Director-General José Graziano da Silva Peru joins Port State Measures Agreement to combat unregulated fishing
27 September 2017, Rome – Peru has become the latest country to join global efforts against illegal fishing by acceding to a FAO-brokered international pact.
Peruvian Ambassador to Italy and the UN agencies in Rome, Luis Carlos Antonio Ibérico Núñez, today formally presented FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva with the country’s instrument of ratification to the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing.
The FAO Director-General strongly welcomed Peru’s accession, hoping its example will be followed by many other countries in the Latin American and the Caribbean region.
PSMA: first ever binding international treaty that focuses specifically on illicit fishing
The Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA) – adopted as an FAO Agreement in 2009 after a years-long diplomatic effort – is the first ever binding international treaty that focuses specifically on illicit fishing.
The PSMA, which requires international ports to carry out regular inspections on fishing vessels and to deny port services to offending vessels, went into force in June 2016 after the threshold of more than 25 countries – ranging from Cuba and the United States of America to Mozambique and the European Union acting on behalf of its 28 members – deposited their instruments of adherence.
Currently, there are 49 parties to the PSMA, including the EU as one party. Of those, 12 are Latin America and Caribbean countries (Bahamas, Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Panama, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincente and Grenadines, Uruguay).
The Port State Measures agreement provides the international community with a valuable tool for achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which includes a stand-alone goal on the conservation of and sustainable use of oceans and a specific sub-target on IUU fishing.
http://www.fao.org/director-general/newsroom/news/detail/en/c/1039842/
Qvetech.com