The Algarve fishermen met last Friday, March 18, in Lagoa, towards the construction of the Octopus Fisheries Co-Management Committee in the Algarve.
This was the first face-to-face discussion meeting on models of co-management of the octopus fishery in the Algarve region, within the scope of the ParticiPESCA project, after several remote work sessions during the confinements.
Led by Associação Natureza Portugal in association with WWF (ANP|WWF) in partnership with Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA), Centro de Ciências do Mar (CCMAR) of the University of Algarve (UAlg) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), financed by Mar2020 and with the co-financing of the Oceano Azul Foundation, the main objective of ParticiPESCA is to implement a co-management model for octopus fishing in the Algarve, currently involving 12 fishermen associations, representing hundreds of professionals around the world. throughout the region, and other entities involved in the fishery.
In this 1st Face-to-face Meeting of the Future Committee for Co-management of Octopus Fisheries in the Algarve, «dynamics were created to understand and frame the co-management in fisheries and what it entails, along with the realization of a status of the work of monitoring the octopus and of fishing», says the organization.
Rita Sá, coordinator of Oceans and Fisheries at ANP|WWF, considers that “this was a crucial meeting for this project, as the first consensus was reached regarding the representative model of the future co-management committee”.
«This is, in fact, a new paradigm in the management of natural resources, in which Portugal has assumed itself as a leading and innovative country», he adds.
Until the end of the year, this working group will meet periodically to prepare a proposal for a Fishery Management Plan, created by all the stakeholders – Fishermen's Associations, Administration, Researchers and Civil Society – to submit to the guardianship.
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