Strengthening The Science-Policy Nexus

Marine and inland fisheries today are an important crossroads. They make a crucial and growing contribution to food, nutrition and livelihood security. Yet, despite significant successes, there is a decreasing overall trend in the proportion of marine fish stocks caught within biologically sustainable levels, especially in the least developed regions. The fisheries sector needs to develop a new vision for capture fisheries in the 21st century, in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, that better reflects the way we perceive and use capture fisheries.

The objective of this Symposium is to identify pathways to strengthen the science and policy interplay in fisheries production, management and trade, based on solid sustainability principles for improved global outcomes on the ground. Ultimately, the debates and conclusions of the symposium will prepare the way for the development of a new vision for the way we perceive and use capture fisheries, outlining how the sector can respond to the complex and rapidly changing challenges facing society.

Joining the efforts to promote sustainability and healthy ocean, WorldFish researchers will be engaged in a series of plenary discussions listed as following:

Tuesday, 19 November 2019 - Session 3: Fish in Food Security and Nutrition: from tide to table

The Fish in Food Security and Nutrition: from tide to table session brings to reckon the most recent research, investments, and policy reform, to highlight how fish are increasingly shown to make a crucial contribution to nutrition, how that contribution could be optimized in the future, and possible implications of its realization, or failure. Read more here.

Webcast is available for this session. Click here to join the webcast. Interpretation are available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian.

Wednesday, 20 November 2019 - Session 4: Securing sustainable fisheries livelihoods Advisory Board oversight

This session will focus on the challenge of achieving equitable and sustainable livelihoods for the millions of women and men who depend on marine and inland fisheries production and value chains for their livelihoods, and whose daily work helps feed billions of people around the world. Read further here to discover more on questions and topics related to this session.

Webcast is available for this session. Click here to join the webcast. Interpretation are available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian.

Thursday, 21 November 2019 - Session 8: Policy opportunities for fisheries in the 21st century

  • Keynote speaker - Dr. John Kurien, Visiting Professor, Azim Premji University, India & WorldFish Honorary Fellow

This session explores policy imperatives for the fisheries sector of the 21st century in the context of renewed emphasis on fisheries to meet the food demands of a growing human population, progressive changes in the overall productivity of marine systems, the international implications of reduced access to fisheries resources, and the redistribution of fished species in relation to management areas and fisheries as climate changes.

Webcast is available for this session. Click here to join the webcast. Interpretation are available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian.

In addition, Dr. Shakuntala Thilsted, Dr. Eddie Allison and Ms. Editrudith Lukanga are part of the Advisory Board Committee of the symposium. The expected outcomes of the symposium will be a technical document that synthesizes the information and debate in each of the Symposium’s sessions, to be tabled at the 34th session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) in July 2020. It will include quantitative information on the status of fisheries’ sustainability globally and regionally, examples of best management and partnership practices, and recommendations on how to better connect evidence and policy to secure fisheries’ sustainability in the 21st century.