Pacific Meets to Discuss Growing Overfishing Problem

Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Noumea, Wednesday 1 Decelmber 2010 - Representatives from national government conservation and fisheries departments and regional and national non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are meeting at the headquarters of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) from 29 November to 3 December 2010.

The purpose of the meeting is to bring together the main stakeholders working in the area of implementing CEAFM (community-based ecosystem approach to fisheries management) to discuss management, monitoring activities and the challenges faced; share experiences and lessons learnt; and find common ground between the conservation and fisheries management and monitoring approaches in the Pacific.

The Pacific region is facing the growing challenge of overfishing of coastal resources that traditionally have been harvested for subsistence purposes. There are also non-fisheries issues and concerns that directly affect fisheries, coastal resources and habitats, such as land-born pollution, sediment runoff and coastal development projects. These activities need to be accounted for in an ecosystem approach to fisheries management.

Recently, there has been an increasing focus on harvesting resources for livelihoods, adding more fishing pressure to these stocks. Estimated population growth in the Pacific region (+50% by 2030) and dealing with possible climate change threats also exacerbate the problem, and in many cases could lead to overfishing and loss or damage to habitats.

A number of regional organisations, NGOs and Pacific Island countries and territories are involved in implementing community ecosystem approaches to management and monitoring programmes. There are a range of approaches being implemented, and in some cases there is a lack of coordination with other activities in the same country or within the region.

The workshop is organised by the Coastal Fisheries Programme of SPC, with the financial support of the European Union under the Scientific Support for the Management of Coastal and Oceanic Fisheries in the Pacific Islands Region (SciCOFish) project.

The 80 participants are being brought together with the goal of developing common approaches and a way forward for in-country implementation. The themes for discussion are:

• What role should each stakeholder have in the fisheries management?
• What legislative or policy actions are required to effectively support CEAFM?
• What monitoring and data collection methods can be standardised and how?
• How do we implement a standardised approach to CEAFM ensuring a common message is given to communities?
• What are the specific short-term and long-term actions to undertake and by whom?

The outputs and recommendations from the workshop will help those involved in promoting and implementing CEAFM improve service delivery at the community level, with consistent messages being delivered and complementary management and monitoring systems put in place and coordinated. They will also strengthen collaborations and partnerships and take into consideration possible climate change effects and the need for adaptation.

ENDS

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