The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute(CMFRI) will join hands with the World Wildlife Fund(WWF)-India to draft the management strategies for strengthening the resilience to achieve healthy and productive ocean ecosystems.The NITI Aayog, CMFRI and WWF-India will jointly organise a two-day brainstorming session of marine biologists, environmentalists, technocrats, fisheries experts from across the country and senior officers with the Fisheries Departments from all the maritime states and UTs at the CMFRI on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The draft action plan will be finalised at the end of the meet on Wednesday. “The conglomeration of experts from various sectors will identify the ways and means for the protection of ocean wealth in a long-term view at the meet and the draft action plan will be circulated among the stakeholders for feedback,” said CMFRI director A Gopalakrishnan.
New efforts are part of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals(SDG) set by the UN. “The broad objective of the action plan is to build strong linkages and relevance of the SDG-14, which is related to the conservation of oceans, seas and marine resources”, he said. The action plan for sustainable marine ecosystem management will identify ways and means to empower the existing small-scale fisheries in the country, to identify various sustainable practices and inclusive models for the protection of marine ecosystem, to end illegal and harmful fishing practices, to prevent marine pollution and to secure livelihood of fisher communities.
NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand, advisor Ashok Jain and WWF India programme director Sejal will lead discussions at the meet. Representatives of all coastal states and UTs, stakeholders including Central Government ministries, academia, scientists from research institutes, UN bodies and NGOs will attend. Officers with various departments in the state including Fisheries, Forests, Ocean Development, Industry and Coastal Zone Management Authority will attend the meet.