34. aðalfund Matvæla- og landbúnaðarstofnunar Sameinuðu þjóðanna, FAO 17.-24. nóvember 2007
Address of H. E. Einar K. Guðfinnsson
Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture of Iceland
at the 34th Conference of the FAO, 17 - 24 November 2007
Mr. Chairman, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates.
Allow me, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Vice Chairmen to congratulate you upon your election to chair this Conference. It is also a great pleasure for me to welcome Andorra and Montenegro to the FAO family, and especially my friends and neighbours from the Faroe Islands.
Mr. Chairman.
A significant proportion of animal proteins consumed in the world is from fisheries products, not least in the developing world. The economic benefits derived from the fisheries sector contribute greatly to development and economic well-being around the world, as well as to enhance food security.
My country attaches great importance to the work of the FAO’s Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture. We want to support its work regarding the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. In recent months we have been co-operating with the Department on issues including Vessel Monitoring Systems for fishing vessels. We welcome the good work done at the Department in this field and we remain convinced that it will continue to bring benefits to the world’s fisheries and for safety at sea.
I would like to emphasize the role of the FAO as the appropriate forum for addressing global issues in fisheries. The FAO has proved to be an important forum for co-operation and co-ordination, on a range of issues. These include the fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fisheries and the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems. In cases where global co-operation is required, the FAO will continue to be of vital importance.
Having said that, it should be stressed that responsible management of living marine resources is best carried out at national and regional level, and should be in the hands of those with most at stake and who are most affected by the decisions taken. Rights-based and market-driven fisheries, free of state subsidies, based on the best available scientific information, is the only way to secure sustainable utilisation of the fish stocks and the economic well-being of the people involved. It should be our aim to fully utilize our living marine resources on a sustainable basis, which should not be confused with over-utilizing fish-stocks.
Iceland shares many of the concerns expressed about the state of the oceans and of fish stocks in some regions. While these concerns make it incumbent on States to work together, they are not best addressed with additional global instruments or initiatives. On the contrary, such an approach would in fact be counter-productive and harmful. There are no global fish stocks. The necessary legal framework for management of the living marine resources is in place in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. What needs to be done is to implement effectively existing instruments.
Mr. Chairman.
Enhancing food security has been the core of Iceland’s development cooperation through the Icelandic International Development Agency and the UN University Fisheries Training Programme. Here the FAO is an important partner and has made a significant contribution to the development of international norms on sustainable fisheries and responsible fish trade. The UN University Geothermal Training Programme has been a second pillar in our capacity building efforts.
Allow me to inform you that my Government has decided to markedly increase it’s contribution to development cooperation. This includes funding of a three-year pilot program in capacity building in the field of soil conservation and land management. This programme is for post-graduate students and professionals from developing countries with dry-land areas and it is our hope that it will in future take the form of an UN University Training Programme. This field is one of the core normative activities of FAO and we therefore hope to have fruitful co-operation with its expert in the years to come. Through this we hope to strengthen our cooperation with FAO in the fields of agriculture and sustainable land use. Revegetation efforts through the development of sustainable land use, afforestation and combating active soil erosion has been a core activity in Icelandic agriculture from the enactment of laws on these issues that were passed in the Icelandic Parliament a century ago this week, on the 22nd of November 1907.
Another area of particular interest is our participation in the important work of FAO within the area of preservation and sustainable use of domesticated plant and animal genetic resources. In this field the Nordic countries have had a close regional cooperation that has led to important technology transfer, especially to developing nations.
Mr Chairman.
I believe that the FAO has a great future, built on more than sixty years of experience and hard work. As a knowledge center in its fields of work it has no equal. We need to build on this solid foundation, but at the same time look ahead. Therefore, Iceland welcomes the report of the Independent External Evaluation. We believe that now is the momentum to reform the organisation, to apply modern management principles and in particular to implement gender equality. We are now preparing the FAO for its important tasks in the 21st century.
Thank you.