DIRECTORATE OF FISHERIES

Mr. Jake Brunner, program coordinator in Vietnam and Ms. Bui Thi Thu Hien are representatives of IUCN. On the part of D-Fish, there were the presences of Mr. Nguyen Quang Hung - Deputy General Director of D-Fish, Mr. Le Tran Nguyen Hung – Director of Department of Aquatic Resources Conservation and Development.

IUCN has worked with D-Fish for many years. The relationship between IUCN and D-Fish is very important. IUCN wishes to expand its strong relationship with D-Fish. IUCN is proposed by Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) to submit a project within the framework of the GEF 7. Thus, MONRE and IUCN together with D-Fish (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) proposed to implement the project to strengthen biodiversity conservation and sustainable fisheries development through integration of integrated coastal management (ICM) and marine protected areas (MPAs) management.

In the context of a series of new legal documents that will come into force in the coming time, especially the Fisheries Law of 2017 and the Law of Plan 2017, while recognizing the overlap between the MPAs and the legal fishing. IUCN recognizes that this is a good time to implement a pilot project to improve the management effectiveness of the MPA network in Vietnam, integrated coastal region management and MPAs management into marine space management purposes. The main objective of the project is to restrict and control illegal fishing, restoration and biodiversity conservation. The project proposes activities for both national and local levels, especially piloting in some key marine protected areas with high biodiversity under the coordination and management of both MONRE and MARD.

After listening to a short presentation by the IUCN representative, representative from Department of Aquatic Resources Conservation and Development proposed to determine the scope of the pilot area, taking into account of the ecosystem base approach. He suggested extending the pilot range to neighboring areas within the same ecosystem. For example, pilot site of Quang Nam – Da Nang could be expanded to Quang Ngai as the areas are in the same ecosystem. The representative from Department of Aquatic Resources Conservation and Development also suggested inserting a pilot site in Hon Cau – Phu Quy MPAs in Binh Thuan province. In addition, with the co-management objective and approach in project implementation, attention should be paid to the participation of stakeholders, especially those directly using marine resources such as fisheries, actors doing business – tourism activities using marine resources, calling for responsibilities of involved parties in the project to bring the highest efficiency. In addition, through the project implementation at the pilot sites, experience sharing and replication of the co-management model could be shared, with particular focus on the implementation of the co-management Article in the Fisheries Law 2017.

At the end of the meeting, Deputy Director General Nguyen Quang Hung assigned Department of Aquatic Resources Conservation and Development to continue working with IUCN to advise and complete the project proposal and soon deployed when the project approved.

Huong Tra