Rafael V. Ramiscal
Annex 3 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
by Dr. Chumnarn Pongsri
Secretary-General, Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center Inaugural Session
ASEAN-SEAFDEC Conference on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security Towards 2020
“Fish for the People 2020: Adaptation to a Changing Environment”
Your Excellency, Mr. Theera Wongsamut, Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand, Honorable Ambassadors of the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Member Countries,
Honorable Council Directors and Head Delegates of the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Member Countries, Honorable Representative from the ASEAN Secretariat,
Distinguished delegates from the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Member Countries,
Representatives from partner organizations and international/regional organizations, Distinguished guests and participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning,
First of all on behalf of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center, please allow me to welcome all of you to this ASEAN-SEAFDEC Conference on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security Towards 2020 “Fish for the People 2020: Adaptation to a Changing Environment” which is co-organized by the ASEAN and SEAFDEC from today until Friday here in Bangkok, Thailand, with the warm hospitality of the Department of Fisheries of Thailand.
As all of you may be already aware of, fisheries is one of the important sectors providing substantial contribution to food security and poverty alleviation in the Southeast Asian region. From the latest fishery statistics of 2008, the total fisheries production of the region was reported to be about 27.3 million metric tons, comprising 13.8 million metric tons from marine capture fisheries, 2.4 million metric tons from inland capture fisheries, and 11.1 million metric tons from aquaculture. From such figures, it could be gleaned that the total contribution from Southeast Asian fisheries accounted for about 19 percent of the global fisheries production of 142.3 million metric tons in 2008. It should be noted however, that these figures could still be very much under-represented as the total fisheries production of the Southeast Asian countries could be more than those reflected in the records, because of the unique characteristic of fisheries in the region being multi-species, multi-gears, and mostly undertaken by small-scale fishers with very high seasonal variation. Therefore, these aspects should be taken into account by concerned parties in the formulation of policies, as well as in the development of planning and management activities that have linkage with fisheries, at the national, regional and global levels.
Since the establishment of SEAFDEC in 1967, the Center has been extending technical support to and facilitating the exchange of expertise with its Member Countries, which in 1967 originally comprised three countries, namely: Japan, Singapore and Thailand. Throughout the decades until recently, the Member Countries of SEAFDEC increased to 11 countries, which are the 10 ASEAN Member Countries plus Japan. It should be noted that throughout the different phases of development of the fisheries sector, it was not always a bed of roses for the ASEAN and SEAFDEC as well as the countries in the region, especially because various persisting issues continued to impede the sustainable development of fisheries in the region.
At the early stage of fisheries development, the requirements extensively focused on improving fishing technologies and practices in order to maximize production from marine capture fisheries. However, starting in the early 1990s, over-exploitation of the fishery resources had been reported in the major fishing areas of the world, with the associated deterioration of the resources that resulted in the continuous decline of production from marine capture fisheries. Thus, the development of fisheries had been shifted towards maximizing the utilization of catch, enhancing the contribution from the aquaculture sub-sector, and ensuring sustainable utilization of fishery resources.
Moreover, the increasing preference of consumers for fish and fishery products for health reasons also intensified the trade in fish and fishery products, which brought about improvements in the countries’
economies especially in the Southeast Asian region. This development however, also came with it emerging requirements by major importing markets for improved quality and safety of fish and fishery products from production to marketing. In order to address those issues, several attempts were made at the global level to
Proceedings of the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Conference “Fish for the People 2020: Adaptation to a Changing Environment”
78
ensure the sustainable utilization of fishery resources especially during the past decades. Among the important global fisheries instruments is the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries that was adopted by the members of FAO in 1995 and served as a framework for the development of the fisheries sector at the global level, including the Southeast Asian region. With the adoption of the FAO Code of Conduct as a common framework for development of fisheries, and taking into consideration the relevant issues and requirements that emerged at the global and regional levels, it has become necessary for the countries in this region to closely cooperate with each other, to ensure that the sustainable development of fisheries is progressing in a coordinated manner.
