Terminal evaluation of the areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) Tuna project, part of the "Global sustainable fisheries management and biodiversity conservation in ABNJ"

Book excerpt: The marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) comprise 40 percent of the earth’s surface, covering 64 percent of the surface of the ocean and 95 percent of its volume. The Common Oceans ABNJ Programme (2014-2019) was implemented by FAO as a concerted effort to bring stakeholders to work together to manage and conserve the world’s common oceans. The ABNJ Tuna project, one component of the Common Oceans ABNJ Programme, promoted important transformational changes in the management practices of tuna fisheries, improving their sustainability, strengthening Marine Stewardship Council capabilities of tuna regional fisheries management organizations (t-RFMOs) and their members, and significantly reducing their impact on biodiversity. The project generated knowledge but lacked a structured mechanism and strategy to harvest and disseminate it. Similarly to the programme level evaluation report, the programmatic approach component, the partnership framework, as well as how to foster synergies among projects and capitalization of knowledge management should be strengthened.