The Adriamed Project was born to promote cooperative fishery and resource management between the countries of the Adriatic Sea. The participating countries at present are the Republics of Albania, Croatia, Italy and Slovenia. The involvement of the national administrative bodies, research institutions, the fishing industry, fishworkers and their associations is a fundamental requisite for the identification and implementation of common fishery management strategies.
    In order to devise management options related to Adriatic fisheries it is essential to create a common pool of knowledge on the instruments for monitoring the components of the sector (administrative, scientific and productive) and the various issues (statistics, biology, socio-economics and production) which must be standardized, connected, integrated and diffused. The development of such a system is considered a priority for the definition of appropriate ways to assist and intervene in the region and constitutes a first step in the process of international collaboration on fishery issues among the coastal countries.
    A second priority is to strengthen technical coordination between the national fishery research institutions and administrations both at national level and in the Adriatic region as a whole. This will be integrated into the process, which has already begun in the Mediterranean and partially in the Adriatic, to link up the professional organisations of the sector (fishing enterprises and fishworkers’ organisations) from the various countries. Such groups are aware of their role and primary interest in raising fishery activities to more remunerative and sustainable levels.
    The FAO-Adriamed project is a regional project where the development of scientific cooperation is considered fundamentally important for cooperative management of the fishery resources present in the Adriatic. The availability and distribution of the knowledge basis common to the countries are vital aspects in the realization and application of the project objectives.
    Although Adriamed is a project at the service of the Adriatic countries, it can also constitute a reference point for the cooperative management of fishery resources for coastal countries adjacent to the region.