Rome – The Meals and Agriculture Group of the United Nations (FAO) and the federal government of Norway as we speak introduced a brand new five-year part of the EAF-Nansen Programme on the UN Local weather Change Convention COP28 in Dubai within the United Arab Emirates.
The Programme is a partnership between FAO, the Norwegian Company for Growth Cooperation (Norad), the Institute of Marine Analysis (IMR) in Norway, regional fisheries organizations and 32 companion international locations in Africa and the Bay of Bengal, relationship again to 1975.
Norway will fund the price range of 1 billion NOK (nearly $94 million) for the brand new interval.
From 2024 to 2028, the EAF-Nansen Programme will intensify efforts to enhance meals and diet safety in companion international locations, putting a stronger concentrate on strengthening fisheries administration in response to the impacts of local weather change.
“A lot of the worldwide inhabitants dwell by and off the ocean. For individuals to proceed to take action, we have to handle the marine setting and life sustainably. The Nansen Programme performs a key position by amassing and sharing ocean information. This effort is essential in preventing local weather change and guaranteeing meals safety additionally for future generations,” stated Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, the Norwegian Minister of Worldwide Growth.
“This distinctive Programme generates important knowledge, analysis and science wanted for international locations to make knowledgeable selections that assist sustainable fisheries administration. FAO welcomes the announcement for this new phrase to construct a sustainable and resilient future for our oceans, working collectively to advertise accountable fishing practices, fight unlawful, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and tackle the impacts of local weather change on marine ecosystems,” stated Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-Basic.
Enhancing fisheries administration to handle local weather change
The Programme is dedicated to enhancing fisheries administration according to the FAO Blue Transformation imaginative and prescient, strengthening the capacities of fisheries establishments and producing scientific information on marine assets and ecosystems. It would tackle vital elements of meals and diet safety, together with threats to the sustainable use of the ocean, resembling local weather variability and alter.
Local weather change impacts marine life, inflicting shifts in nutrient availability, water high quality, and fisheries assets distribution. The impacts are felt all through the meals internet, altering the construction and performance of marine ecosystems.
The Programme helps its companion international locations in producing scientific information on marine assets and ecosystems by amassing distinctive knowledge and data associated to fisheries and different points excessive on the worldwide agenda, resembling biodiversity, local weather change and air pollution.
Understanding the impacts of local weather change on fisheries
One of many most important ongoing analysis areas is devoted to understanding the impacts of local weather change on fisheries assets and the well being of the ecosystems. The Programme has been amassing knowledge over time on the distribution, abundance and biodiversity of dwelling marine assets and environmental parameters all through its lifetime by means of surveys with the analysis vessel Dr. Fridtjof Nansen. This knowledge can present fisheries administration with instruments to mitigate the dangers and maximize the alternatives related to local weather change and variability, thus enhancing meals safety.
“Within the EAF-Nansen Programme, we do built-in research on fisheries administration and local weather change. The brand new part will enable us to proceed and strengthen this vital work. Basic information of ecosystem-based fisheries administration is related for all coastal and ocean areas – when the required native and regional adaption is finished,” stated Nils Gunnar Kvamstø, CEO of Norway’s Institute of Marine Analysis.
As well as, the Programme will present companion international locations with the means to detect change in fisheries programs and develop interventions to handle fisheries sustainability, and foster capability improvement to assist the transformation of marine meals programs.
In the end, all Programme actions will contribute to attaining the Sustainable Growth Objectives and the aims of ongoing initiatives such because the UN Decade of Ocean Science, in addition to Blue Transformation, FAO’s imaginative and prescient for aquatic meals programs.
Since 1975, the Programme has collaborated with 58 international locations throughout Africa, Asia and South America, helping them in each fisheries analysis and administration.
