©FAO/ SWIOFC

23 August 2024, Seychelles – The experts from 11 countries of the Southwest Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC) have met for the 2nd meeting of the Working Group on Fisheries Socioeconomics (WGFSE), to analyze the socio-economic dimension of the fisheries in the region. The 2nd WGFSE was held from 20 to 24 August 2024 and was hosted by the Republic of Seychelles. The meeting was organized by the SWIOFC secretariat and received financial and technical support from the EAF-Nansen Programme.

The WGFSE was created by the Scientific Committee of the SWIOFC and endorsed at its 11th Session, in 2021. The Scientific Committee reviews the state of fisheries in the commission's area of competence and produces scientific evidence to advise on regulatory measures to be taken into consideration by the Members. Under its umbrella, the Scientific Committee provides guidance to its technical groups on fisheries assessment, as it is the case of the WGFSE. The main objective of this Working Group is to coordinate and promote collaboration on research and technical and scientific matters regarding socio-economic dimensions of fisheries. The main expected outcome of the WGFSE is that the socio-economic knowledge produced jointly by the national experts will inform fisheries management and decision-making at national level.

Besides resuming the first task of the Working Group, on the production of a "Socio-economic data and information available in the SWIOFC", the Experts were actively engaged on the mapping of fishing value networks of several priority fisheries in the SWIOFC. A total of 17 maps were produced by the group, detailing the key actors involved in the value-network of the fishery and the flows of fish products and sub-products, capital, people and investment, the contributions to the domestic and foreign markets, the enabling environment, and service providers. The maps, and supporting information compiled by the national experts, will be used by the Scientific Committee on the production of scientific advice to the management of priority fisheries from the SWIOFC.

The Experts from the countries noted that this meeting was just the start of a process that will continue during the intersessional period and the next meetings of the Working Group. The work performed, and the exchanges conducted during this meeting, led to an important increase of the capacity of the Group for carrying out socio-economic analysis.

Socioeconomic knowledge and information are one of the main components of the scientific information produced and considered to emanate advice. In this sense, EAF-Nansen Programme is working with several countries to know and evaluate the current socioeconomic data and information systems. The EAF-Nansen Programme aims to assist developing countries in managing their fisheries sustainability, with a particular focus on integrating ecological, social, and economic considerations into fisheries management, and by improving the capacity of countries to collect, analyze, and utilize data to improve management decisions.

About the SWIOFC

The Southwest Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC) is a FAO statutory body, established under Article VI of the FAO Constitution (Regional Fishery Bodies). The main objective of the SWIOFC is to promote the sustainable utilization of the living marine resources of the SWIO region, and to address common problems of fisheries management and development faced by the members of SWIOFC, without prejudice to the sovereign rights of coastal States. The SWIOFC is composed by 12 Members: Comoros, France, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania and Yemen, and promotes the application of the provisions of the FAO Code of Conduct on Responsible Fisheries, including the precautionary approach and the ecosystem approach to fisheries management. The secretariat of the SWIOFC is located in Maputo, Mozambique and can be reached at [email protected].