About This Event

The CTI-CFF has had numerous working meetings towards a joint partnership program with USAID under the Oceans and Fisheries Partnership (USAID Oceans) to strengthen regional cooperation to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, promote sustainable fisheries, and conserve marine biodiversity in the Asia-Pacific region. CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat (CTI-CFF RS) works closely with USAID Oceans, SEAFDEC and NOAA to develop, promote and implement Catch Documentation and Traceability (CDT) plans to CTI-CFF member countries, which integrate with Ecosystem Approach to Management of Fisheries (EAFM) to ensure sustainable fishery management and to promote conservation.

CDT system is a fundamental concept of combating IUU fishing by providing a good documentation of tracking fish from point catch to final destination (market) including supply-chain. In CDT system, it is of important that fishing and trading nations ensure fish and trading the open market are caught by sustainable fishing practices that mainstream conservation and management measures. Therefore, CDT system provide normally validated catch documents issued to fishing vessels and export or re-export documents issued or received (e.g. ASEAN Catch Documentation System, ACDS). An electronic CDT (eCDT) system would be more efficient. With regards to USAID Oceans Partnership, eCDT systems that are applicable to the needs of member countries will be developed by modifying the SEAFDEC ACDS to eACDS and other eCDT systems.  The eACDS will cover selected economic aquatic species e.g. groupers, crab, snappers and all economic tuna species.

EAFM is a key approach toward addressing common trans-boundary policy and regulatory concerns, such as (i) over-fishing of shared pelagic fish stocks; (ii) illegal cross-border fishing by small-scale fishers (stimulated by depletion of local coastal fisheries), commercial-scale fishing operations, and trans-shipment; (iii) fishing overcapacity; and (iv) by-catch of protected and endangered species (CTI-CFF RPOA, 2009). The purpose of EAFM is to plan, develop, and manage fisheries in a manner that addresses the multiple needs and desires of societies, without jeopardizing the options for future generations to benefit from the full range of goods and services provided by marine ecosystems.

Some of key activities had been conducted to support the Ecosystem Approach to Management of Fisheries (EAFM) in regional as follows,

a)     the Asia Pacific Fisheries Commission (APFIC) in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United States produces the guidelines of implementation the Code of Conduct for Responsibility Fisheries (CCRF) in 2009;

b)    Senior Official from Member Countries (CT6) mandated by the 9th CTI-CFF Senior Official Meeting (SOM) to have Regional Framework of EAFM in 2013;

c)     SEAFDEC in collaboration with NOAA organized Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management Training Course in 2014.

d)    USAID Oceans collaboration with CTI-CFF, SEAFDEC, and many national and international partners on the development of a sub-regional EAFM plan for the Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape using a 4-year, collaborative, multi-stakeholder, and multi-country process.

Over the years, the EAFM Technical Working Group have conducted several activities to implement EAFM goals and to develop regional training EAFM modules. At the request of ASEAN Member Countries in July 2018, USAID Oceans will be developing during 2019 a technical annex to SEAFDEC’s existing ACDS Regional Guidelines providing guidance on how countries can design and build national-level electronic CDT (eCDT) systems. These eCDT systems are based on the technologies implemented and lessons learned from two USAID Oceans ‘learning sites’ in Bitung, Indonesia and General Santos City, Philippines. In an effort to complement the activities by the CTI-CFF EAFM TWG and the USAID Oceans, this workshop is designed to assess existing eCDT systems (including SEAFDEC’s eACDS software and the hardware and software eCDT solutions tested under USAID Oceans) and capacity gaps; evaluate its suitability for implementation in CT6; assess country-specific needs and practices and adapt it into the chosen CDT system as part of the overall CT6 fisheries management practices.

Furthermore, in support of these objectives, USAID Oceans proposes to CT6 to participate in its two separate workshops, fully- funded by USAID Oceans:

1.     Pre-Workshop (1 day) training for CT3 Pacific PNG, SI, and TL – hosted by USAID Oceans with the objectives of

a)     to conduct a rapid CDT gap assessment and partnership appraisal

b)    to have a similar process/understanding by all CT6 heading into the main CTI-CFF workshop.

2.     Post-workshop (1.5 days) training for CT6 - hosted by USAID Oceans with the objectives of

a)      receive a hands-on demonstration and learn more about existing eCDT technologies that available to be adapted and customized by CT6 member countries for their own use;

b)    provide inputs on regional technical guidance being developed on implementing eCDT in ASEAN member countries; and

c)      develop a simple national ‘roadmap’ regarding member country’s development and testing of eCDT solutions within their own nation.

**     CT6 countries shall discuss with and inform RS during the next skype call meeting if they are amendable to participating in these USAID Oceans fully funded extra workshop/s back to back with our CTI-CFF funded main two-day workshop