Pacific Islands Oceanic Fisheries Management Newsletter
May 2008
Introduction
Welcome to the periodic newsletter for
the Global Environment Facility (GEF)
· Executing Agencies ­ Forum Fisher-
funded Pacific Islands Oceanic Fisher-
ies Agency (FFA), Pacific Community
ies Project (OFM Project). Articles in this
(SPC) & World Conservation (IUCN)
newsletter are provided by the organisa-
· Duration and Expected Project com-
tions involved and relate to project funded
pletion ­ 5 years, September 2010
activities and other relevant information.
· Full Project Document located at -
http:/ www.ffa.int/gef/node/3
This newsletter is distributed to Pacific is-
lands project member governments, industry For further information please contact:
and environmental non-government orga- Barbara Hanchard, barbara.hanchard@ffa.int
nizations, International Waters (IW) Learn
audiences and donor communities partici- Nauru benefits from institutional strengthen-
pating in Pacific regional fisheries manage- ing initiatives
ment. Please forward this newsletter to all
other people interested in sustainable oce-
The Nauru Fisher-
anic fisheries management in the Pacific.
ies and Marine Re-
sources
Development
About the Pacific Islands Oceanic Fisheries
Authority
(NFMRA)
Management Project
was provided with assis-
tance to become strengthened by enhanc-
The following ing their capacity to participate in oceanic
are some of the fisheries management and manage their ma-
key milestones and rine resources, under the Global Environ-
information
for ment Facility (GEF) funded OFM Project.
the OFM Project. The Government of Nauru requested a scoping
· Beneficiary Countries - Cook Islands, report as a matter of priority for their fisheries
Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, and in accordance with the request from Nauru,
Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, the institutional strenthening (IS) scoping work
Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Sa- covered the whole of the Nauru Fisheries and
moa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tokelau, Marine Resources Authority. Nauru Fisheries
Tuvalu and Vanuatu
Minister Mr. Roland Kun was presented with
the Nauru Institutional Strengthening Scoping
· Project design phase ­ March 2004 Study Report by FFA officers in early April
to April 2005. UNDP/GEF PDF B 2007. Minister Kun advised FFA officers at the
funding USD$698,065 + in-kind time that he was keen to seek donor support
USD$468,620
for the implementation of the proposed project.
· Country Needs Assessments ­ June
­ July 2004 (conducted by regional & The Nauru IS Scoping team comprises Mes-
international fisheries experts)
sieurs Robert Ferraris (lead consultant), Garry
· GEF Council & CEO approval and en- Preston (consultant), Gordon Anderson (Au-
dorsement for the OFM Project - May sAID) and Darren Cameron (FFA Fisheries
24 2005
Management Advisor). The proposal and its
recommendations for institutional strengthen-
· Project commencement ­ October ing in Nauru developed by this team in con-
2005
sultation with the NFMRA were receieved
· OFM Project GEF financing ­ USD in a positive light by the Nauruan govern-
11.64 million (includes PDF B)
ment which thanked the team for their effort.
· Implementing Agency ­ UNDP
1

---

Pacific Islands Oceanic Fisheries Management Newsletter
May 2008
The Australian Agency for International Discussions at this workshop, together with in-
Development(AusAID) have now agreed to formation garnered from informal discussions
fund full implementation of a large institu- with member country representatives at the
tional strengthening project on the basis of the annual Forum Fisheries Committee meeting in
OFM Project funded scoping study and the 2007 and other reviewed literature has led to
recruitment of a Fisheries Management Inti- this valuable review of the factors necessary for
tutional Strengthening Specialist to be based sustainable institutional reform and strength-
in Nauru has been initiated in May 2008. ening. Information on the pros and cons of
different Statutory Authority and Departmen-
The Government of Kiribati in late 2007 tal fishery governance models is likely to be
requested an IS scoping study for the Min- of considerable interest to persons with fish-
istry of Fisheries and Marine Resources eries management responsibilities at all levels.
and Development. In-country visits to con-
duct this work occured in November 2007
and April 2008. This work will be the
topic in a future edition of this newsletter.

