The project supports the implementation of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF) by providing advice to national, European and international decision-making bodies and ongoing German development cooperation projects.

The target groups are women and men engaged in the fisheries sector as full-time, part-time or subsistence fisher folk and their employees, also producers and their employees in the downstream fisheries segments (processing and trade). The indirect target groups are personnel in state and non-governmental agencies in the fisheries sector, including relevant large-scale enterprises.

Anticipated results

The benefits for the largely poor population in the coastal and inland regions are improved working and living conditions, such as better resource use, a sustainable rise in income and food security.

Participatory development and good governance are major sub-objectives of the project. Implementing the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries advances the rights of the poor population to co-determination on the use and management of resources. Implementation is therefore essential for a coherent, participatory policy on resource use. National legislation to ensure fair access to fisheries resources makes a major contribution to good governance and to supporting state functions in resource management. Local institutions back up these laws and actively involve the poor population as resource managers and small entrepreneurs.

Pilot schemes have direct socio-cultural results on the target groups by encouraging personal initiative in the fisheries sector. The anticipated ecological results are sustainable fisheries, conservation of live aquatic resources and their biosphere and the protection of coastal zones. The results will be achieved by implementing the Code through drafting the relevant national sets of environmental rules. The pilot schemes will improve service delivery and cooperative relations amongst regional fisheries associations, non-governmental organisations, government organisations and companies in the partner countries.

Development areas and activities

The project assists in setting up the legal framework for implementing sustainable fisheries management by:

• providing advice and collaborating in committees at national and international level to coordinate a joint strategy
• supporting developing countries in implementing CCRF and adapting it to regional conditions
• assisting in developing new projects to facilitate CCRF implementation.

A major element in the method is cooperating in the setting up of pilot schemes to show how single articles of the Code can be implemented. The project also initiates and supports working groups, study groups, committees and networks both at European fisheries policy level and in the partner countries. By organising cooperation in this way, best practices emerging from pilot schemes will be integrated into CCRF.