Ministers Endorse Regional Fisheries and MPA Management Frameworks

On May 15, the CTI-CFF Ministers agreed to use two regional resource management frameworks developed for the Coral Triangle for policy making at the national level.

The Ministers, who were in Manado, Indonesia for their 5th Ministerial Meeting (MM5), issued an 18-point Joint Ministerial Statement that includes, among others, an agreement to “apply the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM) Regional Framework and the Coral Triangle Marine Protected Area System (CTMPAS) Framework in our (respective) national policies.”

The MM5 was held alongside other CTI-CFF related events at the World Coral Reef Conference, including the 2nd CTI-CFF Special Senior Officials Meeting that recommended the use of the frameworks.

The product of a consultative process involving members of the EAFM TWG representing the six Coral Triangle countries, the EAFM Regional Framework supports the adoption and strengthening of laws, policies and regulations to help stimulate and achieve an EAFM in order to reverse the decline of fish stocks in the region, maximize opportunities to fisheries stakeholders in the region, and enable the Coral Triangle countries to meet their EAFM responsibilities under the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.

The framework has the following five objectives: (1) By 2017, the six countries of the CTI-CFF should formally adopt EAFM into their national policies and/or legislation; (2) By 2015, enhance the adaptation and/or resilience of fishers and coastal communities from the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on fisheries and marine ecosystems by implementing the EAFM Framework; (3) By 2017, reduce illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing through greater collaboration and increased enforcement and awareness; (4) By 2017, a regional EAFM Human Capacity Development Program is in place to effectively implement EAFM; and (5) By 2017, establish a regional platform for collection and sharing data and information relevant to EAFM.

The CTMPAS Framework and Action Plan, on the other hand, defines a collaborative structure and agreed approaches for the Coral Triangle Countries and Partners to address the challenges of managing coastal and marine activities for sustainable use. Developed through five regional workshops and reviewed by the Coral Triangle countries, the framework represents a consensus of current general ecological, governance and social principles of national and smaller-scale marine protected area (MPA) networks. It includes a roadmap through 2020 and prescribes a process for facilitating regional collaboration among individual MPA sites and national programs.

The CTMPAS Framework was presented to and endorsed by the 8th Senior Officials Meeting (SOM8) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in November 2012, while the EAFM Regional Framework was first presented to SOM8 and later endorsed by SOM9 in Manila, Philippines in November 2013.

Both frameworks were developed by the CTI-CFF Countries with the assistance of the U.S. CTI Support Program.