Editor’s note: SeafoodSource Contributing Editor Neil Ray is in Phuket, Thailand, covering the Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010.
The Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010 at the Mövenpick Resort and Spa in Phuket, Thailand, drew to a close over the weekend, ending with a series of recommendations to improve the global aquaculture industry.
A draft of the recommendations, dubbed the Phuket Consensus, was developed by the event’s organizing committee. The proposals re-affirmed the Bangkok Declaration and Strategy for Aquaculture adopted in 2000 and the Eight Millennium Goals set out by the United Nations Declaration.
The recommendations for the Phuket Consensus were: to increase the effectiveness of governance of the global aquaculture industry; to encourage greater investment in innovation; to make accurate assessments of the progress and contributions of aquaculture to national, regional and global economies, poverty alleviation and food security; to intensify assistance to small farming operations; to increase and strengthen collaboration and partnerships; and to give special emphasis on Africa and the least developed countries and areas.
The final statement on the Phuket Consensus may well be the most significant: “The implantation of the strategy should be guided by a governance mechanism that recognizes the power and limitations of the market and promoted through intensified results-based consultations, public-private partnerships and cooperation.”
The three-day Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010 was sponsored by GTZ, Wiley-Blackwell, Intervet and the Thailand Conventions & Exhibitions Bureau.
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