Fiji Becomes First Pacific Nation To Join FiTI

Fiji has become the first Pacific Island nation to join the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI). Alitia Bainivalu, Fiji’s Fisheries Minister, and Sven Biermann, Executive Director of FiTI, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the UN FAO COFI meeting held in Rome last week. Fiji will also collaborate with FiTI to deploy a Fisheries Information System (FIS), under which FiTI will support the Ministry in organising, verifying, and publishing data through its online reporting infrastructure.

The two parties will work together to enhance fisheries transparency in the Fiji’s fisheries, including publishing reliable data on its marine sector, covering foreign fishing agreements, commercial licensing, catch volumes, and local artisanal fishing activities, according to a FiTI statement.  Biermann said: “Fiji is not just a new country that we welcome into the FiTI; it also marks the start of our implementation efforts in the Pacific, one of the most important fisheries regions globally.” FiTI is a global, multi-stakeholder initiative that works with coastal countries to improve transparency in how their marine fisheries are managed.