EastMed “Scientific and Institutional Cooperation to Support Responsible Fisheries in the Eastern Mediterranean”
GCP/INT/041/EC – GRE - ITA.

Countries with waters included in the GFCM Geographical Sub-Areas (GSAs) 19-20 and 22-28.

Greece:
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Ministry of Rural Development and Food

Italy:
• Ministry of Agriculture Food and Forestry Policies

European Community:
• Directorate General of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG-MARE).

September 2009, August 2014.

The Project executed by FAO and funded by Greece, Italy and European Community, will support the development of regionally-consistent fisheries management plans among the Eastern Mediterranean countries.

The project’s longer-term development objective is to contribute to the sustainable management of marine fisheries in the Eastern Mediterranean, and thereby to support national economies and protecting the livelihoods of those involved in the fisheries sector.

The project’s immediate objective aims is to support and improve the capacity of national fishery departments, to increase their scientific and technical information base for fisheries management and to develop coordinated and participative fisheries management plans in the Eastern Mediterranean sub-region.

EastMed is one of the FAO Mediterranean Projects, e.g. AdriaMed, ArtFiMed, CopeMed, MedFisis, MedSudMed acting in support of the Mediterranean countries in achieving sustainable fisheries management in the region.

In order to achieve its objectives, EastMed will work closely with the Fisheries Departments with which it will be in contact through the Project National Focal Points and it will function through the national Fisheries Directors. Its Coordination Committee will establish and support the Country Participatory WGs (CPWGs) for ensuring the stakeholders involvement and operate data collection programs on statistics and information, on Stock Assessment, on Marine Environment and Ecosystems, on Economics and Social Sciences.

The project includes 4 components:

1. Institutional strengthening
     2. Staff training and Development
     3. Data Collection and Analysis
     4. Increased Participation and Cooperation.

The main areas of intervention are the following:

• Training for the staff of the national fisheries administrations and research institutes to undertake data collection and analyses required for fisheries management.

• Actions in the field of fishing fleet statistics, catch and effort data collection and monitoring by main fisheries.

• Support on socio-economic and ecosystem data collection relevant to the fishery.

• Development of skills in fisheries assessment and fisheries management necessary for elaborating the adequate techno-scientific framework for management plans.

• Support networking to encourage cooperation among the countries.

By the end of the project, it is intended that each country will have achieved an expertise in fishery statistics, stock assessment, fishery bio-economic assessment and marine ecosystems, and will have fully functional data collection and processing programs. The participating countries will have improved capabilities in fisheries assessment methods and management with respect to the whole Mediterranean region. The cooperation among countries and with the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) will be improved for the mutual benefit of all concerned.