A national inception workshop on ‘Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem (BOBLME)' will be held in the city on May 6 and 7.
The workshop is held here as per the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture. Apart from 20 National Task Force (NTF) members, more than 70 invitees from scientific, academic institutions, industry and other stakeholder groups are expected to participate.
Dr. P. Krishnaiah, Chief Executive of National Fisheries Development Board, will be the chief guest and Tarun Shridhar, Joint Secretary (fisheries), Ministry of Agriculture, will chair the inaugural function.
Gavin Wali, FAO India representative, Dr. Chris O'Brient, regional coordinator and Dr. Rudolph Hermes, Technical Advisor, BOBLME, RCU, Bangkok will attend.
The two-day workshop will present the project objectives and chalk out the action plan for implementation of the project in India.
A series of meetings and workshops are contemplated in different countries of Bay of Bengal region during the next four years.
“Being an important stakeholder in Bay of Bengal, India needs to play her legitimate lead role taking advantage of her endowments, human resources and capacities,” said K. Vijayakumaran, Director-General, Fishery Survey of India.
BOBLME is one of the 64 large marine ecosystems (LMEs) recognised worldwide.
The concept of ecosystem based fisheries management is promoted by FAO and LMEs are ideal for testing the ecosystem approach in fisheries management focusing on sustainable management of resources and dependent systems.
For effective implementation of BOBLME project, Ministry of Agriculture has identified Dr. Vijaykumaran as the national coordinator for the second phase of the project.
A National Task Force is set up by the Ministry for implementation of the project incorporating members/representatives from various organisations and government.
