General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean - GFCM

Regional Plan of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (RPOA-SSF)

The signing of a Ministerial Declaration on the RPOA-SSF took place at the end of the High-level event on 26 September 2018.

The RPOA-SSF is a political commitment setting forth concrete actions to be carried out over the next ten years (until 2028) in order to strengthen and support sustainable small-scale fisheries in our region. It aims at establishing objectives, principles and concrete actions to ensure the long-term environmental, economic and social sustainability of SSF.

This RPOA-SSF is based on the conclusions of the First Regional Symposium on Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, the SSF Guidelines, the Regional Conference “Building a future for sustainable small-scale fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea”, the High-level conference on Black Sea fisheries and aquaculture, the High-level conference towards enhanced cooperation on Black Sea fisheries and aquaculture, the Ministerial conference on the sustainability of Mediterranean fisheries “MedFish4Ever” (Malta, March 2017) and the Mid-term strategy (2017-2020) towards the sustainability of Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries adopted by the GFCM, and finally the FAO Blue Growth Initiative.

In particular, the RPOA-SSF puts forth actions to be taken in line with nine key topics:

  1. Scientific research
  2. Small-scale fisheries data
  3. Small-scale fisheries management measures
  4. Small-Scale fisheries value chain
  5. Participation of small-scale fisheries in decision-making processes
  6. Capacity-building
  7. Decent work
  8. Role of women
  9. Climate and environment

Read the RPOA-SSF (PDF): En | Fr

Signed Ministerial Declaration available here: Declaration