Fisheries Management - Crucial CFP Issues Discussed The final SOCIOEC project meeting took place in the Aquarium Tropical Palais de la Porte Dorée, Paris, France from 19-20 November 2014. As the project is nearing its end date in February 2015, this meeting provided an ideal opportunity for the partners to review the results achieved so far and plan for the concluding activities of the project. The SOCIOEC project has focused on the socioeconomic effects of management measures of the EC’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Since it began in March 2012, the project has explored the development of possible new future measures to be introduced in order to achieve a more profitable and efficient fishing sector that provides sustainable employment, supports society’s aims, and contributes to societal well-being. SOCIOEC project coordinator Prof Ralf Dӧring said: “SOCIOEC has made progress in understanding the measures in the new CFP, incentives in existing measures, and regionalisation of fisheries management. The impressively long list of overarching and regionally agreed objectives will bring together the diverse needs of the EU community for a positive change.” The results obtained from the project have argued for the possibility of the regionalisation of the CFP and SOCIOEC partners have been developing a toolkit which will measure impact. A key feature of SOCIOEC has been the direct involvement of partners from the fishing industry and an additional broader range of stakeholders via participation in workshops. Although management measures have yet to be finalised, the results from stakeholders’ workshops show a clear diversity of regulations between countries. SOCIOEC SWOT Stakeholder Workshops SOCIOEC recently held a series of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) stakeholder workshops: • Western Waters Case Study SWOT Workshop - AZTI, Derio, Spain, 4-5 November 2014 • Baltic Sea Case Study SWOT Workshop - Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries, Hamburg, Germany, 11 November 2014 • SWOT Workshop on co- and self-management and regionalisation - Aquarium Tropical Palais de la Porte Dorée, Paris, 21 November 2014 The workshops explored regionalisation and how co- and/or self-management can contribute to the objectives of the CFP. These topics were analysed in relation to economic, social and environmental parameters and in relation to the specific SOCIOEC case study regions. Troels Jacob Hegland from Aalborg University, Denmark, who coordinated the last SWOT workshop in Paris, said: “The discussions at the event showed a genuine interest in developing co-management as a part of regionalisation under the CFP. Nonetheless, the early experiences with regionalisation under the new CFP (i.e. the process towards the implementation of the landing obligation) have left many of the participants in the process frustrated and with doubts as to whether there is a sufficient ‘spirit of co-management’ throughout the system.” SOCIOEC Final Symposium The SOCIOEC final symposium will be held in the Royal Flemish Academy for Sciences and the Arts, Brussels, from 17-19 February 2015. Registration is now open and all participants are welcomed. The symposium will focus on the main research themes of the SOCIOEC project. More information is available here: http://socioec.eu/media-centre-4/final-symposium For more information about the SOCIOEC project, visit: www.socioec.eu. For press queries, please contact the project communications officer: Christine Shortt, AquaTT (email: christine@aquatt.ie Tel: +353 1 644 9008). Notes for Editors The SOCIOEC consortium comprises 25 partners from 12 countries. The THÜNEN Institute of Sea Fisheries is coordinating the project. AquaTT is the project dissemination partner. The project is funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological development (FP7/2007-2013) under the grant agreement n°289192. Dr Ralf Dӧring, SOCIOEC coordinator, is leading the fisheries economics unit at the THÜNEN Institute of Sea Fisheries and has worked mainly on the implementation of the ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management plans and the evaluation of long term gains compared to short term costs. Detailed partner profiles are available on request. Countries Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom
