Aichi Biodiversity Target 6 on Sustainable Fisheries: Improving reporting & working towards implementation

Both Serge Garcia and Despina Symons actively participated in the FAO/COFI meeting held in Rome 11-15 July, as part of the IUCN Delegation, an important partner to FAO.  Following the Joint FAO-CBD-IUCN/FEG Expert Meeting on Target 6 and the commitment to bring the recommendations to the upcoming COFI meeting, FEG organized this side event to present and discuss the workshop recommendations together with CBD Secretariat and the FAO. The same side event addressed the issue of MPAs and the FAO/FEG Technical Paper on MPAs and fisheries: food security, poverty and livelihoods.

Building on previous and ongoing collaboration among the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership, this event highlights on-going work by IUCN-Fisheries Expert Group, the European Bureau for Conservation and Development, the CBD Secretariat and FAO in developing advice for indicators and implementation of measuring progress against Aichi Target 6:

“By 2020 all fish and invertebrate stocks and aquatic plants are managed and harvested sustainably, legally and applying ecosystem based approaches, so that overfishing is avoided, recovery plans and measures are in place for all depleted species, fisheries have no significant adverse impacts on threatened species and vulnerable ecosystems and the impacts of fisheries on stocks, species and ecosystems are within safe ecological limits”.

Reporting of Aichi Target 6 requires advice for States on indicators that enable comparable national assessments of progress towards this target and methods for implementation.

The side event presented results from an ‘Expert Meeting on Improving Progress Reporting and Working towards Implementation of Aichi Biodiversity target 6’ convened jointly by FAO, CBD Secretariat, IUCN-CEM-FEG, and EBCD, in Rome from 9-11 of February 2016, and discussed indicators and actions that may be used by Parties, other Governments, and relevant organizations to accelerate, monitor and report on progress towards the achievement of Aichi Biodiversity Target 6.

The side event also offered an opportunity for discussion over potential ways and means to further enhance collaboration and cooperation to support the achievement of Aichi Biodiversity Target 6.