A consortium of agencies and projects working in fisheries in South East and South Asia had developed a very systematic training course on essential EAFM since 2012 and have trained many middle level managers on EAFM apart from capacitating a set of trainers in the region. But the need of sensitizing the senior fisheries officers, involved in planning and policy making in the countries, was realized to take forward EAFM in the countries. Through two writeshops and a pilot trial workshop the information materials that could be used to inform LEAD (Leaders, Executives and Decision Makers) about EAFM was developed and fine-tuned. SEAFDEC as part of the REBYC II CTI project is to take up EAFM LEAD at two places in the Philippines and one location in Vietnam followed by a session for sensitizing the High Level Committee members of SEAFDEC. Before doing so, another writeshop was organized exclusively for the EAFM resource team of SEAFDEC by the senior resource team members/experts who over the years facilitated the E-EAFM process, from 10-14 October 2016 at Bangkok. This was for the resource team to practice and suggest any final fine-tuning of the material or process in different conditions. The writeshop provided opportunity to get familiarized with all materials made available in the dedicated website www.eafmlearn.org and try to decide, plan and conduct sessions using appropriate material from the toolkit. The writeshop also took feedback on making revisions of some of the material. It was also used to accurately plan and prepare all material and logistics for the forthcoming EAFM LEAD programmes.

Food and Agriculture Organization of The United Nations, Global Environment Facility and Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center. (2016). Strategies for Trawl Fisheries Bycatch Management . Training Department, Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center.