Alessandro Lovatelli
In October 2001, Mr Alessandro Lovatelli once again joined the FAO, taking up the professional post of Fisheries Resources Officer (Aquaculture) at the Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service (FIRI), one of the two services attached to the Fishery Resources Division. Mr Lovatelli, a trained marine biologist and aquaculturist, obtained his Bachelor (BSc) and Master of Science (MSc) degrees at the universities of Southampton and Plymouth (UK), respectively. His first experience with FAO dates back to 1987 when he worked as the bivalve expert attached to the FAO/UNDP Regional Seafarming Development and Demonstration Project. The project was then under the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) before it became an independent inter-governmental organization. His next FAO assignment took him to Mexico, where he worked on a regional aquaculture development project (AQUILA) which was funded by the Government of Italy. From 1993 to 1997, Mr Lovatelli worked in Viet Nam, Somalia and then again in Southeast Asia. In Viet Nam, he headed the aquaculture and fisheries component of a large European Union (EU) project developing, among other activities, 10 regional aquaculture demonstration, training and extension centres. Following this, he moved to Somalia, working as the lead aquaculture and fisheries consultant for the European Commission (EC). During the one-year consultancy, Mr Lovatelli provided the Commission with technical advice towards assisting the fisheries sector through the EC Rehabilitation Programme for Somalia. Following an additional year in Viet Nam as one of the Team Leaders under the Danish-funded Fisheries Master Plan Project, Mr Lovatelli was recruited by FAO as the Aquaculture Advisor attached to the FAO-EASTFISH project based in Copenhagen. His next ‘jump’ was not too long, i.e. from Denmark to Italy. His main activities currently focus on marine aquaculture development, transfer of farming technologies, coastal resources management and development of human resources. These activities have a global span and will benefit from his extensive working experience in numerous Southeast Asian, Caribbean, Central American, East African, and Central and Eastern European countries. With regards to the Mediterranean region in particular, Mr Lovatelli was recently nominated as the new Technical Secretary of the Committee on Aquaculture under the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM). His direct telephone number is +39 06 57056448, and his email address is [email protected]
Raymon van Anrooy
Since February 2002, Mr Raymon van Anrooy is working at the Fisheries Policy and Planning Division (FIPP) as Aquaculture Economist. Mr van Anrooy has been FAO Associate Professional Officer (APO) for the last two years at the FAO Representation in Hanoi, Viet Nam, where he assisted in the coordination, formulation, implementation and monitoring of FAO fisheries and aquaculture activities in the country. During his assignment in Viet Nam, he became heavily involved in the organization and coordination of emergency assistance to the fisheries sector; this as a result of the floods in the Mekong Delta during the year 2000, which affected the livelihoods of thousands of poor fish farmers. From 1998 to 2000, he was assigned by the Dutch Government as an associate expert, socio-economist, to the artisanal fisheries project "Desarrollo Integral de Pesca Artesanal en Laguna de Perlas" (DIPAL), located on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. Within the team of this bilateral Nicaraguan-Dutch project, he was responsible for fisher folk organization, credit and marketing. In 1997, he started his professional career as a research assistant in the field of the commercialization of agriculture products at the Wageningen Agricultural University, the Netherlands, where he also obtained his Master of Science (MSc) degree in rural development economics with specialization in aquaculture, marketing and agricultural development. His current main activities focus on conducting economic analyses of various aquaculture systems to facilitate the development of sustainable aquaculture policies, providing follow up to the "Technical Consultation on Legal Frameworks and Economic Policy Instruments for Sustainable Commercial Aquaculture Development in Africa South of the Sahara" (Arusha, Tanzania, December 2001), assisting in the preparation of guidelines on how to apply economic analysis of aquaculture technologies, and participating in the monitoring and assessment of the implications on aquaculture of global economic change. His direct telephone number is +39 0657053031, and his e-mail address is [email protected]
José Aguilar-Manjarrez
Dr José Aguilar-Manjarrez has been appointed Fishery Resources Officer (Inland Fisheries GIS) in the Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service (FIRI) at FAO HQ, effective 1 August 2001.
Dr Aguilar-Manjarrez brings with him many years of experience on aquaculture planning and management using Geographical Informa-tion Systems (GIS). His experience with GIS began with the use of GIS for aquaculture site selection in Tabasco State, Mexico as the basis of his MSc dissertation from 1991 to 1992 at the Institute of Aquaculture (IOA) in Scotland. He then carried out a PhD dissertation from 1992 to 1996 at the IOA by developing GIS-based models for planning and management of coastal aquaculture in Sinaloa State, Mexico.
From 1996 to 1998, he worked with FIRI, first as a visiting scientist with focus on the use of GIS for estimating fish farming potential in Africa, and later as a consultant on spatial modelling of inland fishery potential. From November 1998 to July 2001, he worked with WAICENT, designing and developing FAO’s GIS map repository and carriying out a GIS study to assess locations that have potential for the production of bambara groundnut across the world.
Prior to joining FAO, from 1990 to 1991 he worked in Mexico City as an aquaculture consultant at a private consulting company with focus on environmental impact studies of navigation ports and shrimp farming site selection for the states of Sinaloa, Chiapas and Veracruz. He then worked at the Bank of Mexico (FIRA), also as an aquaculture consultant developing feasibility study reports for shrimp farming in Sinaloa.
Dr Aguilar’s technical responsibilities in FIRI will focus largely on developing methodologies, technical guidelines and draft technical papers, reviews and training materials on inland fishery management and GIS applications to inland fisheries and aquaculture. Readers can contact Dr Aguilar at: [email protected]