Report of the FAO/APFIC/SEAFDEC Regional Workshop on Port State Measures to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing. Bangkok, Thailand, 31 March–4 April 2008.
This document contains the report of the FAO/APFIC/SEAFDEC [Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/Asia Pacific Fisheries Commission/Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center] Regional Workshop on Port State Measures to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, that was held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 31 March to 4 April 2008.
The objective of the Workshop was to develop national capacity and promote bilateral, subregional and/or regional coordination so that countries would be better placed to strengthen and harmonize port State measures and, as a result, implement further the 2001 FAO International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, the 2005 FAO Model Scheme on Port State Measures to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and contribute to the development of a legally-binding instrument on port State measures.
The Workshop addressed: the background and framework for port State measures; the FAO Model Scheme including national plans of action to combat IUU fishing and IUU fishing activities in Southeast Asia; the FAO Model Scheme and regional approaches and the 2007 draft Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing; key elements of national laws, and the role of the Asia Pacific Fisheries Commission and the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center; national coordination and implementation of port State measures; industry perspectives on port State measures, and responses to the questionnaire on port State measures. Working groups were formed to enhance the participatory nature of the Workshop and as a means of engendering broader and deeper discussion on concepts and issues relating to port State measures.
A fictitious case study exercise was also undertaken to demonstrate how a port State might deal with a realistic IUU fishing problem. The final session of the Workshop sought to identify key issues to be addressed on a regional basis as follow-up to the Workshop.
Funding and support for the Workshop were provided by the FAO Regular Programme, by the Government of Norway through the Trust Fund for Port State Measures (MTF/GLO/206/MUL) and the FishCode Programme (MTF/GLO/125/MUL [Sweden-SIDA] [SWE/05/IUU Port State Measures/IUU fishing]).