Proceedings of the End of Project Meeting: Fisheries and Habitat Management, Climate Change and Social Well- Being in Southeast Asia (2013-2019)

Abstract

The two-day “End-of-Project Meeting of the SEAFDEC-Sweden Project: Fisheries and Habitat Management, Climate Change and Social Well-being in Southeast Asia Project (2013-2019)” was convened by SEAFDEC on 30-31 October 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand. The End-of-Project Meeting (EOP Meeting) gathered around 80 participants from nine ASEAN Member States (AMSs), namely: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam; and representatives from the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok, Thailand, and regional organizations and projects. The EOP Meeting summed up the results and outputs of the Project, highlighting on the major achievements of Project’s three output objectives: 1) Capacity built for integration of habitat & fisheries management and adaptation to climate change; 2) Capacity built and systems improved for the management of fishing capacity (monitoring; record and control); and 3) Capacity built and policy development processes improved for the drafting and implementation of regional & sub-regional agreements and improvement of policy development processes.

Following the Project’s output objectives, the EOP Meeting was divided into five (5) Sessions: 1. Sustainable Utilization of Transboundary Fishery Resources 2. Regional and Sub-regional Cooperation for the Management of Fishing Capacity and Combating IUU Fishing Panel 1: Understanding on key elements to improve systems to monitor, record and control the fisheries Panel 2: Strengthening MCS networks Panel 3: Regional initiatives on eACDS and fisheries Traceability 3. Building Awareness and Capability on Livelihoods Diversification options and Adaptation to Climate Change for Poverty alleviation 4. Why and what have been undertaken in gender integration? 5. Looking Back – Looking Forward: The major advantages and the usefulness of a sub-regional platform

Each Session was prefaced by short recap of the achievements of the Project activities by the Panelists based on their experiences and the lessons learnt from their involvement in the activities, with emphasis on the benefits gained by the AMSs from the Project activities. Thus, the EOP Meeting concluded with the key messages and recommendations on various aspects, e.g. transboundary species, EAFM, sub-regional cooperation for combating IUU fishing, addressing cross-cutting issues at the community level as well as gender integration.

The achievements of the Project as well as the experiences, best practices, and lessons learned from the implementation of the Project activities that were shared by the participants with the stakeholders during the EOP Meeting, and the results of the output objectives together with recommendations for future actions, are depicted briefly in this EOP Meeting Proceedings. It is the desire of the SEAFDEC-Sweden Project that this EOP Meeting Proceedings would serve as guide for SEAFDEC, the ASEAN, the Governments of the AMSs, and the partner organizations in carrying out their respective activities that are built upon the initiatives that had been laid out through the Project.