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IWMC
World Conservation Trust |
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COFI
and Unregulated Fishing
What Happened... |
The
24th meeting of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) of the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) took place in Rome, Italy, from 26
February to 2 March 2001. This important event, taking place every two years,
gathered more than 300 people representing, among others, 101 Members of the
Committee, 9 Non-Member States, specialized agencies of the United Nations, as
well as observers from 39 intergovernmental and international non-governmental
organizations. It was an opportunity to consider the state of the world
fisheries and to address the future of the food security for humankind.
A major achievement of the 24th meeting of COFI was the
recommendation to establish a Sub-Committee on Aquaculture. Aquaculture is
developing rapidly throughout the world and is taking an increasing importance
in global fish production and food security. It is also providing opportunities
for economic development in many countries. However, aquaculture development
raises many problems of various natures, including environmental and economic
implications.
Terms of reference were adopted for the Sub-Committee, although it was agreed
that they should remain flexible and should be revised as the aquaculture sector
developed to cover any issues that may appear of concern in the future. The
first session of the Sub-Committee should take place in Beijing, in April 2002.
The main issue under consideration by COFI was the illegal, unreported and
unregulated fishing (IUU). Such IUU fishing constitutes the most serious threat,
in particular through the activities of vessels bearing flags of convenience to
legitimate commercial fishing. The debate was fortunately concluded by the
unanimous adoption of the International Plan of Action on Illegal, Unreported
and Unregulated Fishing (IPOA-IUU. This new IPOA is not binding for Member
States which have three years to elaborate and adopt National Plans of Action.
The adoption of IOPA-IUU was described by several delegations as a significant
political decision, with a beneficial influence on the future of fisheries and
the conservation of commercially-exploited marine resources.
The objective of the IPOA-IUU is to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing
by providing all States with comprehensive, effective and transparent
mechanisms, including the enhancement of appropriate regional fisheries
management organizations established in accordance with international law.
In this context, it was interesting to note that CITES never appeared, either
in the Plan or in the discussions, as a means to contribute to the objective of
the IPOA-IUU.
This seems to indicate that the fisheries community does not consider CITES
as the appropriate body to deal with this kind of problems. A fact that was also
confirmed during the debate devoted to the consideration of the CITES criteria
for commercially-exploited aquatic species.
During that debate, it was noticeable that at least a number of COFI Members
had a better understanding of CITES and its potential implications for
commercial fisheries than they had at the Technical Consultation held at FAO
last year (see IWMC eNewsletter #19 of July 2000). We have the feeling that the
IWMC document CITES And Commercial Fisheries: Relationship between CITES and
FAO and RMFOs, prepared after the Technical Consultation, published on the
IWMC web site www.IWMC.org
and distributed to the participants to the COFI meeting, contributed to this
better understanding; this was apparent from several interventions and one
delegate expressly cited the document twice.
In general, the conclusion and recommendations of the Technical Consultation
were supported and the continuation of the work undertaken by FAO was agreed
upon, although CITES was considered at best as a complement to fisheries
management, within specific conditions, certainly not as a replacement. 
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