Annual EAFM Technical Working Group Meeting

About This Event

In 2007, the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste came together to form the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food Security (CTI-CFF), a multi-government partnership aiming to safeguard the region’s marine and coastal resources and the services they provide to society.

Under the CTI-CFF, the six Coral Triangle countries (CT6) adopted a Regional Plan of Action (RPOA) with five overarching goals: 1) strengthening management of seascapes; 2) applying an ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAFM); 3) developing and strengthening the management of marine protected areas; 4) implementing climate change adaptation measures; and 5) protecting threatened marine species.

Fisheries in the Coral Triangle, as well as across the globe, are facing significant declines due to local and global threats, as well as ineffective management and governance. Conventional fisheries management not only often fails to stem decline in many fisheries, but also often fails to protect the people, communities, and societies dependent upon healthy and productive fisheries ecosystems for food, jobs, economic development, and coastal protection, among other such benefits.

EAFM evolved as a new management approach to better match the scales of fisheries governance with the scales of fisheries, their ecosystems, the people dependent upon them, and the nature of threats facing them all. Applying an ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAFM) is considered the preferred option and best practice for the long-term sustainability of fisheries and the services that fisheries ecosystems provide to society (e.g., food security, livelihoods, economic security, coastal protection, human health and wellbeing).

Along with the finalization of the Sulu Sulawesi Seascape Sub-Regional EAFM Plan, the 8th CTI-CFF Ecosystem Approach on Fisheries Management Working Group Meeting is also a venue to evaluate the implementation of EAFM workplan 2019 as agreed in SOM-14 December 2018 in Philippines.

The Meeting will also be an opportunity for the EAFM to develop their draft Workplan and Budget 2020 towards preparation for Pre-SOM and SOM-15 in Solomon Islands (i.e. the 2020 workplan)