Experts and Participants at the Institutional
Strengthening Workshop held at the FFA
Headquarters, May 2007


Darren Cameron (FFA) working with NFMRA For more information contact:
officials in Nauru
Darren Cameron, darren.cameron@ffa.int
For more information contact:
Conference & upcoming book explores
Darren Cameron, darren.cameron@ffa.int
international fisheries instruments' implemen-
tation in Western & Central Pacific
Workshop shares experience on fisheries
institutional reform and strengthening
The Legal services of
the FFA convened a
A report on experi-
regional conference on
ences and lessons
Legal and Policy Trends
learned from fisheries in-
in the Implementation
stitutional reform (IR) and of International Fisheries Instruments in
institutional strengthening activities in the the Western and Central Pacific Region at
Pacific has been released on the FFA GEF Nadi Fiji from 7 ­ 9 April 2008. Legal of-
website http;/ www.ffa.int/gef. Critical in- ficers from the FFA member countries par-
put into this report came from discussions ticipated at the conference alongside a num-
at a workshop conducted at the FFA Head- ber of legal experts who prepared papers on
quarters in Honiara on 15-16 May 2007. their various relevant areas of legal expertise.
This workshop was co-funded by FFA Trust The presentations addressed the legal and poli-
Funds for National Institutional Strength- cy trends in the implementation of international
ening Review and the OFM Project. fisheries instruments in the Western and Central
Pacific region and will be published in a book
2

---

Pacific Islands Oceanic Fisheries Management Newsletter
May 2008
to be circulated widely throughout the region. rial to help countries prepare for data audits,
(iii) disseminate the results of the FFA project
The conference was funded by the OFM Proj- on legal obligation for data provision and re-
ect as part of the activities for Legal Reform.
quest that SPC and FFA work together to pre-
pare guidelines for the legal provision of data,
For more information contact:
and (iv) improve support and raise awareness
Jean A. Gordon, jean.gordon@ffa.int
for role of the National Tuna Data Coordina-
tor, both at the national and regional levels.
Second Tuna Data Workshop
More information on the workshop, in-
The OFM Project was the cluding the main outputs and final rec-
main sponsor of the second ommendations in full are available from:
Tuna Data Workshop which took http:/ www.spc.int/oceanfish/Html/Meetings/
place at the SPC headquarters TDW2/index.htm
from the 7th to 11th of April 2008.
Participants from 15 FFA member states, two
French territories and the Philippines took part
in the workshop. The main aim of the work-
shop was to acquaint the group with the best
methods for preparing annual catch estimates
and to share experiences of managing tuna data.
Work for the participants started early, as com-
pleted national status reports outlining the
current state of tuna data collection and man-
agement in their countries were carried to the
workshop. These status reports, now available Participants at the 2nd Tuna Data Workshop
on-line, formed the basis of the first plenary held at SPC Noumea New Caledonia
session when participants revealed how the
work was advancing in their own countries. For more information contact:
Deirdre Brogan, DeirdreB@spc.int
A presentation on annual catch estimates was
followed by protracted small group exercises IUCN Update
on calculating the catch estimates for three fic-
titious fisheries. The experience gained in this
exercise gave many participants the confidence
In January 2008, Mr.
Carl Gustaf Lun-
to determine their own national fleet tuna catch
din, Head of the IUCN
estimates. Many participants had compiled Marine Programme, provided an update of
their annual catch estimates before the close of IUCN activities to the FFA, SPC, and UNDP
the workshop and well in advance of the April counterparts of the OFM Project including
30th deadline for submission established by the the next steps for advancing activities under
Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Com- the project. Mr. Lundin explained that, due to
mission (WCPFC). Additional workshop pre- indefinite delays in securing the DeepOcean
sentations and discussions included: facilitat- Quest research vessel MV Alucia to conduct a
ing data exchange, assessing various resource series of research cruises in the region in 2008,
requirements, database training and strength- IUCN will postpone indefinitely the planned
ening the legal basis of tuna data collection. expedition, and assigned Mr. Eric Gilman and
Mr. Taholo Kami to take over responsibil-
The main recommendations of the workshop ity for IUCN's work under the OFM project.
were to (i) explore mechanisms to better fa-
cilitate data exchange amongst member coun- Efforts to find replacement activities that re-
tries, (ii) develop and provide resource mate- mained a good fit with the original IUCN activ-
3

