The Smart Fish Co-Management (SFC) project launch coincides with the Virtual Myanmar Project Area Identification Meeting

On 24 and 25 November 2020 the Smart Fish Co-Management (SFC) will run a virtual meeting to bring together stakeholders representing various interests around fisheries co-management in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar to review the objective, outputs, and activities of the project.

On this occasion, the project will kick-off its five years' work plan and all planned activities as part of the Korea FAO Sustainable and Innovative Fisheries and Aquaculture Programme (KOFAP), a joint collaboration agreement among the Government of the Republic of Korea and the FAO Fisheries Division.

The project aims at improving the capacity of governments and fishing communities in fisheries co-management, as a solution to face all the emerging challenges that threaten the sustainable use of fishery resources and might affect fish stocks sustainability, resources exploitation, as well as social aspects, economies, livelihoods, food security, and nutrition levels.

Conceived to support the co-management capacity, evaluation and building, the SFC also intends to develop sustainable coastal livelihoods in fishing communities in selected countries, the first of which is the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Through open dialogue and collaborative consultation, the project will look at enhancing the livelihoods of fishing communities, to enable socio-economic uplift of the fisherfolks and their communities.

The core of the dialogue with all Myanmar stakeholders will be to develop the best cooperation and coordination mechanism at state, region, district, township, ward, and village levels. Part of the discussion will also be site selection criteria, to put into the field the fisheries co-management evaluation approach.