Seychelles to lead high-level fisheries meeting |02 June 2009

Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Transport Joel Morgan will chair the meeting, which was initiated by Seychelles last year when it successfully steered a fisheries resolution through the ACP’s Council of Ministers.

The aim of the meeting is to bring ACP ministers together to share their experiences, agree on a common vision regarding the future of the group’s fisheries and set up a ministerial mechanism to coordinate and cooperate on fisheries issues.
 
It is being held against a background of increasing challenges facing the fisheries sector in the African, Caribbean and Pacific regions.

These include increasing pressures on fish stocks, restrictive market access produced by stringent export conditions, limited resources and capacity of governments to carry out effective fisheries management and monitoring, control and surveillance activities, as well as a lack of appropriate infrastructure and technical expertise.

The ACP ministers will discuss avenues to enable their countries to maximise benefits from their fisheries resources, especially in the domain of value-addition. They will also look at increased competition from non-ACP fish and fishery products and erosion of traditional market preferences, and the damaging effects of climate change on fisheries.

The meeting will be preceded by a two-day gathering of senior fisheries officials of the ACP states, in which Seychelles will be represented by senior officials from the Department of Natural Resources and Transport, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Seychelles Fishing Authority.

The Indian Ocean Commission ministers responsible for fisheries will also meet to ensure that fisheries issues of the IOC countries are adequately addressed at the ACP ministers’ meeting. 

It will also be a chance to review a number of common fisheries concerns in the region such as piracy and tuna resources management, as well as to pave the way forward on regional fisheries cooperation.

Mr Morgan will also hold talks with Javier Solana, the European Union’s high representative for the common foreign and security policy, and with the secretary-general of the Council of the EU to follow up discussion on cooperation in anti-piracy efforts.

He will also attend a “round table” on investment opportunities in the fisheries sector in collaboration with Seychelles’ embassy in Brussels, the Seychelles Investment Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce of Belgium, Luxembourg and the ACP.