6th Meeting of ACP Ministers in Charge of Fisheries and Aquaculture

6th Meeting of ACP Ministers in Charge of Fisheries and Aquaculture

The Fisheries and aquaculture sector plays a crucial role in providing much-needed employment and export revenues for many African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Member States. The sector also plays an irreplaceable role in the food and nutritional security and indeed the lifeline of many dependent communities particularly from ACP Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Fish also continues to be one of the most-traded food commodities with more than 60 of the ACP States engaged in the export of fishery and aquaculture products. For some ACP states, fisheries exports account for half the total value of their traded commodities.

The sixth meeting aims to advance the foremost goal of sustainable development of fisheries and aquaculture by providing an opportunity to consider a range of policy options for the sustainable development of fisheries and aquaculture in ACP Countries. The Ministers will review the implementation of earlier decisions and make decisions to give momentum to the following priority themes of the meeting:

  • Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing;
  • Small scale fisheries for food security and livelihoods;
  • Post-harvest losses reduction, enhanced value addition and market access;
  • Climate change and fisheries;
  • Inland fisheries for economic transformation;
  • Sustainable blue growth;
  • Aquaculture development; and
  • Multilateral ocean governance agreements (i) conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) (ii) Fisheries subsidies.

VENUE:

Apia, Samoa
10-13 September 2019

Original source: ACP
Published on 20 August 2019