The sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture is the focus of an agreement signed here this week by Georgia and FAO.

The letter of agreement was signed for Georgia by Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture Levan Davitashvili. FAO Deputy Director-General for Climate and Natural Resources Maria Helena Semedo signed for FAO, on behalf of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean.

The agreement calls for the provision to Georgia of technical assistance to improve data collection, develop sustainable marine aquaculture, build capacity among experts, and adequately implement control and monitoring systems. The agreement was signed in the context of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean mid-term strategy (2017-2020) for sustainable fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, which looks to adapt to regional priorities and needs the global targets foreseen in Sustainable Development Goal 14, “Life below Water.”

“This letter of agreement not only reaffirms FAO’s commitment to Georgia, but also contributes to achieving the global targets set out in SDG 14, where FAO is directly assisting countries in the fight to end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing,” Semedo said.

Georgia has been a FAO member since 1995 and a cooperating non-contracting party to the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean since 2015. However, it is not yet party to the FAO Port State Measures Agreement, which is the first international treaty designed to end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing worldwide.

“(This agreement) not only reaffirms FAO’s commitment to Georgia, but also contributes to achieving the global targetsset out in SDG 14, where FAO is directly assisting countries in the fight to end illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

Maria Helena Semedo
FAO Deputy Director-General for Climate and Natural Resources 

FAO hopes that the agreement will help Georgia advance towards participation in the Port State Measures Agreement, which to date has been ratified by 51 countries and the European Union, and that it would enable the country to become a contracting party to the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean.

As a Black Sea riparian country, Davitashvili noted, Georgia currently is developing an ambitious national programme on fisheries and aquaculture, and as such values the increased cooperation with FAO and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean.

“The Black Sea has enormous potential when it comes to fisheries and aquaculture and we need to tap into it,” he said. “We stand ready to welcome the GFCM to Georgia in the near future, to work together on challenges of common interest.”

Also present at the signing ceremony on Tuesday 13 February was Abdellah Srour, Executive Secretary of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean.

“The areas of cooperation under this letter of agreement include all the pillars of sustainability,” Srour said. “This is a practical and yet fully encompassing approach to overcome the root causes of overexploitation of fisheries at national and regional levels.”