Russia and FAO: a two-way road
Photo: ©FAO/Vladimir Mikheev
24/09/2022
On the second day of the Fishery Forum (V GLOBAL FISHERY FORUM & SEAFOOD EXPO RUSSIA) held in St. Petersburg, Oleg Kobiakov, Director of the FAO Moscow Office, representing FAO Director-General Dr Qu Dongyu, participated in as many as three sections.
By delivering a welcome speech at the Official Opening Ceremony of International Educational Forum “FISHERY SKILLS”, he stressed the crucial role of education for sustainable development of the fishing industry.
“The cooperation between Russia and FAO is a cooperation of a new format, absolutely equal relations and a two-way road. FAO is an organization of knowledge because education, additional training, professional development in all agricultural disciplines and assistance to member states is one of its main tasks.”
“A truly unique system of higher educational institutions specialized in fisheries, which is not found in any other countries, has been developed in the Russian Federation. It is characterized by the presence of deep-rooted traditions, fishery sciences and fisheries-related educational institutions. We have been successfully developing cooperation with the VNIRO and its branch offices, and we expect that at the next round of our joint work, we will extend this cooperation to higher educational institutions specialized in fisheries. I am convinced that the FISHERY SKILLS format currently chosen for training fishermen, fish farmers, processors, and all participants in the fishery trade network has a great future,” Oleg Kobiakov concluded.
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Further, Oleg Kobiakov took the floor as the main speaker at the International Educational Forum plenary session “International Cooperation between Education and Business for Sustainable Fisheries Development”. Noting the importance of cooperation with a wide number of partners, including the private sector and the system of higher educational institutions, the FAO representative highlighted that “modern fisheries have long ago reached a qualitatively new level,” and stressed the potential this sector has in Russia.
“Even long before Russia joined FAO, there had been cooperation in the fishing industry. For example, in the middle of 1960s, a study group under FAO leadership travelled to the USSR and held a seminar on the topic: “Tactics and methods of catch depending on the habits of fish”. The very first representative of the USSR, and then Russia, to the FAO was the expert of the Federal Agency for Fishery Andrey Rukhlyada. He represented not only the fishing industries, but also the whole agricultural sector of the Soviet State, and then of the Russian State, at the Headquarters of this Organization in Rome.
“It is no coincidence that the position of the representative to FAO is still considered as one of the key ones in the foreign administrative apparatus of the Federal Agency for Fishery,” the Director of the FAO Office in Moscow continued.
Further, the speaker discussed the system of fisheries authorities under the auspices of FAO, thanks to which the Organization’s members have the opportunity to jointly study and discuss the main issues concerning the development of fisheries and aquaculture. “FAO is the headquarters of the global fishing industry, where the special-field Committee on Fisheries (COFI) meets every 2 years. The Thirty-fifth Session of this Committee, which was attended by a delegation from the Federal Agency for Fishery, was successfully held two years ago.
This is the first after-COVID session (COFI) that was held in person. It was associated with the launch of the two-year FAO flagship publication on “The State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022”, which is also available in Russian as one of the six FAO official languages.”
“Issues of sustainable use of this crucial resource of the planet, its conservation and increasing of return efficiency are, of course, a very significant factor,” the speaker noted. “600 million people, which is every 12th inhabitant of the planet, directly depend on the fishing industry. Almost every one of us is a consumer of fish products, since only a small number of people in the world do not eat them.”
Oleg Kobiakov also spoke in detail about the FAO eLearning Academy, giving examples of courses in the field of sustainable fisheries development in Russian, in particular on SDG 14: SDG Indicator 14.4.1 – Fish stocks sustainability and SDG Indicator 14.b.1 – Securing sustainable small-scale fisheries. He noted that each participant can receive an FAO e-learning course completion certificate, if he successfully completes at least 75% of the final test assignments.
FAO is currently implementing this certification system using digital badges to validate the knowledge and skills acquired, opening up new prospects for professional growth and expanding employment opportunities. Oleg Kobiakov believes that availability of such certificates can serve as “a kind of pass to the circle of world experts” in a particular field.
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The final session of the second day of the Forum, in which Oleg Kobiakov took part, was a discussion on practical issues of sustainable development of aquaculture in the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union.
Opening the session, he dwelled in detail on FAO’s interaction with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), outlined the vectors of joint work: “We are actively cooperating with the EEC within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding and within the two-year Plan for the Implementation of Joint Activities.”
Further, Oleg Kobiakov cited FAO forecasts for the development of the aquaculture subsector: in terms of production volume, it will soon catch up with industrial fisheries and then will surpass it. “In 2023, aquaculture will provide as much production as fisheries. Then fisheries will remain at the same level, and aquaculture will increase production.”
Oleg Kobiakov gave illustrative examples of the development of the fishing industry in a number of countries: “Russia ranks fifth in the world in terms of catching fish and seafood, but in terms of fish consumption per capita, it does not rank fifth in the world yet. The same can be said about other states of the Eurasian Economic Union. In some countries of Central Asia, fish was not previously included in traditional diets. Currently, a review of food preferences is being carried out, and, in particular, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan are actively promoting the idea that fish and fish products should be present in an increasingly significant proportion in the diet of the population.”
“Thus, the People’s Republic of China has become the largest producer of sturgeon in just 10 years. China currently farms 90% of all sturgeon in the world, interestingly it is consumed there as well. Here is an example of how aquaculture can fundamentally change not only the national but also the global market.”
Oleg Kobiakov dwelled in detail on such international documents regulating aspects of the sustainable use of marine living resources as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Agreement to Promote Compliance with International Conservation and Management Measures by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas and other important regulations.
“A special role in this list is given to the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing. In FAO, the same rule-making, the regulation of all provisions that relate to both fisheries and aquaculture are carried out,” the FAO representative emphasized.
Oleg Kobiakov also noted a number of FAO advisory documents in this area, which have been adopted by all member states, in particular, the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and a number of guidelines on fisheries and aquaculture management.
At the end of the discussion, Oleg Kobiakov spoke about the joint plans of FAO and the Eurasian Economic Commission in this area. “We intend to analyze the existing regulatory framework and formulate recommendations for its improvement for member states,” he explained. It is necessary to ensure a favourable legal and economic environment in each of the EEC countries, because all the countries of the Union have a large production and export potential on the aquaculture track.”