Report of the 6th meeting of the gulf of Thailand sub-region

Abstract

The Sixth Meeting of the Gulf of Thailand Sub-region was convened from 28 February to 2 March 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand. The Meeting was supported by the SEAFDEC-Sweden Program to promote efforts in integrating fisheries management and habitat management and at the same time emphasize the need to manage fishing capacity and introduce options for the development of larger fisheries resources conservation areas (i.e.refugia). The Meeting also promotes sub-regional and bilateral cooperation for carrying out activities pertaining to sub-regional and bilateral consultations as well as for on-site events in Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. Discussions were organized to provide a venue for reviewing the follow-up recommendations during the Fifth Meeting of the Gulf of Thailand Sub-region and progress of bilateral cooperation, updating the progress of Regional Plan of Action on Sustainable Utilization of Neritic Tunas in the Southeast Asian Region (RPOA-Neritic Tunas) and Regional Plan of Action for Management of Fishing Capacity (RPOA-Capacity) as well as identifying and providing recommendations on the need to promote sub-regional or bilateral dialogue. The Meeting also provided opportunity to the countries to identify common priority areas and summarize the progress of the sub-regional cooperation as a basis for reporting to SEAFDEC, RPOA-IUU Coordination Committee, FAO/RAP and other mechanism.