REGIONAL GUIDELINES FOR FISHERY STATISTICS FOR CAPTURE FISHERIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
CHAPTER I
Within the scope of fisheries management in the CCRF, the importance of quality statistics was stressed as a tool to facilitate development planning and management of fisheries. This has been echoed with a number of regional collaborative works in fisheries management in general and in fishery statistics and information in particular.
Due to a large number of issues covered in the Regional Guidelines for Responsible Fisheries in Southeast Asia: Responsible Fisheries Management, the guidelines that address the issue related to fishery statistics were still broad and needed more elaboration. This is to enable the countries in the region to clarify a clear direction for actions to improve fishery statistics.
Preparation of the Regional Guidelines for Fishery Statistics
In response to the above requirement, SEAFDEC developed a Special 5-year Program on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security (2002-2005). The program, which aims at supporting the ASEAN Member Countries to implement the RES&POA and regional guidelines for responsible fisheries, composes of projects on various issues related to fishery development and management. As an important element, the program includes the project on “Improvement of Fishery Statistical Systems and Mechanisms”.
Through a series of project activities and regional/national consultations on fishery statistics, it is proposed that regional guidelines for fishery statistics should be developed to substantiate issues related to fishery statistics as included in the Regional Guidelines for Responsible Fisheries in Southeast Asia: Responsible Fisheries Management focusing on Sub-article 7.4 and relevance sub-articles. It should be noted that guidelines on the use of indicators for fisheries development and management, which is to a large extent related to fishery statistics, is separately provided.
The Regional Guidelines for Fishery Statistics for Capture Fisheries in Southeast Asia was first developed at the Core Expert Meeting on Fishery Statistics, held from 20 to 23 December 2004; and further discussed at the FAO-SEAFDEC Regional Workshop on the Improvement of Fishery Data and Information Collection Systems held from 15 to 18 February 2005 in Bali, Indonesia. The Draft Regional Guidelines was finally discussed and finalized at the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Regional Technical Consultation on Fishery Statistics organized by the Secretariat and co-hosted by the Department of Fisheries, Thailand from 18 to 21 October 2005. After the final round of deliberation, review and revision, the representatives from the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Member Countries, ASEAN Secretariat, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, UNEP/GEF South China Sea project, as well as officials from SEAFDEC Secretariat, TD and MFRDMD agreed with the final Regional Guidelines for Fishery Statistics for Capture Fisheries in Southeast Asia, which is considered as a supplementary guideline to the Regional Guidelines for Responsible Fisheries in Southeast Asia: Responsible Fisheries Management.
The final draft will then be submitted to higher authorities of ASEAN and SEAFDEC for consideration and endorsement. As a follow-up, there should also be efforts made to further investigate the Regional Guidelines for Fishery Statistics for Aquaculture.
The Regional Guidelines for Fishery Statistics is envisaged to provide an important framework for formulation of ASEAN-SEAFDEC collaborative programs on fishery statistics as well as for supporting cooperation among the countries in Southeast Asia and international/regional organizations.
Structure, Purpose and Potential Usage of the Regional Guidelines
Each country and fishery is different and will need a different approach for collecting fishery statistics in response to differences in policy emphasis, preferred approaches, and differences in administrative structure, staffing and budget. Although, approaches and general methodologies may be similar in various countries in the region, it thus makes it impractical to formulate an implementation manual for fishery statistics applicable to all countries in the region.
Considering the nature of the Regional Guidelines for Fishery Statistics for Capture Fisheries in Southeast Asia, the Guidelines are not meant to be the implementation guidelines that are directly applicable to all ASEAN countries. They are rather intended to provide a regional reference or checklist for countries in the ASEAN region that are interested in reviewing and/or improving national fishery statistical systems. It should be noted that the Guidelines, in their nature, generalize issues in the broader context of regional fisheries rather than focusing on specific national situation. It is therefore suggested that the actual application of the Guidelines would require appropriate adjustment or modification, including the terminology used in the Guidelines so as to fit the national or local specifics on geo-political, social, economics and legal situations.
The Guidelines consist of the following six sections:
I. General Principles
- Policy and Institutional Framework
- Integrating Statistics into Fishery Data and Information System - Participation and Cooperation of Stakeholders
- Maximizing Fishery Statistics Usage II. National Fishery Statistical Systems
- Defining Clear Objectives and Usage - Minimum Requirements
- System Design and Review - Data Requirements
- Data Collection Methodologies
- Data Processing, Analysis, Reporting and Presentation - Use of Information Technology
III. Capacity Building for National Fishery Statistical System IV. National Inter-agency Coordination
V. Collaboration among ASEAN Member Countries and International/
Regional Organizations VI. Follow-up actions
As a supplement to these Guidelines, “Handbook on Collecting Fishery Statistics for Inland and Coastal Fisheries” can be referred. The Handbook provides reference in the following three main parts: