Assessment Of The Integration Of Fisheries And Aquaculture In Policy Development

This document was prepared within the framework of the FAO’s Strategic Objective 1 (SO1): Help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. This document served as a background paper to present the status of policy mainstreaming and policy research for the improvement of policy development in aquaculture in support of food security, nutrition and poverty eradication. The document was presented in various African fora and received the validation of the stakeholders for its publication as part of policy research. Specifically, the paper was presented and included the inputs from the Consultative Meeting on Aquaculture Policy Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 3 to 4 December 2018, 37th SADC Fisheries and Aquaculture technical meeting in Windhoek and the Consultative meeting on “improving policy development in aquaculture in support of food security, nutrition and poverty eradication” held in Kigali, Rwanda, from 10 to 14 June 2019. This research report includes recommendations by the stakholders to guide the mainstreaming of fisheries and aquaculture within wider policy frameworks, for the formulation and implementation of technical programmes for enhanced food security and nutrition at country and regional level in Africa.

The document presents the principles and processes for integrated assessment and advice in small-scale fisheries. The first chapter discusses failures of conventional assessment and management approaches. Chapter 2 presents the conceptual origins and principles of integrated assessment of small-scale fisheries. The framework is then introduced and places the assessment within the broader planning and management cycle. The final chapter discusses the implementation of the IAA framework.--Publisher's description.

During the last decade, there has been a shift in the governance and management of fisheries to a broaderapproach that recognizes the participation of fishers, local stewardship, and shared decision-making.Through this process, fishers are empowered to become active members of the management team,balancing rights and responsibilities, and working in partnership with government. This approach iscalled co-management.This handbook describes the process of community-based co-management from its beginning, throughimplementation, to turnover to the community. It provides ideas, methods, techniques, activities, checklists,examples, questions and indicators for the planning and implementing of a process of community-basedco-management. It focuses on small-scale fisheries (freshwater, floodplain, estuarine, or marine) indeveloping countries, but is also relevant to small-scale fisheries in developed countries and to themanagement of other coastal resources (such as coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass, and wetlands). Thishandbook will be of significant interest to resource managers, practitioners, academics and students ofsmall-scale fisheries.

Although policies can be critical constraining or enabling factors for aquatic food systems (AqFS) development, scarce evaluation of the impacts of existing policies means that decision-makers have limited understanding of how to improve the design and implementation of effective policies. This paper reviews key policy issues in AqFS and how they have been analyzed and assessed to provide context-tailored policy options and guidance. Our review shows that countries face many policy issues but have little analysis on them. Despite the availability of a wide variety of frameworks, concepts, tools, methods, and approaches, their application in empirical analysis to solve policy issues in AqFS has been limited. More research is available on local- and community-level governance of fisheries, but less on national or subnational policies and regulations in AqFS. The few available policy studies focus on developed countries, with fewer applications in developing countries where growth of the aquaculture and fisheries sectors is much stronger. The studies provide useful policy options and guidance, and this review highlights the need for more such studies to address policy-related issues in the sector.

The aquaculture industry is fast expanding around the globe and causing major environmental and social disruptions. The volume is about getting a 'good governance' grip on this important industry. The book highlights the numerous law and policy issues that must be addressed in the search for effective regulation of aquaculture. Those issues include among others: the equitable and fair assignment of property rights; the design of effective dispute resolution mechanisms; clarification of what maritime laws apply to aquaculture; adoption of a proper taxation system for aquaculture; resolution of aboriginal offshore title and rights claims; recognition of international trade law restrictions such as labeling limitations and food safety requirements; and determination of whether genetically modified fish should be allowed and if so under what controls. This book will appeal to a broad range of audiences: undergraduate and postgraduate students, academic researchers, policy makers, NGOs, practicing lawyers and industry representatives.