Over 50 countriesendorsed the Global Aquaculture Advancement Partnership (GAAP)programme, which will bring together governments, UN agencies,non-governmental organisations and the private sector to findsustainable solutions to meeting the need for fish products.

Aquaculture already supplies nearly 50 percent – or nearly 63 milliontonnes – of fish consumed globally, and with production from wild fishstocks levelling off, it will fall to fish farmers to supply theestimated additional 50 million tonnes required to feed the rising worldpopulation by 2030.

But while aquaculture is one ofthe fastest expanding food sectors in the world with a current growthrate of around 6.1 percent a year, recent trends predict a gradualdecline which might see the sector fall short of bridging the gapbetween projected supply and demand.

“This is analarming situation and urgent concerted efforts to build a strongprivate-public partnership are imperative to maintain the current rateof growth of aquaculture over the coming years,” said Árni M. Mathiesen,FAO Assistant Director General for Fisheries and Aquaculture.

The partnership will be tasked with overcoming obstacles to theexpansion of the sector, which include the increasing scarcity of landand water for the development of inland fisheries and the need to stepup aquaculture activities in the world’s seas and oceans.

This in turn will require strict governance to safeguard aquatic animal health and conserve biodiversity.

“GAAP will also help tap the huge potential of aquaculture to helpreduce poverty, unemployment and socio-economic inequalities throughproper planning and development,” Mathiesen said.

Some 55 million people are directly employed by the fisheries and aquaculture sector, of whom 85 percent live in Asia.

The initiative will now go for approval to the Committee on Fisherieswhen it meets at FAO headquarters in Rome in June 2014.

A tool to help countries assess whether public and private aquaculturecertification schemes are in line with FAO’s global guidelines forcertification has also received a nod from the sub-committee, which isthe only global intergovernmental forum discussing aquaculturedevelopment.

Covering animal health, food safety,the environment and worker welfare issues, the FAO aquacultureguidelines were approved in 2011 after four years of consultation amonggovernments, producers, processors and traders.

“Itis overwhelmingly positive that consumers want to see a label on aproduct showing that it is sustainably produced. The challenge is toensure certification provides adequate incentives to small producers andeventually contributes to overall sustainability of the sector,” saidFAO Senior Aquaculture Officer Rohana Subasinghe.

“Many schemes claim they are within the FAO guidelines, but this newevaluation framework will allow them to self-assess whether that’strue,” he said.

ꦑ The evaluation framework will also now pass to the Committee on Fisheries for approval in June next year.-VNA