FAO field projects

FAO provides assistance to member countries in fisheries-related matters (such as laws and regulations, policy, development and management) through dedicated field projects funded from extra-budgetary resources. By the end of 2004 nearly 180 ongoing field projects were receiving specialized technical inputs from Fisheries Department staff, including officers posted to FAO's regional and subregional offices.

These include not only specific fisheries projects, but multidisciplinary projects where fisheries comprise a significant component, and which are organized with a global, interregional, regional or national scope. Such inputs support projects executed by governments or regional institutions (with FAO's inputs defined through a Letter of Agreement) or in support of projects executed directly by FAO, either by the Fisheries Department itself or by the Technical Cooperation Department and its Field Operations Division. These have been almost entirely assigned in the four FAO Regional Offices: Accra (Ghana), Bangkok (Thailand), Cairo (Egypt) and Santiago (Chile), although one branch remains at FAO HQ in Rome, to coordinate projects supporting global, inter-regional and European groupings.

The list of current field projects, financed either by FAO's own Technical Cooperation Programme or by extra-budgetary funds derived from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), from other UN Agencies and from FAO member countries (Trust Funds), changes continuously as new projects begin and others finish.

The principal longer-term global and interregional projects based at FAO HQ Rome and for which the Fisheries Department holds major responsibility are:

  • Reduction of the impact of shrimp fisheries (project development and preparation phase)
  • Targeted strategic action plan for bio-diversity (Mediterranean Sea)
  • Sustainable contribution of fisheries to food security
  • Implementation of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (FishCode)
  • Fisheries Global Information System (FIGIS)
  • International cooperation with the Nansen Programme: fisheries management and marine environment
  • Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Programme (West Africa)
  • Advice, technical support and establishment of cooperation networks to facilitate coordination to support fisheries management in the Mediterranean (COPEMED)
  • Support to strengthen coordination of Fishery Management in the Adriatic Sea (ADRIAMED)
  • Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC)
  • Use of GLOBEFISH data bank
  • Species identification programme for fishery purposes (SIDP)
  • International Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries
  • Support to Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA)
  • Information system for the Promotion of Aquaculture in the Mediterranean Region (SIPAM)
  • Technical Consultation on the Application of Article 9 of the CCRF in the Mediterranean

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