COFI37 marks 10th anniversary of the PSMA
7-10 September 2026.
Sandy Davies (Senior Fisheries and Environment Director) and Andréa Durighello (Fisheries Expert) attended the thirty-seventh session of the Committee of Fisheries (COFI 37) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
COFI is the principal global intergovernmental forum on fisheries and aquaculture within the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Every COFI meeting has a pre-defined agenda with key issues to be discussed. COFI37 had put illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) high on the agenda, as this year marked the 10th anniversary of the FAO Port States Measures Agreement (PSMA), which entered into force in 2016. IUU fishing remains a serious challenge for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the whole African continent. In their statement, the Regional Africa Group highlighted their key priorities.
- Strengthen regional Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS)
- Strengthen implementation of the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA)
- Improve fisheries information systems and transparency
- Support African countries in implementing the WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement
Other agenda items included the issue of unregulated fisheries; assessing the implementation of FAO’s Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and other related instruments; the impact of climate change on fisheries; and supporting small-scale fisheries (SSF) and aquaculture, including inland fisheries to elevate their contributions to food security, nutrition and livelihood support. To advance this agenda item, NFDS supported the active participation and contribution of small-scale fisheries representatives from Angola, Namibia and South Africa in the SSF summit of the FAO, organized ahead of the COFI.
For more details on the priorities of the Regional Africa Group at COFI37 : https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7505985203144900608
Link to the Agenda of the COFI: https://www.fao.org/fishery/meeting/41551/en
