The Workshop on the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Advice in the European Union will be held at ICES on the 4th October 2016. The implementation of an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM) has been discussed widely and is stated as a goal in many legal frameworks including the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). While there are now extensive experiences in local and fairly simple systems, we are just starting to get into the real practical implementation problems in multinational contexts such as in the North East Atlantic and the Mediterranean; the CFP is the most extensive international legal commitment to this principle, but also the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is strongly pushing in that direction.
Cartoon by Bas Kholer © 2016 www.baskholer.nl
Moderated by Poul Degnbol, the participants from the Regional Sea Conventions, the Advisory Councils, the DG-Mare, the DG-Environment, the STECF, ICES, FAO and the High-Level Groups will have the chance to discuss and advance on concrete proposals for improvements in the EU fisheries advice process. This meeting is part of an on-going dialogue with the key players of the EU fisheries advice process. The overarching goal is to identify shortcomings of the current approach, discuss ideas on how to set-up the EAFM advice and explore how the stakeholders can formally become part of the process. Two former events inform the debate: the Workshop with the Advisory Councils hold in Brussels in June 2014, the Round Table Discussion on the EAFM in the CFP held in Brussels in January 2015. For additional information please contact [marmesto@cetmar.org]
The summary of the Workshop is available here MAREFRAME_WEAF SUMMARY