http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12066/995 2026-04-07T11:39:38Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12066/1003 Fish for the People Vol. 14 No. 3 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12066/1002 Strengthening regional cooperation for sustainable fisheries development in Southeast Asia Silapajarn, Kom; Ishii, Kaoru; Sulit, Virgilia T.; Siriraksophon, Somboon; Tongdee, Nualanong During the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Conference on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security for the ASEAN Region Towards 2020 “Fish for the People 2020: Adaptation to a Changing Environment” organized by SEAFDEC and the ASEAN in June 2011, the Ministers and Senior Officials responsible for fisheries of the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Member Countries adopted the “Resolution and Plan of Action on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security for the ASEAN Region Towards 2020.” A sequel to an instrument adopted during the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Millennium Conference in 2001, this current instrument has also served as policy framework for sustainable development of fisheries and enhancing its contribution to food security and the well-being of peoples in the region. While carrying out various activities in accordance with the provisions stipulated in these series of two instruments that display the Resolution and the Plan of Action, and with technical support from SEAFDEC, countries in the region continue to be confronted with emerging issues that need to be addressed through closer cooperation. The most recent concerns include the stringent measures applied by importing countries both within and outside the region, on fishery export products making sure that these do not come from Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activities, and that such fish and fishery products are derived from responsible fishing activities. Therefore, cooperation among relevant national agencies as well as among countries in the region is necessary in order to come up with practical and harmonized approaches that would ensure that the region’s fish and fishery products traded in intra-regional or international markets do not come from IUU fishing thus, enhancing their competitiveness. After five years of promoting the 2011 Resolution and the Plan of Action, SEAFDEC considered that mid-way before reaching 2020 would be an opportune time to conduct an indepth review of the emerging regional issues that hinder fisheries development and the competitiveness of fish and fishery products from the region. This would facilitate identification and adoption of measures particularly those that require regional cooperation and intervention, and securing the countries’ high-level commitment and continued support to address such issues in an efficient manner. Thus, with support from the SEAFDEC Council of Directors during its 47th Meeting and the 23rd Meeting of the ASWGFi in 2015, the “High-level Consultation on Regional Cooperation in Sustainable Fisheries Development Towards the ASEAN Economic Community: Combating IUU Fishing and Enhancing the Competitiveness of ASEAN Fish and Fishery Products” was convened by SEAFDEC on 3 August 2016. During the said Consultation, High-level Officials of the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Member Countries adopted the “Joint ASEAN-SEAFDEC Declaration on Regional Cooperation for Combating IUU Fishing and Enhancing the Competitiveness of ASEAN Fish and Fishery Products.” The Joint Declaration is meant to secure high-level policy support and cooperation from relevant national agencies of the ASEANSEAFDEC Member Countries towards sustainable fisheries development in Southeast Asia, and is also intended to provide a framework that would enable SEAFDEC and relevant agencies and donor organizations to continue their support toward enhancing regional cooperation in sustainable fisheries development as the ASEAN Economic Community undergoes unification. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12066/1001 Application of standard operating procedures for collecting data on sharks and rays in Southeast Asian countries Wanchana, Worawit; Ali, Ahmad bin; Arnupapboon, Sukchai The increasing pressure from international community to list several commercially-captured shark and ray species in the CITES Appendices has caused grave concern for many Southeast Asian countries. In their efforts of developing their respective management plans for sharks and rays, the ASEAN Member States (AMSs) sought the assistance of SEAFDEC in species identification of elasmobranches as this is a fundamental step in efficient data collection and in the development of effective management measures for these species which are considered economically important in the Southeast Asian region. In response, SEAFDEC implemented a one-year SEAFDEC Regional Project on Sharks and Rays Data Collection which was financially supported by the Government of Japan (through the SEAFDEC Secretariat and MFRDMD) and the European Union (EU) through the CITES Secretariat. The one-year Project activities implemented from 2015 to 2016, were aimed at strengthening the expertise and capacity of the AMSs in species identification and compilation of biological data on sharks and rays for better management, conservation, and enforcement of the necessary management measures, and were carried out in pilot countries of the ASEAN, namely: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12066/1000 Increasing fish production from inland water bodies through stock enhancement: experience of Thailand Ingthamjitr, Suchart; Sricharoendham, Boonsong Old-age proverbs in Thailand: “ในนํ้ามีปลาในนามีข้าว” which means “in the waters are fish and in the field is rice” and “กินข้าวกินปลา” which means “eat fish eat rice” imply that fish and rice are very crucial for the daily nutrition of its people. These proverbs also reflect the abundance of resources in the country that are utilized to produce substantial quantities of fish and supply the demand for food fish of its people especially those living in the rural areas as well as for export. In the past, the people of Thailand had been utilizing the country’s natural inland waters for fisheries such as rivers, canals, swamps, lakes, and other small water bodies and producing large quantities of freshwater fishes. However, after these fishery habitats had been altered for the sake of progress and development, the fishery resources had been reported to be at the verge of depletion. Meanwhile, uncontrolled fishing activities have also led to overfishing that exacerbates the already depleted fishery resources. In an effort to address the concern on dwindling fishery resources, the Department of Fisheries (DOF) of Thailand embarked on stock enhancement programs which had been adopted throughout the country to revive the status of the country’s inland fishery resources. The approach used by DOF is aimed at enhancing the fisheries production from inland water bodies through fisheries law enforcement, habitat rehabilitation, and stocking programs. The experience of DOF and the lessons learned from such efforts are revealed in this article as reported by the authors during the Symposium on Strategy for Fisheries Resources Enhancement in the Southeast Asian Region organized by SEAFDEC in Thailand in July 2015. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z