FAO used last week’s Seafood Expo Global to promote social, economic and environmental sustainability along the entire seafood value chain, promoting its forthcoming Blue Forum platform which aims to bring together stakeholders to address challenges facing fishing industry.
FAO is aims to engage with partners in governments, civil society, fisherfolk associations, the seafood industry and retailers, by calling on them to become part of the Blue Forum, a multisectoral platform due to be formally launched later this year and aimed at confronting problems affecting the fisheries and aquaculture sector.
According to the FAO, the complexities of the long and international value chains of fisheries and aquaculture necessitate a ‘whole society approach’ to initiate change, an approach that brings together various partners to ensure that the fish reaching consumers’ plates has been harvested in a manner fully consistent with environmental, economic and social sustainability.
FAO believes the Blue Forum can provide a strong opportunity for the sector to contribute to sustainable development and governance of the fisheries and aquaculture sectors. In particular, with an emphasis on food and nutrition security, conservation and management of resources, social empowerment, decent employment and economic development and growth.
The Blue Forum would also enable industry partners to play an important role in helping to achieve the international community’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The main objectives of the Blue Forum include, promoting the worldwide adoption of best practices for responsible sustainable fisheries and aquaculture production and trade and improving the image of the whole sector, providing a platform where multiple partners can discuss the existing problems of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, promoting the development and adoption of mechanisms that can enable the implementation of FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, and fostering an overall solidarity in the sector, through the development of joint communities projects.
‘FAO is excited to be initiating this dialogue with stakeholders, and we look forward to working closely with them in the coming months in order to officially launch the Blue Forum later this year,’ commented Jose Estors-Carballo of FAO’s Fisheries Products, Trade and Marketing Branch.
‘We work extensively with partners in the industry, retailers, civil society organisations and fisherfolk organisations, and we see they are all facing similar challenges. Working together, we can collaborate to improve the fisheries and aquaculture sectors and the livelihoods of those who depend on them.’
