NFA still working out issues since yellow card

 THE European Union (EU) has instructed PNG to address five areas which include legislation, tuna management plan, traceability, licensing and cooperation among state agencies.  

National Fisheries Authority’s managing director John Kasu said a meeting between officials from Papua New Guinea and EU on the yellow card issue in Brussels last month had been very positive.

Kasu said the country has done a lot since the EU issued a yellow card last June to PNG and threatened import bans over illegal fishing.

Kasu said: “There’s quite a lot that we (NFA) have done. There are issues that we are working on especially like the regulation 2015, which is the amendments of the 2000 regulations, because of the reforms that we are doing, we have to make some amendments to regulations.  

“The board is going to look at it for approval, we will pass it onto the office of legislative council and then from the office of legislative council, it goes to National Executive Council for approval. 

 “A lot of work was done on policies last year, those policies are now in place and we are working on their implementation. The policies are in place but you need implementation arrangements to get there. 

“So there were three major reforms; the legislation, once we get the regulation in by end of August we should get that passed by cabinet. 

“So the work on legislation is finished, and then the work on tuna management plan is already done, except a couple of things that we are passing through the board for approval next week (this week).

 “And then we’ve got the next plan of action which is more of monitoring, control and surveillance. This is going to be an ongoing work because all you have to do is to have management plans in place, policies in 

place, how do you monitor what is actually happening, its compliance issues.

“Resources that have been put through for the last year and up till now have been enormous by the board and approvals. 

“We’ve got good commitment by the Government, a good support from the Government and everything that we’ve done just pushed it through.”