Under the Blue Ports Initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organis ation (FAO) of the United Nations

Spain offers FAO its support for the creation of the Blue Ports Global Network office and its location in the Port of Vigo

• The General Secretariat of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Department of the Sea of the Xunta de Galicia, Ports of the State and the Port of Vigo, sign an institutional declaration for the promotion of the blue economy.
• Spanish institutions will fund international training programme.
• 26 participants from 13 countries are attending the first training workshop 'Making blue ports green', organised by the FAO in the Port of Vigo from today.
  
   
  
   
  
  12-07-2022 (Puertos del Estado Government Agency)). Puertos del Estado and the Port Authority of Vigo, public agencies attached to the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, together with the General Secretariat of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and the Department of the Sea of the Xunta de Galicia, have signed this morning an institutional declaration proclaiming their firm commitment to the promotion of a blue economy for a sustainable future, which reconciles social, economic and environmental aspects.
  
   
  
  The four signatory institutions have agreed to finance, with €125,440, a training programme aimed at developing countries in which emphasis will be placed on good practices in both environmental and socio-economic sustainability in fishing ports, which could be extended to other types of ports.
  
   
  
  In the institutional declaration, the signatories express their desire to cooperate to promote the blue economy in fishing ports at an international level, and highlight the role of fishing ports as spaces of economic, social and environmental dynamisation with a high capacity to generate sustainable development in the marine-coastal areas of their influence.
  
   
  
  According to the signed institutional declaration, cooperation between fishing ports at international level is fundamental to favour the development of safe and sustainable food chains and, in this respect, the 'Blue Ports Initiative', promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), is extremely important. This initiative aims to stimulate the implementation of a blue economy approach in the strategic and operational processes of fishing ports, the development of tools for the implementation of good practices, and the generation of knowledge on the impact of ports in their area of influence. All these actions are aimed at promoting the sustainable development of coastal areas.
  
   
  
  Spain's experience in the fisheries sector, and especially that of Spanish fishing ports, is an asset that should be highlighted within the framework of the FAO initiative, and therefore its support for the creation and management of the Blue Ports Global Network office in Spain, and its location in the Port of Vigo, an international benchmark as the leading Spanish port for fishing traffic, is of paramount importance.
  
   

• INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS SPEAK AT THE FAO TRAINING COURSE

In this context, more than twenty experts from Namibia, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Morocco, Kenya, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Peru, Colombia, Spain and the Organisation of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector of the Central American Isthmus (OSPESCA) and the Central American Commission for Maritime Transport (COCATRAM) of the Central American Integration System (SICA), will participate, over the next few days, in a global FAO training course, under the title: 'Green sustainability to become a blue port'.

The meeting was inaugurated this morning in the Port of Vigo by the Regional Minister of the Sea, Rosa Quintana; the Secretary General for Fisheries, Alicia Villauriz; the President of the Port Authority of Vigo, Jesús Vázquez Almuiña; the Deputy Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division of the FAO, Audum Lem; and the head of the Blue Economy of Puertos del Estado, Marta de La Hoz.

The aim of the course, which has the collaboration of the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH), the World Bank and the World Network of Port Cities (AIVP), is to strengthen the creation of the Blue Ports Initiative, which was launched in 2019 and aims to strengthen the strategy of fishing ports in the field of sustainability, ensuring that blue ports promote social and economic growth and the environmental preservation of their surroundings.