Moving Towards the Renewed Resolution and Plan of Action on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security for the ASEAN Region

Abstract

The ASEAN-SEAFDEC Conference on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security in the New Millennium: “Fish for the People,” convened in November 2001 and aimed at analyzing the fisheries problems and identifying the directions and actions towards the sustainability of the ASEAN fisheries for food security in the new millennium, adopted the first “ASEAN-SEAFDEC Resolution and Plan of Action on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security in the New Millennium.” This instrument had been used as a framework for the development of national policies and actions for the promotion of sustainable fisheries in the Southeast Asian region. Ten years later in June 2011, the sequel “ASEAN-SEAFDEC Conference on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security Towards 2020 “Fish for the People 2020: Adaptation to a Changing Environment” was organized to assess the importance of fisheries to pave the way for enhancing the contribution of fisheries to food security in the Southeast Asian region, assess the importance of fisheries to the socio-economic enhancement of the people in the region, and address the emerging issues that impede the sustainable development of fisheries in the region. The “ASEAN-SEAFDEC Resolution and Plan of Action on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security for the ASEAN Region Towards 2020” or RES&POA-2020 was adopted during the Ministerial and Senior Officials Meeting of the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Conference. The RES&POA-2020 has since then served as policy framework and priority actions for the Southeast Asian countries to support their efforts towards attaining the sustainability of fisheries development and enhancing the contribution of fisheries to food security and improved livelihoods of peoples in the region. On the fifth year of implementation of the RES&POA-2020 in 2016, the progress of such efforts was reviewed and the priority areas were identified to make sure that the development of the region’s fisheries sector remains sustainable and its contribution to food security in the Southeast Asian region had been enhanced. As the year 2020 ushered in emerging developments in fisheries, the SEAFDEC Council of Directors recommended that the RES&POA-2020 should be reviewed to ensure that it remains up-to-date and relevant to the current situation of the fisheries sector in the Southeast Asian region. In this regard, meetings of the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Member Countries were convened by the SEAFDEC Secretariat to discuss the “Way Forward of the Resolution and Plan of Action for the ASEAN Region Towards 2020” by reviewing the progress of the ASEAN Member States in the implementation of the RES&POA-2020, especially focusing on the outputs and outcomes attained at national level, as well as those of SEAFDEC and other regional and sub-regional partners. During such meetings, other fisheries-related priority and emerging issues were also discussed and identified, and linked with other fisheries policy development processes. The results had served as inputs for revising the RES&POA-2020 and for coming up with the “ASEAN-SEAFDEC Resolution and Plan of Action on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security for the ASEAN Region Towards 2030” or RES&POA-2030.