by
Alessandro Lovatelli
Under Phase I of the UNDP/FAO Regional Seafarming Development and Demonstration Project (RAS/86/024), a Regional Seafarming Resources Atlas was prepared as the step to a sequential process to develop national coastal resources management atlases and information systems.
One of the objectives of the Seafarming Project was to formulate guidelines for the establishment of national management systems for rational and orderly development of the seafarming industry in the region. To achieve the objective of establishing such systems, a coordinated and integrated approach involving various disciplines and sectors of the national economy is required for identifying and assessing seafarming development potential, formulating regulations to protect and control seafarming activities, and resolving conflicts among users of coastal resources.
The identification and assessment of the potential of seafarming resources are a prerequisite for seafarming development planning. Coastal resources mapping through conventional field surveys, integrated with the use of remote sensing and geographical information systems where appropriate, will serve as an essential tool for the planning of coastal resources management and utilization.
With the extension of the Seafarming Project (RAS/90/002) additional countries in the region joined. This necessitated the preparation of Volume II of the atlas to accommodate five of these countries, which provided the required data. The volume presents a broad overall view of the seafarming industry in these countries, including production data, culture methods, areas of culture, yields per culture units, status and constraints of all major marine species commercially cultured in the region. The national small-scale maps portray the various seafarming practices, culture systems, and the distribution of major marine groups (viz. finfishes, molluscs, crustaceans and seaweeds) which are commercially cultured.
The data used in this atlas refer only to the output from seafarming activities, unless otherwise stated in the text. Under each country, the histograms depict the data of that country alone, while the pie charts depict the country productions of particular species or groups as percentages of regional productions of all twelve countries covered in Volumes I and II of the atlas. Each of the species data sheet is self-contained, and as such, some repetition of the description of culture techniques could not be avoided.
Due to the need to be concise, the information contained in the atlas may not be as complete as desired. However, it is hoped that this volume achieves the purpose of providing an overall view of the present situation and will stimulate the development of more comprehensive regional and national coastal resources atlases, which will contribute to the establishment of management systems for systematic development of seafarming in the Asia-Pacific region.
The data and information for the compilation of this atlas were obtained from the National Coordinators of the additional participating countries, as well as from other sources.
The Seafarming Project would like to thank all the National Coordinators and their staff, who have kindly assisted in providing data and information that enabled the compilation and production of the present volume.
Citation:
SF/ATLAS/91/2. Lovatelli, A. Regional
Seafarming Resources Atlas: Volume II.
FAO/UNDP Regional Seafarming Development
and Demonstration Project (RAS/90/002).
67 p.
