Norway has had the honor of coordinating the informal consultations on draft resolution A/77/L.33 on sustainable fisheries. I am pleased to introduce the text on behalf of its co-sponsors.
After two years of virtual meetings, we were happy to finally convene the informal consultations in person here at the UN in New York.
This year’s resolution represents significant progress, including highlighting the work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, both in recognizing the interlinkage between food security and nutrition, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as FAO’s work on developing and disseminating practical guidance on Other Effective Area Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) for the fisheries sector. We were also pleased to see several important updates in the chapter addressing the impacts of bottom fishing on vulnerable marine ecosystems.
Fisheries provide a vital source of food, employment, trade, and economic well-being for people throughout the world.
Achieving sustainable fisheries; combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing; addressing fishing overcapacity; ensuring safety at sea and decent working conditions in the fisheries sector; and improving sub-regional and regional cooperation, are all necessary means to meet the sustainable development goals.
I would like to end by thanking all delegations for engaging constructively during this process, and for ensuring that the present resolution is a consensus product, based on amicable and substantive discussions between all delegates.