The Tenth Meeting of the Regional Fishery Body Secretariat Network (RSN) was held at FAO Headquarters in Rome from 5-6 July 2024, before the 36th Meeting of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) scheduled for 8-12 July 2024.
Dr. Manuel Barange, ADG, FAO made the opening remarks and he called upon the RFBs to rejig their plans to rise up to the dynamic challenges confronting the sector in their respective region.
Representing BOBP-IGO, Dr. P. Krishnan, Director, presented the new activities and initiatives of the Organisation to boost regional cooperation for sustainable fisheries in its area of competence. Dr. Krishnan highlighted how the Organisation is adopting and sustaining various international activities in the region including the Bay of Bengal Stock Assessment Network (BOBSAN) for building a better national and regional stock assessment framework and the BIMSTEC-INDIA Marine Research Network (BIMREN) implemented by BOBPIGO towards promoting south-south collaboration in marine research.
The participants emphasized the importance of addressing regional issues and called for closer interactions among the Regional Fishery Bodies (RFBs) to enhance knowledge and experience sharing.
Earlier, the subject matter experts from FAO provided an overview of the global developments in important areas like stock assessment, BBNJ, fisheries subsidies, measures for spatial conservation and combating IUU. The members shared their perspectives on how these developments can be internalized in the activities of the respective RFBs.