The International Coalition of Fisheries Associations (ICFA) has reelected Javier Garat as president.
The ICFA is an international coalition of shipowners' associations created as a non-governmental organization, intended to give its members a unified voice in decisions made at international forums on fisheries issues, focusing primarily on relations with the United Nations and specifically the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Its members include associations from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Japan, Holland, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Spain, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Garat was elected for the fourth consecutive year in a unanimous vote by ICFA partners at a meeting in Rome, Italy, on 14 September. Garat also serves as the Secretary General of the Spanish Fishing Confederation (Cepesca) and as president of Europêche, the representative body for fishing companies in the European Union, representing around 45,000 vessels.
"The fishing organizations grouped in ICFA are very aware of the importance of our cooperation and coordination to defend a sustainable fishing activity, both from an environmental and socio-labor point of view, to face challenges such as warming global and marine litter, and to continue making progress in improving the state of the stocks,” Garat said in a press release. "Contrary to the idea advocated by radical environmental groups, fishing is not incompatible with the protection of the oceans and the sustainable use of marine resources. Under this principle, the fishing sector is primarily interested in ensuring the proper balance of resources that is required for the healthy diet of a growing world population, and the livelihood of millions of people globally.”
Also at the meeting in Rome, ICFA members met with a delegation led by FAO Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture Manuel Barange to discuss issues relevant to the fisheries sector, including the management and governance of international waters. The meeting also covered social issues in the fishing industry and other issues related to IUU fishing.
In advance of the first of four planned conferences taking place at the U.N. headquarters in New York to negotiate a treaty for the protection of the high seas, Garat urged Barange to use science as the basis for future moves to create marine protected areas and other similar limitations on fishing activity.
Garat and Barange also discussed initiatives of FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO) in relation to fish products and global food, as well as progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 14, which calls for the conservation and sustainable management of the world’s oceans and marine resources, according to the ICFA.
Other relevant issues that were also addressed at the meeting of ICFA and FAO are the status of negotiations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), in view of the forthcoming conference of the parties to be held next year in Sir Lanka, as well as negotiations on subsidies under the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In addition, Barange and Garat discussed the status of negotiations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which will be reviewed at an upcoming conference in 2019 in Sri Lanka.
