The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has released the Report of the Fourth Meeting of the Regional Fishery Body Secretariats Network, during which participants focused on RFB financial structures, climate change, recreational fisheries, decision-making procedures within each RFB, the establishment of vulnerable marine ecosystems and child labour and other human rights issues in fisheries.
January 2013: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has released the Report of the Fourth Meeting of the Regional Fishery Body Secretariats Network (RSN), which reviews participants’ focus on regional fishery body (RFB) financial structures, climate change, recreational fisheries, decision-making procedures within each RFB, the establishment of vulnerable marine ecosystems and child labour and other human rights issues in fisheries.
The meeting took place at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, on 13 July 2012. The report, published as FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Report No. 1013, indicates that the meeting brought together representatives from 31 RFB Secretariats from all geographic regions, including FAO and non-FAO bodies, marine capture and inland capture bodies, aquaculture bodies and all the tuna regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs).
Presentations were given by several RFB Executive Secretaries on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, current issues in aquaculture management and the establishment and management of marine protected areas (MPAs). Other presentations were given by the RSN Secretary on the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate IUU fishing; and by the representative of the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (UN DOALOS) on the development of marine protected areas (MPAs) within the UN General Assembly (UNGA), FAO and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). [Report of the Fourth Meeting of the Regional Fishery Body Secretariats Network]