COFI 35 High Level Event: International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture Opening Statement
by Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
05/09/2022
COFI 35
High Level Event: International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture
Opening Statement
By
Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General
As delivered
5 September 2022
Rome, Italy
Excellences,
Ladies and gentlemen,
1. In November 2021, we launched the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022, following the decision by the UN General Assembly.
2. But the preparations and initial celebrations for this International Year were overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. A crisis that highlighted the importance of small-scale artisanal fisheries and aquaculture, and the urgent need to support small-scale food producers and their livelihoods.
4. Small-scale fishers, fish farmers and fish workers hold great potential to promote the transformation of our aquatic food systems.
5. This transformational change includes how aquatic products are produced, processed and distributed,
6. With positive effects for the transformation of our global agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable.
7. For this reason, I wish to acknowledge the women, men, youth, Indigenous Peoples and rural communities who are the backbone of the small-scale fisheries and aquaculture sub-sectors.
8. Today, we are here to recognize and support this historic, yet dynamic and innovative way of living, and to preserve it for future generations.
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
9. We can all do more, and we must begin by listening to the voices and needs of small-scale fishers, fish farmers and fish workers.
10. We must hear the calls to develop national plans and strategies in support of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture,
11. Building on established instruments such as the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication.
12. Small-scale fisheries is a crucial component of the FAO Blue Transformation initiative,
13. To ensure the increased contribution of aquatic foods to ending hunger and poverty, in a sustainable and equitable manner,
14. To achieve the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.
15. This International Year provides the platform for our collective action – let us continue to do even more in the coming months.
16. I wish to thank the members of the Steering Committee, chaired by the Government of Peru, as well as the three regional committees, for their work and leadership.
17. Let us commit to making this Year the beginning of a new era of support for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries and aquaculture,
18. Including through the UN Decade of Family Farming.
19. Let us turn our common vision of better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life for all, leaving no one behind, into concrete action.
20. Small-scale artisanal fisheries and aquaculture are small in name, but big in value.
21. Let us continue to think big and do concrete! Help small fry and harvest big fish!
22. Thank you.