual conferences using modern communication technology (email and teleconferences, radio links, CD-ROMs, etc.) provided fast and effective means of assembling and disseminating information. It noted that there had been a quantum jump in modern communication technology acquisition in developing countries and that the technology had been positively used in fish trade and in the identification of fishing grounds. It pointed out, however, that caution should be exercised in using this technique as a major conduit of information flow in view of the digital divide between developed and developing countries. The Committee further pointed out that the content and the structure of information exchange were more important than the medium of their transmission. The Committee expressed the view that the use of such technology could be a powerful tool for communicating and disseminating information. The Committee endorsed the idea of FAO playing a catalytic role in the use of modern communication technology in developing countries and reinforcing the link between developed and developing countries in this regard.
14. The Chairperson introduced this item by noting that improving information on the status and trends of fisheries was one of eight areas of research to address critical scientific gaps identified by the Committee at its First Session, and further that it was one of three topics designated as high priority to be undertaken in the 1998-1999 biennium. The Chairman expressed satisfaction that a number of important activities had been undertaken with regard to this topic, including:
15. The Secretariat described the outcome of the Technical Consultation which had participants from 60 FAO Members as well as observers from regional fishery bodies and other organizations. The Consultation confirmed the need to improve information on the status and trends of fisheries both at national and international levels, offered support for a plan to address the issue and agreed on the nature and content of the required actions. The Consultation expressed the view that the issue of improving information on the status and trends of fisheries should have a high priority with regard to implementation of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. It agreed that a Strategy was a more appropriate instrument to address this issue.
16. The structure and content of the draft Strategy was introduced. It was noted that the draft Strategy recognizes that status and trends information was key to sound policy making and management at the national and international levels and was needed for implementation of many international instruments. It was also noted that although the Strategy would impose no new legal obligations, it proposed to invigorate data collection, analysis and research, and the assembly and dissemination of information. The objectives were to:
17. Guiding principles included sustainability, best scientific evidence, participation and cooperation, objectivity and transparency, timeliness and flexibility. The Committee noted that the required actions closely reflected those identified by the working party and endorsed by ACFR and address capacity building, the particular problems for small-scale and multispecies fisheries, expanding the scope of information, developing inventories of fish stocks and fisheries, participation in the Fisheries Global Information System (FIGIS), data quality and security, information exchange, the role of working parties, and sustaining data collection.
18. The Committee was informed that a project proposal for implementation of the Strategy under the FishCode Programme was being developed and would be made available to potential donors at the next COFI meeting.
19. The Committee welcomed the development of the draft Strategy for consideration and possible adoption by COFI and considered that it was even more necessary now, owing to recent developments which will create additional demands for information. Following WSSD (see Paragraphs 36 - 56), better information would be needed to monitor progress towards the time-bound goals for fisheries, including restoration of depleted stocks, application of the ecosystem approach to fisheries, implementation of the IPOAs for the Management of Fishing Capacity and to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing as well as global reporting and assessment of the marine environment, including socio-economic aspects, which would have significant input on use of the environment by fisheries. The Chairperson noted that the flexibility provisions of the draft Strategy should allow accommodation of changing requirements such as those resulting from the ecosystem approach to fisheries. The Committee recognized that the political objectives of the WSSD Implementation Plan would need to be translated into operational objectives towards which progress can be monitored and that FAO would probably have to report on this in relation to fisheries. This would require the development of indicators and the collection of additional data which the Strategy could support as well as work programme implications which would need to be considered by COFI.
20. The Committee considered that the Secretariat took a positive initiative to have interlinked a series of themes under this umbrella (new research methods, traditional knowledge and approaches, and poverty alleviation) as well as to have sourced extra-budgetary resources from a number of donors to address the issues.
