Director General of the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Nizar Haddad represented Jordan at the General Fisheries Commission of the Mediterranean (GFCM) virtual meeting.

This meeting landed on a commitment to implement a new strategy for the fisheries and aquaculture sector by 2030. The director-general of FAO, European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries and Executive Secretary of the GFCM opened the meeting. Fifteen ministers and 10 senior officials from 23 countries also attended the meeting, according to a NARC statement.

The commission’s strategy provides a common vision and guiding principles to achieve sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in the region and unifies efforts to fulfill national, regional and global commitments to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, to eradicate poverty, achieve food security and combat inequality and injustice, the statement said. 

 The overexploitation of resources is a great challenge and makes it ever more critical to ensure the sustainability of fisheries through integrating social, economic and environmental principles to conserve fisheries’ biodiversity, read the statement.