Thailand Hosted The 2nd ASEAN Meeting on Combating IUU Fishing in Partnership with the EU
The Department of Fisheries, Thailand, together with the ASEAN-Thailand Secretariat and the European Union (EU) co-organized "the 2nd ASEAN Meeting on Combating IUU Fishing in partnership with the EU" during 13 - 14 December 2019 at the Conrad Hotel Bangkok, which over 80 representatives from the ASEAN Member States, international fisheries organizations and representatives from the EU participated. With Mrs. Umaporn Phimolbut, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives chaired the meeting and gave opening remarks.
As the ASEAN Chair of 2019, Thailand announced the theme "Advancing Partnership for Sustainability" to focus actions on the future of connectivity and sustainability. Another important role, Thailand is determined to achieve the fight against IUU fishing in all dimensions.
Mr. Mesak Pakdeekong, Director-General of the Department of Fisheries, as the leader of the Thai representatives, revealed the 2nd ASEAN Meeting on Combating IUU Fishing in Partnership with the EU is a collaboration with Thailand, the ASEAN-Thailand Secretariat, and EU. The meeting aims to demonstrate a common position in addressing support of financial assistance agreements and build the regional negotiation mechanism to make it more concrete. The most important is the effort to push to be a region free of IUU fishing.
At the latest on 15 October 2019, the Establishment of ASEAN Network for Combating IUU Fishing (AN-IUU) was approved by the Senior Officials Meeting of the 41st Meeting of the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (SOM-AMAF). The establishment of an AN-IUU aims (1) to support effective exchange of information (2) to provide an accessible platform for information (3) to create a network for better communication between the law enforcement authorities and governmental competent authorities taking responsibilities for combating IUU fishing (4) to strengthen the capacity of government officials in the region, which will be useful to deliver concrete benefits in tackling IUU fishing.
For this meeting, he emphasized that each Member States was pushed for practical action to demonstrate concrete combating IUU Fishing. Thailand has implemented the reform of the entire fisheries sector to prevent and tackling illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing until successful and leading to the success of the lifting of a yellow card. Furthermore, Thailand to be ready to share technology, experience, and fisheries information with the ASEAN Member States to jointly prevent and tackling IUU fishing. Which, it can serve as a model for other states facing similar problems at the regional level.
Mr. Mesak Pakdeekong said, "However, during the past 4 years of the IUU fishing tackle in Thailand. It was found that often, fishing boats of ASEAN Member States tend to Illegal fishing, There were fishing boats loaded with IUU catch, and they ported at a port in Thailand. Therefore, it was often a barrier to the intention to eliminate IUU fishing of other Member States.
"From now on, Thailand will not allow the ASEAN region to be seen as a definite pathway of aquatic animals obtained from IUU fishing. Therefore, Thailand demands that other member states focus on the concrete implementation of AN-IUU because it will be the first step towards eliminating IUU fishing in the region. By using new technology to apply for equality and recognized internationally."
Sources : https://www4.fisheries.go.th/index.php/dof/activity_item/3866