---

Pacific Islands Oceanic Fisheries Management Newsletter
May 2008
ities under the OFM Project were successfully
gramme;
concluded between IUCN, UNDP, SPC and
· investigation of New Surveillance
FFA without compromising the intended proj-
Technology ­ QANTAS Defence Sur-
ect objectives and outcomes. The revised work
veillance Trial;
plan was agreed to on 14 February and is online.
· a proposal on User-Pay Policy to Sup-
port National and Maritime Opera-
For more information, contact Eric Gilman
tions;
from the Global Marine Programme: eric.gil-
man@iucn.org
· a proposal to Align Vessel Registration
Period to FFA's Financial Year;
11th Monitoring Control and Surveillance
· Status of US Treaty & Implications on
Working Group Meeting
MCS;
· Sub-Regional Arrangements and Im-
The 11th meeting of
plications on MCS ­ Status Report of
the Monitoring, Con-
the VDS; and matters in relation to the
trol and Surveillance
Third Technical and Compliance Com-
(MCS) Working Group
mittee (TCC) and 4th Regular Session
Meeting took place at
Commission Meeting Outcomes
FFA Headquarters, Honiara, Solomon Is-
lands from 31 March ­ 4 April 2008. The MCS Working Group meetings are fully
funded by the OFM Project.
The MCS Working Group meeting is held
annually prior to the annual Forum Fisheries
Committee (FFC) session to enable consider-
ation of its recommendations by the FFC. MCS
fisheries officers of FFA member countries
are traditionally representatives at the MCS
Working Group meetings, although this does
not exclude officials from other relevant min- Participants at the 11th MCS Working
istries and various national enforcement agen- Group Meeting, FFA Headquarters, Ho-
cies attending such as the US Coast Guard niara, Solomon Islands ­ April 2008
and their French counterparts. The WCPFC
Secretariat was represented for the first time
at the 11th session of the MCS Working Group. For more information contact: Lamiller Pawut,
lamiller.pawut@ffa.int
The 11th MCS Working Group addressed a
number of issues which resulted in a series Annual Report of the OFM Project
of recommendations for consideration by
the FFC. These recommendations related to:
The final report of
the Annual Re-
view 2007 for the
· draft MCS Strategy;
OFM Project can be
· a draft Regional Observer Strategy;
located on the project
· a proposal to incorporate a new re- website at http:/ www.ffa.int/gef/node/108.
quirement of a `port to port' reporting
by fishing vessels in the MTCs;
The key recommendation of this review is that
· some inputs into the enhancement of the Project should implement a programme of
the Niue
targeted support to some, generally smaller
· Treaty;
FFA Members, using both the resources of the
· VMS Strategic Plan­Disaster Recovery OFM Project and other FFA staff resources to
Site;
strengthen, improve and speed up implementa-
tion of the in-country activities under the law/
· Aerial and Maritime Surveillance Pro-
4

---

Pacific Islands Oceanic Fisheries Management Newsletter
May 2008
policy/institutional reform/compliance com-
ponent. This work should be targeted at Pa- Subscribe/Unsubsribe
cific SIDS that are struggling to participate in
the WCPFC and to meet their WCPFC obliga- To subscribe please send an email to barba-
ra.hanchard@ffa.int to add your contact
tions, especially the reporting obligations, and to our mailing list.
might involve support to establish or strength-
en national consultative processes for OFM For more information contact:
Project activities and oceanic fisheries man-
agement where this is appropriate. It should Barbara Hanchard,
draw on a broad range of FFA resources in- Project Coordinator
cluding the availability of FFA technical staff
in-country, attachments and FFA workshops, Pacific Islands Oceanic Fisheries
especially those associated with MCS and the Management Project
WCPFC Technical and Compliance Committee.
P.O Box 629, Honiara, Solomon Islands
1 FFA Road, Honiara, Solomon Islands
For further information please contact: Bar- Tel: +677 21124 Fax: +677 23995
bara Hanchard, barbara.hanchard@ffa.int
E-mail: barbara.hanchard@ffa.int
Web site: http:/ www.ffa.int/gef
Mid-Term Review
The mid-term review for the OFM Project
commenced in February this year with the
recruitment of Team Leader Mr. Leon Zann and
Regional Resource Specialist, Ms Veikila Vuki.
The objective of the mid-term re-
view is to provide an assessment
of the progress made towards the
OFM project's objectives and
outputs. It should also identity
strengths and weaknesses and
provide an evaluation of the implementation
and management of the project by identifying
factors that have facilitated or impeded the
achievements of the project objectives and out-
puts. In addition, the review should also provide
recommendations and lessons learned to assist
on defining future directions for the project.
The review process is expected to be com-
pleted by the 16th July 2008 with the out-
comes presented to the 4th project Re-
gional Steering Committee in October.
For more information, contact Alvin
Chandra
Environment/GEF/Energy
As-
sociate/UNDP:
alvin.chandra@undp.org
Newsletter in PDF
If you wish to print this newsletter, a
PDF version is also available on the
project
website
http:/ www.ffa.int/gef
5

---