SEAFDEC participates in CWP Intersessional Meeting

Hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Coordinating Working Party (CWP) Intersessional Meeting on Fisheries and Aquaculture was convened from 2 to 5 November 2021 through the online platform. The SEAFDEC Secretariat Senior Information Officer, Ms. Saivason Klinsukhon, and representatives from the 13 partners of FAO attended the Meeting. The aim of Meeting was to update on the progress of relevant participating organizations to CWP and CWP Task Groups. The discussion of the Meeting focused on the revision of the CWP Handbook of Capture Fisheries and Aquaculture which will be submitted to the 27CWP in 2022, CWP web pages, statistics definition of small-scale fisheries, and emerging needs for statistics standards.

During the Meeting, Ms. Saivason reported the SEAFDEC progress related to fisheries statistics activities in 2021 which included the results of the 1st Regional Technical Consultation on Fishery Statistic and Information in Southeast Asia, and the specific recommendations for improving the Regional Framework and Statistics in the future. She also reported the progress of preparation of the publication “Southeast Asian State of Fisheries and Aquaculture (SEASOFIA) 2022” which is expected to be available by April 2022. Moreover, she also provided the updates on the collaboration between SEAFDEC and FAO on ongoing programs and activities in line with targets under the UN Sustainable Development Goals particularly the SDG 14 (e.g. capacity building on stock assessment and development of appropriate reference point, supporting collection of research and datasets from Southeast Asia through identifying and record on OpenASFA, among others).