RECOMMENDATIONS

45. The Technical Consultation recommends that action be taken that is national, regional and international in scope:

A. At the national level,

i. Countries that have not done so and who would like to develop commercial aquaculture, should investigate technical and economic potential for commercial aquaculture.

ii. If technical and economic potential exists, countries should develop and implement enabling policies for commercial aquaculture to take off.

iii. Countries without a policy framework should acquire one which would address and/or include:

a) a legal framework for small-scale and large-scale commercial aquaculture;

b) a strategy for capacity building;

c) a strategy for providing aquaculture farmers and upstream industries (seed, feed) access to capital (bank loans).

B. At the regional level,

iv. Countries of sub-Saharan Africa should collaborate to:

a) promote capacity building for commercial aquaculture;

b) facilitate regional trade in fish and fish products;

c) promote African aquaculture products in international markets, for example, by:

c1) conducting joint promotion campaigns for aquaculture products;

c2) working towards reducing tariff escalation on aquaculture products and lessening or phasing out non-tariff barriers in importing countries.

d) protect, in international fora such as the forthcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations on “fishery subsidies”, the rights of sub-Saharan African governments to stimulate the growth of commercial aquaculture.

C. At the international level,

v. The Technical Consultation recommends that FAO, in collaboration with other intergovernmental organizations, appropriate non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and interested governments, conduct studies aiming to:

a) establish the contribution that small- and large-scale commercial aquaculture will make to food security and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa;

b) identify the contribution that an enabling public policy framework will make to the development of commercial aquaculture;

c) specify the extent to which such an enabling policy framework is compatible with general macro-economic policies, in particular, the IMF and World Bank (WB)’s policy conditions.

vi. The Technical Consultation further recommends that FAO, in collaboration with other intergovernmental organizations, relevant NGO’s and interested governments, organize a two-level Conference on commercial aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa.

vii. The first part of the Conference, which would include high level technicians, would be a follow up of the present Technical Consultation. This part would review the progress made in:

a) commercial aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa;

b) development and application of government policies for com- mercial aquaculture.

viii. The second half of the Conference, which would be a high level political meeting, would aim to:

a) confirm a sub-Saharan Africa understanding on the importance and role of commercial aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa;

b) seek international donor support for:

b1) national enabling policies for commercial aquaculture development;

b2) regional initiatives in capacity building for commercial aquaculture and in adaptive aquaculture research;

b3) regional schemes aiming to facilitate the channeling of loans to small- and large-scale commercial aquaculture and to upstream industries especially those producing seed and feed.

ix. The Conference should take place as soon as possible and not later than 2004.

x. The Consultation recommended that the preparation and execution of the two-level Conference be supported by a Regional FAO/TCP project.

xi. The Consultation recommended that a second Regional FAO/TCP project be prepared as soon as possible to respond to the following pressing needs identified in the Region:

a. capacity building in commercial aquaculture;

b. establishment of policy and legal frameworks for the promotion of commercial aquaculture;

xii. The Consultation also recommended that TCDC (Technical Cooperation Among Developing Countries) arrangements should be used as much as possible in Regional collaborative activities.

xiii. Furthermore, the Consultation recommended that the Conclusions and Recommendations of this Consultation be brought to the attention of the First Session of the Sub-Committee on Aquaculture of the FAO Committee of Fisheries (COFI).