February 2015: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) Common Oceans Program organized two workshops in February on biodiversity conservation and sustainable fisheries management in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJs).

Approximately 64% of the ocean’s surface is composed of ABNJ according to FAO, which emphasizes that global and regional policies are needed to ensure biodiversity conservation and sustainable fisheries management in these areas.

The workshop, titled ‘Linking Global and Regional Levels in the Management of Marine Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ),’ addressed global, regional and national processes to enhance biodiversity conservation and sustainable fisheries management of ABNJs. Participants discussed, inter alia: capacity development in ABNJ; ecosystem approaches to ABNJ management; regional management in ABNJ; legal perspectives on the management and governance of ABNJ in the context of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS); and experiences from and priorities for specific ABNJ regions, including the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean, the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Participants also shared emerging trends in research and management of ABNJ resources from around the world. FAO, the Global Ocean Forum and Common Ocean partners convened the workshop at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, from 17-20 February, as part of the GEF/FAO Program on Global Sustainable Fisheries Management and Biodiversity Conservation in ABNJ.

Also in February, the Common Oceans Tuna Project, which includes FAO, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the International Sustainability Seafood Foundation (ISSF), held a workshop on sustainable tuna fisheries management in Panama. Participants discussed using harvest strategies to support the management of shared tuna stocks in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, as part of a larger effort by the Common Oceans project to support the application of the precautionary approach through the tuna harvest strategies of regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs).

“The adoption of harvest strategies will be one of the most radical achievements of the tuna fisheries management in recent years, leading to a more sustainable utilization of these resources and more benefit for coastal communities,” observed FAO’s Global Coordinator of the Common Oceans Tuna Project, Alejandro Anganuzzi, in his reflections on the workshop. [FAO Press Release] [FAO Workshop Webcast] [FAO Workshop Agenda] [WWF Press Release on Panama Meeting] [Common Oceans News]