21. The Committee reviewed experiences in different parts of the world on this subject including the use of logbooks by fishing boat skippers in Iceland, micro-financing in Asia and fisheries co-management in Africa in connection with poverty alleviation. The Committee was informed that under the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Programme funded by DFID and executed by FAO in West Africa, in which the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries was a reference framework for poverty alleviation in small scale fishing communities, emphasis was placed on the active involvement of the stakeholders in facilitating changes in processes, institutions and policies.
22. The Committee felt that there was a need to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of different participatory methods and also the extent to which, in their present state of development, they could be better applied directly to the realm of fisheries taking into account traditional knowledge, interdisciplinary focus group discussions, etc. It was noted that in conducting participatory research, ethical issues such as those concerning intellectual property rights, might become a consideration. The Committee endorsed the work being carried out by the Secretariat and requested that this work be further pursued.
23. The Committee was informed that a Consortium comprised of the World Bank, the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific, the World Wildlife Fund, and FAO had since 1999 been conducting a global evaluation of shrimp aquaculture. The Consortium was giving special attention to poverty, labour, and equity issues, and the work would provide an assessment of the use of investments in shrimp farming as a means of alleviating poverty through targeted development interventions in coastal areas.
24. The Consortium had conducted more than 35 case studies to date on different aspects of shrimp aquaculture over a wide geographical range, including the major shrimp producing countries of Asia and Latin America as well as experience from the Middle East and Africa. The reports from that work were now being made available at the following website www.enaca.org/Shrimp/index.htm. The site was interactive in that it included the capacity to comment on the content in the posted reports.
25. The Committee commended the work being undertaken by the Consortium and acknowledged the broad support from the World Bank and non-Governmental organizations. It further noted that with regard to the work of the Consortium, due concern should be placed on such critical issues as the use of chemicals, the movement of species, fish meal substitutes in feed and governance.
26. The Committee noted that FAO had been active in contributing to the criteria-listing process of CITES and had organized a number of expert and technical consultations on the issue. The Committee further noted that the information that had been provided by FAO to CITES had to be seen as a package, including the proposals to changes in the criteria and on using the best scientific information available as well as the need for a strengthened scientific evaluation process and that the evaluating proposals be on a case-by-case basis. In this regard, FAO actively participated in COP-12 which was held in Chile in November 2002 and drew attention to the proposals for listing and delisting species on the CITES appendices. The Committee, in addition, noted that negotiations were ongoing between the CITES Secretariat and FAO on the MoU to formalize their working relationship. The Committee reiterated that the development of criteria was a science issue for which FAO could continue to provide the necessary support.
27. The Committee was informed of arrangements for DEEPSea 2003, a conference to be held a year this December in New Zealand and hosted by New Zealand and Australia with the technical assistance of FAO. It was noted that the four day conference would have an emphasis on strategic issues and address many issues central to the Fisheries Department’s programme (management of highly vulnerable fishery resources, governance mechanisms and protocols, straddling, shared and transboundary issues, high seas issues, source of conflict and competition between developing coastal and developed distant water fishing nations (DWFNs)). It was noted that it would be an open conference and the organizers sought the involvement of those concerned about these issues.
28. The Committee was informed that the issue of deep sea fishery resources had been raised at the Twenty-fourth session of COFI in 2001 and was likely to be raised at its next session by a number of delegations. The Committee considered that there were definite scientific issues related to deep sea resources, including issues of governance, the fragile nature of the ecosystems, the status of the stocks, information and data availability, etc. The Committee agreed that study of deep sea resources was important and encouraged the involvement of the Fisheries Department in addressing the issues posed by their management.
29. The Committee noted that its recommendation to pursue studies on this matter had been favourably received, and that a joint Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Programme/ACFR working party had met in Rome in April 2002 to, inter alia: share experience and knowledge on the subject; identify clearly how the CCRF could serve as a tool of poverty alleviation in coastal fishing communities; identify critical knowledge gaps and research needs; and elaborate a project framework and research methodologies. On the basis of the recommendation of the working party, a second meeting of selected experts was held in September 2002 in order to: examine the scope and requirements of applying poverty mapping techniques to fishing communities; design local level case studies on the incidence and causes and dynamics of poverty in fishing communities; elaborate criteria for the selection of case studies; and prepare a research work plan.