To pave the way for enhancing the cooperation among the countries in the region, SEAFDEC established in 1998 a collaborative mechanism with the ASEAN which was formulized in 2008 with the establishment of the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Strategic Partnership. Under the said collaborative mechanism and with the objective of addressing the issues and challenges faced by the fisheries sector at that time, SEAFDEC and the ASEAN organized the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Conference on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security in the New Millennium or “Fish for the People” Conference in November 2001. During the 2001 Conference, the ASEAN- SEAFDEC Ministers and Senior Officials adopted the Resolution and Plan of Action on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security for the ASEAN Region. Since then, the 2001 Resolution and Plan of Action had served as policy framework and priority direction towards the development of fisheries in the Southeast Asian region.
Nonetheless, while considering that during the past decade more important issues and requirements have emerged, it has become imperative for the countries in the region to take a closer look and much attention on these emerging issues in order to formulate and implement policy frameworks that would aim to ensure the sustainable development of the region’s fisheries sector. These emerging concerns include the impacts and the need to mitigate the impacts of climate change to fisheries and aquaculture; balancing the ecosystem, economic and human dimensions in fisheries development; the changing socio-economic factors such as increasing price of fuels and other inputs for fisheries and aquaculture activities; enhancing the contribution of fisheries to food security; and the more stringent requirements imposed by importing countries for quality and safety of fish and fishery products, which later on have been expanded recently to include sustainable resources utilization.
Since fisheries is not a standalone sector, but having linkage with other activities and development sectors, particularly for the inland and coastal fisheries, it is therefore necessary to enhance the awareness of policy makers and planners on the importance of the fisheries sector particularly for the socio-economic development of the countries in the region. Moreover, as it is expected that the ASEAN Community Building as targeted by the ASEAN will be achieved within the next three to four years, we should foresee that this development would result in tremendous changes for the countries in the region. As such, this would require tremendous amount of adjustment and adaptation by every sectors including fisheries in the region, particularly considering that some countries are still not very well developed with inadequate capacity to adapt to such changes and requirements.
The ASEAN and SEAFDEC therefore considered it timely to conduct this sequel conference in order to address such issues and challenges. Several technical preparatory works had been undertaken by SEAFDEC, the ASEAN and the Member Countries for this Conference, particularly in identifying the emerging fisheries- related issues and developing recommendations from the regional perspective to address such emerging issues and challenges. In the next two and a half days at the Technical Session of this Conference, some initiatives and experiences of relevant organizations and institutions within and outside the region would be presented and shared, and we hope that the Conference could muster lessons from such experiences and come up with more concrete insights and focused direction in addressing such issues and challenges.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In addition to the Technical Session, this Conference also includes the Senior Officials and Ministerial Sessions, the attendance of which is by invitation only. The Senior Officials Meeting which would be participated in by the Senior Officials responsible for fisheries from the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Member Countries would review the proposed policy frameworks and priority directions for sustainable fisheries for food security at the policy level, while also taking into account the outputs of the Conference Technical Session.
The Ministerial Session that would follow the Senior Officials Meeting would be participated in by the Ministers responsible for fisheries from the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Member Countries. It is expected that the Draft Resolution as previously reviewed by the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Senior Officials would be presented for endorsement by the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Ministers. Upon endorsement, the Resolution and Plan of Action would serve as regional policy and priority directions that would provide the guiding principles for the sustainable development of ASEAN fisheries in the coming decade.
Finally Ladies and Gentlemen, once again on behalf of SEAFDEC as a co-organizer of the Conference, we hope that all of you would find this ASEAN-SEAFDEC Conference beneficial especially in developing the regional directions that could pave the way towards sustainable fisheries development and specifically in enhancing the contribution of fisheries to food security in the Southeast Asian region in the next decade and beyond.
Thank you very much and good day.
Annex 4