The 1st Regional Scientific and Technical Committee Meeting at Trat Fisheries Refugia Site

During September 11-13, 2018, The Project Coordinating Unit (PCU) had organized the Regional Scientific and Technical Committee Meeting for the SEAFDEC/UN Environment/GEF Project on Establishment and Operation of a Regional System of Fisheries Refugia in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand, which was conducted in Trat Provinces, Thailand. Many participants attended the meeting included; one representative from each of six participating countries, three regional experts, representatives from the SEAFDEC-SWEDEN project, representatives from Japanese Trust Fund (JTF) project and the PCU staffs.

The objectives of this meeting were as follow; 1) to inform on TOR for the Regional Scientific and Technical Committee, 2) to progress the report on the national activities from 2017 till June 2018 by National Scientific and Technical Committee (NSTC), 3) to discuss on the proposed national activities from 2018 Q-3 to Q4 and 2019 Q1-Q4, 4) to share the experience on the implementation of fisheries refugia for sustainable fisheries, 5) to discuss on the baseline survey template to support national and regional analysis, 6) to discuss on Gender Mainstreaming to the project implementation, and 7) to inform on the project budgeting and reporting. Many interesting issues were discussed during the meeting such as; fisheries management by fisheries refugia concept, fish stock identification by genetic study, gender mainstreaming to the project implementation.