30. The Committee noted that over 80 percent of people employed in the fisheries were in the small scale sector. It also noted that fishing, particularly small scale fishing, was one of the most risky occupations. In this regard the Committee was informed that the research work for improving livelihoods would apply poverty mapping techniques complemented by case studies in fisheries versus adjacent occupations in selected households in fishing communities, as well as the effects of globalization on these communities. The Committee was further informed that the studies would be undertaken in Thailand, a data-rich environment, as well as in Ghana, Madagascar, and Ecuador. The Committee endorsed the proposal and the research methodology to be developed but pointed out that care should be taken in the selection of the communities to be studied. It further pointed out that indicators of poverty were dynamic and that there was a need for continuous assessment. The Committee also indicated the possibility of using the studies to enhance information gathering and improve research capabilities in the countries concerned.
31. The Committee was informed on progress towards publication of the guidelines on the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF). In defining EAF, it was pointed out that the principles and concepts underpinning EAF were not new; all were contained in international agreements and instruments, including the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. Implementing EAF was, in effect, implementing sustainable development in the context of marine capture fisheries, as specified in the Code of Conduct. It represented a merging of two related but different paradigms - ecosystem management that focuses on ecosystem well-being and fisheries management that focused more on human well-being. EAF recognised that there were many users, objectives and aspirations for the use of marine ecosystems and that fisheries management could not be carried in isolation or ignore the many complex interaction that existed at an ecosystem level.
32. The guidelines provided a logical series of steps needed to develop, implement and monitor EAF. In particular, these guidelines stress the need to develop EAF plans that cover all of the economic, social and ecological dimensions of the fishery as part of a participatory process involving all the key stakeholders in a pre-defined geographic area. They also stress the need to translate the higher-level policy goals into operational objectives that can be addressed through the application of management measures. The guidelines also emphasize that each operational objective should be linked to an indicator and a performance measure to allow for an evaluation of management performance. The need for better integrated reporting is highlighted and the guidelines also discuss the various management measures available for managers, the need for pre-agreed decision rules of how the measures are to be applied and the importance of incentives in achieving the objectives. The guidelines also consider the legal/institutional implications for implementing EAF and provide an overview of research needs.
33. During the discussion, the importance of the guidelines in implementing many aspects of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries was highlighted, including implementing sustainable development, developing indicators, applying the precautionary approach, and providing incentives that all come together as an EAF package. The Committee recognized the need for further research to help meet the challenge of implementing EAF, including ecosystem research, socio-economic research and a broadening of conventional stock assessments into fishery assessments. The Committee discussed the need for case studies and there was general agreement that these were the logical next step. A number of impediments to achieving EAF that would have to be taken into account in conducting case studies were discussed, including a lack of awareness and understanding of the approach by managers, industry resistance in the large-scale fisheries and the question of ensuring social equity in small-scale fisheries. The importance of focusing on processes, institutions and policies in the approach was stressed and these aspects would also need to be built into the case study approach. It was also suggested that the approach be broadened to include food safety and safety at sea.
34. As a way forward, the Chairperson suggested that a team of experts be brought together to start implementing the case studies. The need for training was highlighted as well as the need to develop a toolbox of new approaches and skills including rapid appraisal techniques, capturing and applying traditional knowledge, facilitating a participatory process and application of game theory, amongst others.
35. In its conclusion of this agenda item, the Committee indicated that it was extremely pleased with the priority the Fisheries Department had given to the ideas arising from ACFR’s previous meetings. It expressed the view that it would be useful to receive, at its next session, a summary report of research-related activities being implemented and planned by the Fisheries Department, including a review of activities related to the eight areas of research emphasis identified at its first session.
