Report of the Global Conference on Aquaculture, 2010

Organized by FAO and NACA and hosted by the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand, the Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010 - Farming the waters for people and food (Phuket Conference on Aquaculture) was held from 22 to 25 September 2010 in Phuket, Thailand. Its purpose was to review the present status and trends in aquaculture development, evaluate the progress made in the implementation of the Bangkok Declaration and Strategy on Aquaculture Development Beyond 2000, address emerging issues in aquaculture development, assess opportunities and challenges for future aquaculture development, and build consensus on advancing aquaculture as a global, sustainable and competitive food production sector. This event was a follow-up to the Conference on Aquaculture in the Third Millennium, which was organized by Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) and FAO in February 2000, and the Kyoto Conference on Aquaculture organized by FAO in May and June 1976. Attended by 446 registered participants from 80 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Near East, North America and Oceania, representing all stakeholder groups in aquaculture, it was organized in four sessions (introduction and opening, regional reviews and a global synthesis on aquaculture development, thematic sessions in six plenary lectures and 20 expert reviews, recommendations and conclusions based on these thematic reviews) and included three invited guest lectures, four side events and poster sessions (abstracts of 144 papers). A main outcome of the Phuket Conference on Aquaculture is the "Phuket Consensus". This "Consensus" reaffirms commitment to the principles laid out in the Bangkok Declaration and Strategy adopted in the Global Conference on Aquaculture in 2000 and recommends additional actions to address contemporary priorities. These recommendations consist in: (i) increasing the effectiveness of governance of the aquaculture sector; (ii) encouraging and facilitating greater investments in scientific, technical and social innovations; (iii) conducting accurate assessments of the progress and contributions of aquaculture (including aquatic plants) to national, regional and global economies, poverty alleviation and food security; (iv) intensifying assistance to the small farmers; (v) supporting gender sensitive policies and implement programmes that facilitate economic and political empowerment of women through their active participation in aquaculture; (vi) increasing and strengthening collaboration and partnerships; and (vii) giving special emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa and the least aquaculturally developed countries and areas in order to allow them to develop their aquatic resource potentials. This report summarizes the presentations, discussions and insights provided by the Conference. It includes five parts and one Annex section. Part 1 covers the introduction session of the Conference and provides an overview of the whole event. Part 2 recaps the presentations and discussions of the regional and global reviews on aquaculture development. Part 3 summarizes the presentations and discussions of the six thematic sessions. Part 4 summarizes the presentations and discussions of the three invited guest lectures. Part 5 reviews the recommendations from the six thematic sessions. The Annex section includes the list of participants, the Conference program, the abstracts of the two keynote addresses and the three invited guest lectures as well as the full text of the Phuket Consensus. Regional reviews, the global synthesis and the thematic reviews are published separately.