The Agriculture expert group of the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) is pleased to invite you to the seminar about the new standard for the exchange of information on fisheries (FLUX) worldwide. The seminar will take place on 27 April 2016 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva (Switzerland) within the framework of the UN/CEFACT Forum.
Due to poor fishery management the world fish stocks are depleting. Overfishing and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities are pointed out as the main causes for the collapse of fish stocks worldwide (WWF, 2015; EC, 2015). The breakdown or collapse of coastal fisheries has a direct impact on the ecological environment and on the economic well-being of communities that rely on fisheries for their livelihoods. Therefore, the United Nations dedicated Sustainable Development Goal 14 to enhance sustainable fisheries and by doing so, counter further depletion and improve the livelihood of those who depend on fisheries.
An essential step in sustainable fisheries management is timely and accurate acquisition of fisheries information. Until now, fisheries management has been largely based upon the collection and exchange of large sets of data between various institutions. This results in a patchwork of diverse data sets which hinder the exchange and the quality of the data.
The agriculture expert group of UN/CEFACT has now developed a standard for the exchange of fishery messages for the sustainable management of fisheries (FLUX).
FLUX project
The FLUX project has been instigated to define a universal and efficient data exchange language to monitor and report on fisheries worldwide. The standard is developed in such a way that it can be used by all organisations associated to fisheries management.
With this standard, fisheries managers around the world will have for the first time access to an open and global standard to automatically collect and disseminate fishery catch data needed for sustainable fishery management. The standard is an efficient tool for detecting and combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. In addition, the standard will boost the development of a reliable and up-to-date database on fish catches, which will in turn improve research on science-based fishery management.
About this Mini-Conference
To promote and inform about this standard, the agriculture expert group of the UN/CEFACT is organizing a seminar on the FLUX project. The purpose of this seminar is to inform about the FLUX project, share experiences and lessons learned and provide expertise to interest countries and organisations on how to implement FLUX.
The workshop is designed as a peer-to-peer workshop were experts from the fishery industry can share experiences for information exchange in fishery management systems and jointly discuss approaches for implementation.
Target audience
Main target group for this seminar are representatives of ministries and experts from Fishery Management Organizations and international organizations and institutes working within marine fisheries.
Participation via teleconference is possible. Please contact [email protected] for the call-in information.
Programme
Please click here for the programme.
Registration
To attend the Seminar, registration is compulsory. You are kindly invited to register through the 27th UN/CEFACT Forum on-line registration by 15 April 2016 at the latest. Should you need assistance with your visa, please let us know and send a copy of your passport as early as possible and no later than 4 April 2016 to Ms. Amélia Delle Foglie: [email protected].
Registration through the Forum website is necessary even if you are only planning to participate as a Speaker at the FLUX Seminar.
Participation is free of charge but participants are responsible for making their own travel and accommodation arrangements. The UNECE secretariat does not have a budget for supporting the travel expenses of the participants. To facilitate your hotel room reservation, please find the necessary information on the UN/CEFACT Forum website(under the tab "Logistics"). We advise that you make your hotel bookings as early as possible, because demand for rooms in Geneva is high at this time of the year, and prices will rise if you book very close to the date.
Should you need any more information about the Seminar, please do not hesitate to contact the UNECE secretariat by e-mail at [email protected].