A joint FIA/NFA consultation meeting was held at the NFA’s Habour side office on Friday 18th October to review the draft Client Action Plan composed.
SCS Global Services, the independent Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) undertaking the MSC assessment of the PNG tuna fishery released the MSC Fishery Assessment Report on the 27th of September for review by PNG FIA. The draft assessment report has all Performance Indicators (“PI”) scoring above the minimum scoring guidepost (SG) of 60 (which is good) and the average aggregate scores for the 3 Principles remained above SG80.
According to CAB, based on these results the fishery is going to be recommended for certification.
However, the CAB has identified some weakness. There are 12 individual areas of the “PIs” related to this weakness that had scores below SG80 level. Hence, in this regard, CAB has issued 12 different conditions to address these “PIs” that scores below SG80. CAB has instructed PNG FIA to complete a Client Action Plan in order to meet the conditions set.
The NFA/FIA meeting on Friday 18th October, primarily had the FIA proposed actions and activities discussed with wider NFA divisions and sought their input and views. The Client Action Plan is aimed towards addressing the 12 identified conditions the CAB as placed on PNG with schedule and allocated responsibilities within the ensuing 4 years after MSC certification has been granted.
The Plan describes and outlines the supportive and facilitative roles FIA will take lead on to ‘support and assist’ NFA in areas of NFA mandates. Note, most of the condition areas are within NFA mandates.
There are activities that will seek collaboration and technical support from other regional partners agencies like SPC, PNA, FFA & WCPFC. NFA will also be communicating to these agencies to advise them accordingly.
The draft Client Action Plan is undergoing refinement and will be submitted to the CAB before 27th October 2019.