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The MCSCC Board of Directors makes significant steps for MCSCC operationalisation
The MCSCC Board of Directors held its second meeting in South Africa on 4-6 March 2025, with key issues on the agenda for advancing the operationalisation of the Fisheries Monitoring Control and Surveillance Coordination Centre (MCSCC). After two days of technical deliberations amongst the Board Members with support of the MCSCC technical team and MCSCC partners, the Board endorsed important instruments related to the governance and the financial structure of the MCSCC, as well as the Code for the Establishment and Implementation of the Regional Register of Fishing Vessel through the MCSCC (RRFV Code) aimed at setting the framework for the establishment and implementation of the SADC Regional Register of Fishing Vessels (RRFV). The next step: the Joint Meeting of SADC Ministers of Agriculture and Food Security, Fisheries and Aquaculture in May, where those instruments will be submitted for approval.
“The Board of Directors has a role to play in guiding the process of operationalising the MCSCC to achieve its mandate in combatting IUU fishing and related fisheries crimes in the region”. It is with those words that the Chair of the Board of Directors, Stanley Ndara, started the second meeting of the MCSCC Board of Directors held on 4-6 March in Johannesburg.
For this meeting, the Board Members had set themselves an ambitious agenda, with the goal to validate key instruments related to the governance and the financial structure of the MCSCC. Ensuring the sustainability of the MCSCC is a critical issue, which will be addressed as part of a sustainability plan to be elaborated through the MCSCC Secretariat and its partners. Prioritising reflections on sustainability is essential to think in the long term, ensuring that the Centre benefits from secured and permanent core funding for its activities. One of the key options for financial sustainability of the MCSCC is the opportunity to generate funds through the RRFV, a function of the MCSCC as defined in the MCSCC Charter that is yet to be established.
Initial steps towards the establishment of the RRFV had already been started through the MCSCC Operational Task Force, which made initial recommendations on initial criteria and conditions as part of a phased approach for the establishment of the Register. Those regional consultations through the MCSCC Operational Task Force, as well as national sensitisation with decision-makers and stakeholders in the countries, paved the way to the elaboration of the RRFV Code that was presented and endorsed by the Board of Directors at the meeting. The RRFV Code has the objective to set the framework for the establishment and implementation of the RRFV, supporting the vision of the Charter to use the RRFV as a key tool to operationalise SADC commitments against IUU fishing.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the SADC region is a scourge for the region, the Board of Directors Chair said, recalling the 2008 SADC Commitment of Ministers responsible for fisheries to combat it. By endorsing the Code for the establishment and implementation of the RRFV through the MCSCC, the Board of Directors makes an important step towards materialising this commitment.
The MCSCC can count on the support of its technical partners to accompany those processes. “The SADC is showing leadership for the whole continent. SIF remains fully committed to providing ongoing support and operational initiatives to ensure the success of this effort”, said Per Erik Bergh, SIF Coordinator. This will include enhancing visibility and raising awareness on this leadership, encouraging other regions to join this collective effort. Key will also be to sensitise all relevant stakeholders, including the industry, flag States and the civil society, to be part of this change – towards sustainable fisheries that benefit all, the objective that the region has been committed to for over two decades.