Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Director-General of FAO Mr Edouard Saouma and the Officer-in-Charge of the Department of Fisheries, Mr Labon, I am happy to welcome you to the First Session of the Working Party on Aquaculture of the Commission for Inland Fisheries of Latin America (COPESCAL).
On behalf of FAO, I wish to thank the National Department of Aquaculture of the Ministry of Agricultural Development for its assistance in preparing this meeting, with special thanks to its Director, Dr Richard Pretto, whose enthusiasm for aquaculture development in his own country and in Latin America is well known to all you.
This meeting has been organized in compliance with a recommedation made by delegates of COPESCAL member countries during the Second Session of this Commission, held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 2–4 December, 1981.
Since its inception in 1979, the Commission had worked primarily through its two working groups, one on inland fishery resources and the other on fish technology, but the delegates of the participating countries felt it would be necessary to set up a third working party on aquaculture, with priority.
This is a proof that aquaculture, though not in the Latin American tradition, has aroused considerable interest in more than a few countries on this continent. It also indicates awareness that a regional forum like COPESCAL can do a great deal to help solve the common problems of developing this particular branch of animal science.
We are here, then, as experts, to advise the next COPESCAL meeting (to be held in Mexico City sometime around November) on aspects of aquaculture development. We have a very full agenda before us in the next few days, there are many items to discuss, but I am sure that the favourable response to the request for country reports augurs well for the success of this meeting.
As many of you know, FAO has followed the development of aquaculture in Latin America virtually since its early days as an agency. In the fifties there were already programmes of technical assistance and these programmes have, with a few interruptions, continued up to the present.
The world economic crisis has also hit the development agencies, such as UNDP, and the effect has been to tighten constraints on implementing assistance programmes for the aquaculture projects many countries desire. This should spur us in our discussions here to make realistic recommendations to COPESCAL and look for effective, feasible measures to promote and consolidate the development of aquaculture in Latin America.
FAO is no novice to regional efforts. Such efforts are often the most effective way of channelling aid. We have a proof of this in the establishment of the Regional Latin American Aquaculture Centre in Brazil. Though not yet fully completed, the Centre has already graduated its first class of multidisciplinary aquaculturalists and is now training the second group. We are pleased to have among us Dr Pagán-Font, Director of the Group of Experts seconded by FAO to this Regional Centre, which has been generously made available by the government of Brazil to other countries in the Latin American Region.
Manpower training and development planning are, in our view, two basic requirements for the rapid, harmonious growth of the aquaculture sector. As you can see on the provisional agenda, these two items are going to be discussed in depth and I hope we will succeed in formulating highly specific recommendations which will be of help to your respective countries.
Thank you very much.
