1. The Sixteenth Annual Conference of the European Association of Fisheries Economists (EAFE) was held at the premises of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Italy, from 5 to 7 April 2004.
2. The Conference was well attended by 90 participants from 14 countries and four international organizations (European Commission, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Trade Organization and FAO). A list of participants is attached as Appendix B.
3. The participants were welcomed by the President of the EAFE, Dr Philip Rodgers. He expressed his pleasure to see that such a large number of fisheries and aquaculture economists had taken the initiative to travel to Rome to share their research findings with others. He thanked FAO for hosting this Sixteenth Conference at its premises in Rome. He continued by highlighting the EAFE objectives to provide a forum for the dissemination of recent advances in capture fisheries and aquaculture economics and management and to promote discussion amongst researchers, managers, policy-makers and other stakeholders in the fisheries sector. Like earlier Annual Conferences the Sixteenth Conference aims to promote cooperation in research in fisheries and aquaculture, to assist in the dissemination of information about fisheries economics among members, and to further understand the economics of fisheries and aquaculture.
4. Following the EAFE President, Mr Ichiro Nomura, Assistant Director-General of the FAO Fisheries Department, extended a warm welcome to all participants in the Conference. He acknowledged the important contribution of the EAFE to the research on economics in fisheries and aquaculture in Europe. Mr Nomura then explained the goals and activities of FAO and particularly the Fisheries Department, making reference to the work in promotion of long-term sustainable development and utilization of the world’s fisheries and aquaculture and to contribute to food security. He detailed that the three main pillars of FAO’s work in fisheries are directed towards: i) the promotion of responsible fisheries sector management at the global, regional and national levels, with priority given to the implementation of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, Compliance Agreement on High Seas Fishing Vessels, and various international plans of action; ii) increasing the contribution of responsible fisheries and aquaculture to world food supplies and food security; and iii) global monitoring and strategic analysis of fisheries. Priority here is given to the gathering of fisheries data, development of databases, analysis of information and dissemination of information. He ended his welcome address emphasizing the need for promotion of research in those socio-economic areas of fisheries of critical importance to the sector and thanked the EAFE President and Bureau and the Scientific and Organizational Committees for their efforts in making the Conference possible. The welcome address is attached as Appendix C to this report.
5. The opening session continued with a presentation by Dr Benedict Satia, titled: The role of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries in promoting social and economic sustainable development in Fisheries. His presentation can be found in the CD-Rom enclosed in this report.
