December 8, 2006

Food security, fishery tops ASEAN summit agenda

A local fisheries advocacy group called on delegates in the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nation Summit to put equal emphasis on trade and non-trade matters, such as food security, in their plan to accelerate economic integration by five years to 2015.

According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the conference, held in Cebu City, is discussing initiatives toward turning the 10-member nations into a single production unit, starting with 11 priority sectors that include fisheries.

Arsenio Tanchuling, executive director of Tambuyog Development Center, said fisheries integration along ASEAN lines was a threat to the sustainability of regional seafood supply as well as to the livelihood of some 20 million small-scale fishers in the region.

He said this was a grave concern for Southeast Asian nations, considering that some 70 percent of total animal protein consumed in the region comes from the sea.

Tanchuling, who is also coordinator for the Southeast Asian Fish for Justice Network or SEAfish, said the roadmap also failed to consider the consequent danger that the free flow of fishery products in and out of the region would lead to over-fishing or the total "collapse" of fisheries production.

SEAfish is a network of 14 nongovernmental organizations and peoples' organizations in the region which, in particular, opposes complete trade liberalization in fisheries at the expense of small fishers.

As a group, Tanchuling cited ASEAN does not have effective fisheries management system as species of bluefin and big-eye tuna as well as migratory fishes roundscad and sardines, are now either endangered or over-fished."

Tanchuling called on the Philippine government to adopt a fisheries exclusion list that covers 87 marine products, which he said must be spared from the export-oriented tendency of liberalisation.