Sjávarútvegs- og landbúnaðarráðherra, leggur áherslu á sjávarútvegs- og þróunarmál hjá FAO og fagnar inngöngu Færeyja
Einar K. Guðfinnsson, sjávarútvegs- og landbúnaðarráðherra, hélt ræðu fyrir Íslands hönd á 34. aðalfundi Matvæla- og landbúnaðarstofnunar Sameinuðu þjóðanna þriðjudaginn 20. nóvember.
Í upphafi ræðu sinnar bauð Einar Færeyinga sérstaklega velkomna, en aukaaðild Færeyja að FAO var staðfest í upphafi aðalfundarins síðastliðinn laugardag.
Einar lagði áherslu á mikilvægi sjávarútvegs fyrir fæðuöryggi og efnahagslega velsæld í heiminum og mikilvægi FAO sem þeirrar hnattrænu stofnunar sem færi með sjávarútvegsmál. Í því samhengi benti hann á að Ísland hefur tekið virkan þátt í fjölbreyttu starfi varðandi sjávarútveg innan FAO, nú síðast varðandi fjareftirlit með fiskiskipum sem getur bætt bæði fiskveiðistjórnun og öryggi sjómanna.
Ísland hefur aukið fjárframlög sín til þróunarsamvinnu umtalsvert á undanförnum árum og fjallaði Einar um það í ræðu sinni. Benti hann í því sambandi m.a. á nýtt verkefni gegn jarðvegseyðingu. Verkefnið verður að hluta unnið í samvinnu við FAO og mun styrkja enn frekar samvinnu Íslands og FAO á sviði landbúnaðar og sjálfbærrar nýtingar lands, þar sem þekking Íslendinga á landgræðslu og skógrækt myndi nýtast vel.
Að lokum fagnaði Einar þeirri óháðu úttekt á starfi FAO sem nú er nýlokið og sagði hana geta orðið góðan grunn að umbótum stofnunarinnar á ýmsum sviðum, þ.m.t. í jafnréttismálum og við að innleiða nútímalegri stjórnunarhætti.
Í tengslum við aðalfundinn sat Einar tvo ráðherrafundi um afmörkuð mál, en á báðum þeirra voru um 300 þátttakendur auk tuga ráðherra alls staðar frá í heiminum. Annars vegar var fundur um fiskeldi, þar sem áhersla var lögð á uppbyggingu fiskeldis í þróunarríkjum. Hins vegar var fundur um fjármögnun landbúnaðar í þróunarríkjum. Var Einar formaður og fundarstjóri síðarnefnda fundarins þar sem aðalframkvæmdastjóri FAO, varaforseti Zambíu, aðstoðarframkvæmdastjóri landbúnaðarmála hjá Evrópusambandinu og framkvæmdastjóri verkefnis um græna byltingu í Afríku héldu erindi áður en almennar umræður ráðherra hófust.
Einnig átti Einar fundi með ýmsum ráðherrum og embættismönnum, þ.m.t. dr. Jacques Diouf aðalframkvæmdastjóra FAO og Ichiro Nomura framkvæmdastjóra fiskimáladeildar FAO.
Meðfylgjandi mynd var tekin þegar færeyski fáninn var í fyrsta sinn dreginn að húni við höfuðstöðvar FAO. Á myndinni eru Jóannes Eidesgaard lögmaður Færeyja, Einar K. Guðfinnsson og Bjørn Kalsø sjávarútvegsráðherra Færeyja.
Fyrir neðan má finna ræðu ráðherra, á ensku.
Address of H. E. Einar K Guðfinnsson, Minister of Fisheries of Iceland
at the 33. Conference of the FAO, 19 - 25 November 2005.
"Mr. Chairman, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates.
Allowe me, Mr Chairman and Mr Vice Chairmen to congratulate you upon your election to chair this Conference. It is also a great pleasure for me to welcome the people of the Belarus to the FAO familiy. Last but not least, I would like to congratulate Dr Jacques Diouf on his third term of office as Director-General of our Organization.
On its Sixtieth Anniversary, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is at cross-roads. Confronted with the enormous task of fighting world hunger and achieving the Millenium Development Goals of halving, before the year 2015, the number of people suffering from hunger and extreme poverty, the member countries will have to, jointly, make a more concentrated effort to bring this number down.
In order to do so the Organization is now going through process of reform and modernization, advocated by severly member states, including my country. Iceland welcomes the Director-General's reform ideas and the Independent External Evaluation. We sincerely believe that these two formidable efforts will lead to the strengthening of our organization, making it more effective and vigorous in tackling the problem of world hunger.
In the fight against hunger in the world, all countries have a role to play. First of all to maintain and secure sustainable food security for their own people and, secondly, to participate the world market in food stuffs. Iceland wishes to see the developing countries as active participants in the global food markets.
Being a Minister for Fisheries for my country, I would like to emphasize the importance of fisheries for the Food Security of the World. Fish products provide 15 percent of animal proteins consumed in world. Of the 30 countries most dependent on fish protein, all but four are in the developing world. Fish is great potential source for protein consumption in several developing countries, as well as being a potential quality product for their export to world markets.
The aim of Iceland´s developing cooperation is to build up capacity in the field of fisheries in order to enable countries to utilize their living resoures of the ocean. We are host to the United Nations Fisheries Training Programme and we take pride in having invited professionsals from numerous developing countries to come to Iceland to train in fishing, processing and marketing of fish products.
My country puts great store in the work of the FAO´s Fisheries Department and we want to supports its work. Our latest effort was an agreement on supporting the FAO Fisheries Department to the tune of one million US$ in assisting developing countries in capacity building in fisheries. We are also active partners in the recently established World Bank Global Programme on Fisheries, PROFISH.
I like to emphasize the role of the FAO as a centre for knowledge. It is the task of the organization to report on the status of world fisheries and aquaculture. It is our firm belief that FAO is the proper platform for addressing global issues in fisheries but that responsible management of the living marine resources is best carried out at the national and regional level, and should be in the hands of those with most at stake and who are most affected by the decisions taken. Market-driven fisheries, free of state subsidies, is the only solution to secure sustainable utilization of the fish stocks and the work security of the people involved in the production. It should be our aim to fully utilize our living marine resources, which should not be confused with over-utilizing fish-stocks.
Iceland shares many of the concerns expressed over the state of the oceans and of fish stocks in some regions. While these concerns make it incumbent on states to work together, they may not necessarily be best addressed with additional global instruments or solutions. There are no global fish stocks. The necessary legal framework for management of the living marine resources is in place in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. What needs to be done is to implement effectively existing instruments.
Mr Chairman.
My Government has made a concentrated effort to strengthen our development cooperation. Iceland’s Policy on development co-operation entails more than a doubling of current levels of Icelandic Official Development Assistance (ODA). It is our wish to work together with member states of our organizsation for the the promotion of sustainable use of natural resources, and ecosystem approach to fisheries, and thus contribute to the food security for all humankind."
