During the past decade the incidences of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing have grown at an alarming rate within the Convention and adjacent areas. IUU fishing depletes fish stocks, hampers resource management efforts by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RMFOs) or national governments, destroys marine habitats, distorts competition, puts honest fishers at an unfair disadvantage, and weakens coastal communities, particularly in developing countries.  Furthermore,   IUU fishing leads to the loss of both short and long-term social and economic opportunities and could have negative impact on food security.

Countries in the Southeast Asian region are confronted by increasing pressure on their fisheries resources from IUU fishing. In many cases, IUU operations expand due to weak Monitoring Control and Surveillance (MCS) regime and IUU fishers exploit this situation to their gain. The causes of weak MCS are broadly the lack of enforcement due to manpower and budgetary shortages with the implementing agencies and adequate knowledge and understanding of the IUU fishing by the government agencies, fishers and others stakeholders concerned.

To address this weakness, the Plan of Action on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security for the ASEAN Region Towards 2020 agreed to

         1) Establish and strengthen regional and sub-regional coordination on fisheries management and efforts to combat IUU fishing including the development of regional/sub-regional MCS networks; and

         2) Facilitate consultative dialogue among fisheries legal officers to share, at the sub-regional/regional level, perspectives of the respective legal and regulatory framework in terms of developing MCS-networks and to implement efforts to combat IUU fishing including development of programs, projects and activities for implementation of the Resolution in the region.

The objectives of RTC on MCS in Combating IUU Fishing in Southeast Asia Region are as follows:

1. To strengthen awareness and knowledge of the participants on the impact of IUU fishing on sustainable fisheries and food security in the world in general and the ASEAN region in particular;
   
   
2. To familiarize the participants on the importance of MCS in fisheries management
   
   
3. To build the capacity of the participants in better understanding the MCS framework and its implementation process; the legal and  administrative requirements for sustainable fisheries management, including co-management and locally-based fisheries management;
   
   
4. To review the present status of MCS system and in each of the SEAFDEC member-countries and the ASEAN region as a whole; and
   
   
5. To encourage the participants in applying the existing concepts and approaches on fisheries management for MCS planning and developing simple management plans incorporating MCS functions as applicable to their country, bearing in mind the funding and human resource constraints.  
   
   
   

The RTC on MCS in Combating IUU Fishing in Southeast Asia Region will focus on the following key areas:

1. To understand MCS system in term of its approaches, appropriated procedures and methods as well as the lesson learnt from the experience of other countries, within and outside the Asian region;
   
   
2. To review the present status of MCS system in each of SEAFDEC member countries; and
   
   
3. To make an assessment of the requirements to strengthen MCS system in the SEAFDEC member countries and in the ASEAN region as a whole taking into consideration the existing financial and human resource constrains.
   
   The RTC will comprise lectures, field visit on various aspects of MCS and two days of practical workshop. The tutorials and practical will also include exposure to replicable models, orientation on best practices to establish and implement MCS, and case studies from selected countries within and outside the region. In short the RTC will be organized in three modules- theory, practical (including field exposure), and conceptual aspects. The RTC will be conducted in English language and the course material will also in English.