1) This paper reviews the recommendations of the Bangkok Declaration, which evolved from the Conference on Aquaculture in the Third Millennium held in February 2000 in Bangkok. It has been more than a year since the conference, and the prospects of implementation of the recommendations by the member states are the concern of FAO: hence this assignment.
2) In a brief review of global aquaculture, emphasis is given to its impressive growth since the early 1980s. By 1998, China accounted for 68.7 percent of aquaculture production worldwide, dwarfing that of all other countries. The ever-rising production in China is supported by the culture of aquatic organisms at the low end of the trophic level. While low prices may seem to deprive the economy of China’s aquaculture of fair earnings, local consumption has remained robust, although more food fish is required to match the needs of a growing population.
3) The sectoral review reveals the rapid rise of commercial aquaculture production, although the fast increase in the value of fish was attributed to a growing propensity towards high-valued commodities. Aquaculture exports have earned handsome amounts of foreign exchange for the producing countries, often at the expense of environmental degradation and loss of lives and property due to subsequent natural disasters and to resource-use conflicts. Aquaculture has been at the forefront in terms of natural resource-use conflicts, open access and weak political system, poor legislation and law enforcement. The sustainability of commercial aquaculture continues to remain in doubt as long as water pollution, environmental degradation and excessive use of finite natural resources are to be blamed on aquaculture.
4) As an optional food production activity, aquaculture involves various users, systems, practices and species. National planners assign a high priority in nation building to aquaculture, particularly when capture fishery is approaching its upper productive limit. Among all food production sectors, aquaculture has raised the hopes of national planners as a means to address the serious problems of hunger, poverty and unemployment.
5) Commercial aquaculture has little to do with food security, since it supplies food to the affluent sectors of society. Small-scale aquaculture practiced in harmony with the existing farming system makes quality daily meals more affordable for rural folk deprived by scanty infrastructure and by poverty. The synergy with other farming practices which small-scale aquaculture brings to deprived farming families translates into not only greater volumes of production but also a more balanced composition of the diet. It should become an important means to increase awareness of the value of land and water resources, for which heavy competition is in the offing.
6) Policy and regulatory instruments are necessary to set the tone for development activities. The pragmatism of public policy and of regulatory instruments attributed to the political system, prevailing structure of society and its social values is recognized. The technical guidelines based on the knowledge and experience of industrialized countries may prove to be too sophisticated, too costly and somewhat ineffective in the context of developing countries, where different social structures and values prevail. The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishery and measures prescribed under the UNCED Agenda 21 provide excellent checklists of what development agencies can readily apply; however, serious planning at the national and sub-national levels must be adjusted to the dominant economic and social values.
7) Heavy dependence on land and water resources for the prosperity of aquaculture makes it inappropriate to plan it in isolation. At the national level, however, land and water management is vested in many state authorities, whose infrequent coordination often makes holistic planning extremely difficult, not to say impossible. The national fishery authorities with whom FAO has been working are largely technical agencies with little interest in or responsibility over economic and social issues. The application of technical aquaculture solutions to the serious socio-economic problems of land and water management does not appear to have been effective.
8) At the regional level, trans-boundary aquaculture requires cooperation among countries to prevent potential damage from spilling over borders that may or may not conform to the natural demarcations. The FAO code of conduct already provides a comprehensive set of guidelines on these matters and the regional and inter-regional agencies are already addressing the issue.
9) The FAO fishery statistics division has made commendable efforts to cope with unreported data due to weak statistical systems in most developing countries. From what has been reported and credited, China has demonstrated an admirable tendency to produce a high volume of aquaculture products at relatively low prices. Lower commodity prices should make aquaculture products accessible to low-income groups and thus enhance food security.
10) The development of commercial aquaculture brings with it a totally different scenario and a different set of technical and socio-economic problems. The competition over common finite natural resources which commercial aquaculture will have to encounter in the future makes its development policy different from that of small-scale aquaculture. Technology will be required to maximize profits and sustainability: production of high-value commodities, measures to enhance food safety as required by international standards, efficient use of farm inputs, biotechnology, etc. Commercial aquaculture must fend off the broadsides of environmental and consumer activists over production and trade issues.
11) The measures suggested by the Bangkok Declaration are applicable to a variety of situations, and users are at liberty to adapt them. Development planners are no doubt aware that the diversity of the types of aquaculture requires diverse sets of development strategy. Successful aquaculture development does not confine itself to technical aspects; factors influencing the economic aspects and the social milieu must also be dealt with adequately. This implies that a multi-disciplinary policy could be more effective than the sectoral development approach. Unfortunately, the lack of integrated decision-making mechanisms in most developing countries could make it difficult to adopt this suggestion.
12) Aquaculture extension deserves serious review. The fast-evolving political and administrative structures in many countries have raised the questions of its function, changing role and benefit, and who should pay for the services. Developing countries could try a participatory research approach bringing researchers and farmers together to create a new paradigm of learning. The success of the Land Grant programmes, which began in the United States in 1862, could be emulated.
13) As a global agency, FAO has been promoting aquaculture as a sector and as a component of rural development. The following areas should be considered:
a) FAO could provide expertise and guidance on global legal instruments and commitments agreed to by the member states at the various global forums.b) Given the demand-led development of commercial aquaculture, its future growth is likely to be determined by the private sector and its enterprises. In facilitating the sustainability of commercial aquaculture, FAO could contribute more to aquaculture research through cost-sharing partnerships between universities and the private sector.
c) FAO could also assist member states in advocating the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishery as a means for guiding the national technical agencies towards holistic planning, which involves socio-economic factors, and as a means for international cooperation, particularly where a set of natural resources is shared in the development of aquaculture.
d) Aquaculture should be promoted by assisting member states as an integral part of the existing farming patterns in order to establish local hatcheries in which farmers could procure fish seed for periodic stocking at an affordable price. Fish seeds and other inputs could be made available through barter for research information. Such an arrangement could help generate pertinent information about this type of aquaculture for all stakeholders to share and appreciate one another’s values.
e) The efforts made by the various regional organizations dedicated to fishery and aquaculture development, such as the International Council for Aquatic Resources Management, the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific, the South East Asia Fishery Development Centre and the Mekong River Commission, are highly complementary. More efforts, such as through the coordination rendered by the Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission, could help harmonize holistic planning, as already guided by the FAO code of conduct and supported by the Bangkok declaration. With their wealth of technical capabilities, these regional organizations can combine their expertise with the national authorities responsible for policies and for the implementation of socio-economic programmes. In the absence of integrated decision-making mechanisms at the national level, the usual national counterparts of FAO could serve as coordinators to harmonize the available aquaculture technology with their contemporary political, economic and social realities, by having the people at the centre.
f) As aquaculture continues to domesticate new aquatic organisms, the role of national research institutes must be promoted. The research areas in brood stock management, seed propagation, feed and feeding, diseases, farm management, etc, offer wide opportunities for almost any institution to participate. The promotion of aquaculture of indigenous species, such as that now attempted by the Mekong River Commission, should be supported. Cooperation between the aquaculture industry and national research institutes needs to be strengthened, not only for the effectiveness of their endeavours but also for the safety of the consumers and the harmony of all socio-economic activities dependent on the common natural resource base.
g) Multi-disciplinary research team, such as the one assembled in Vietnam with the help of IDRC, could be organized at national and sub-national levels to facilitate the learning of both academics and rural folk. The development of human resources is essential to sustainability, and participatory research should be a way to address it.
