Aiming to build regional capacity in aquaculture governance in Asia-Pacific, FAO and NACA jointly implemented a regional consultation in collaboration with NACA member governments to assess the status of aquaculture governance in Asia, share experiences and lessons learned in aquaculture governance among countries, and recommend strategies and actions for further improvement. The consultation consisted of two major activities: country assessment studies and a regional consultative workshop. The country assessment studies were carried out by seven national experts in seven selected countries including Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The consultative workshop was conducted in 5-6 November 2019 in Bangkok, attended by 33 participants including experts and government officers from 15 Asian countries and representatives from FAO, NACA and the Asian Institute of Technology. The findings of the assessment studies were presented to the workshop, and participants then worked on identifying gaps, constraints, and challenges in aquaculture governance in the region and put forward recommendations for further improvement. This publication presents the seven country assessment studies and the outputs of the workshop, including the summary of the status of aquaculture governance in the region, challenges and issues in governing process, and recommendations for further strengthening aquaculture governance in the region.

The Asia-Pacific region is remarkably diverse and wide ranging, geographically, in its flora and fauna, culturally, institutionally and economically. The region includes the two most populous countries in the world, China and India, a greater part of the Asian continent, the Australian continent, and many small islands, mostly in the Pacific Ocean, which are some of the smallest island nations in the world. Fisheries and aquaculture are socio-economically important sectors to most nations in the Asia-Pacific region and most nations in the region have high rates of fish consumption, mostly sourced from aquaculture although the small island nations depend to a greater extent on capture fisheries. This review entails analyses of the aquaculture sector in Asia-Pacific including the status and trends, progress made in achieving sustainable development, salient challenges, issues and anticipated future development. Status and trends are based on data extracted from the FAO Fishery and Aquaculture Statistics (FAO, 2020a; FAO, 2020b), unless stated otherwise, and are mostly for the period from 2008 to 2018 and occasionally for the period from 1990 to 2018 for relevant historical comparison and longer-term contextual analyses.

Aquaculture sector in Asia-Pacific has grown rapidly during the past four decades and contributed significantly to food security, nutrition, livelihood and overall socioeconomic development in the region. Meanwhile, disease problem has become increasingly challenging in aquaculture. Un-prudent and poorly controlled use of anti-microbial in animal disease control in aquaculture can have significant contribution to AMR risk. Although the control over the use of antimicrobial in aquaculture through some regulatory frameworks has been strengthened over the past decade in the region, it is far from adequate and effective in many Asian countries. In order to support the members to effectively address AMR in aquaculture for public health and sustainability of the sector, FAO and Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) jointly organized the regional consultation on AMR associated with aquaculture in Asia-Pacific on 4-6 September 2018. This publication documents the conduct of the regional consultation and its outputs, which identified major issues and gaps in tackling AMR issue in aquaculture and recommended desirable interventions and long-term strategy to effective mitigate AMR risk related to aquaculture in the region. The document also includes the seven country case studies on status of use of antimicrobial in aquaculture and the efforts to manage the risks of antimicrobial resistance, which were presented at the regional consultation.

conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Demographic change in fishing communities has implications for the future of fishing, fisheries, the fishing industry, and the social development of fishing communities in the Asian region. This publication looks at demographic change in small-scale fishing communities to understand potential implications for fisheries sustainability, migration patterns, climate change adaptation, and livelihoods diversification. The publication explores the general question: How are fishing communities in the region changing with demographic changes? Specifically the publication tries to address the following questions: (1) What are the changes in demography (ageing, migration) in selected Asian fishing communities? (2) How are fishers adjusting their livelihoods with the changes in fishery resources and labour availability? Are they moving to other livelihoods? (3) What are the consequences of these adaptation strategies? Are there any gender differences in the impact of such adaptation strategies? (4) What are the challenges faced and policy and programme support needed for fishing communities for sustainable small-scale fisheries?

Fisheries and aquaculture is a sector of special importance to food security, nutrition and livelihood in the Asia-Pacific Region, which can be significantly impacted by climate changes and related disaster risks. Effectively addressing climate change impacts and managing disaster risks in fisheries and aquaculture sector are vitally important to building resilience of the sector for sustained and greater contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to ending hunger, poverty eradication and sustainable use of natural resources. FAO member countries in the region have been making good effort and significant progress in addressing climate change impacts and related disaster risks with support of international communities. A FAO regional consultative workshop was convened to bring together a wide range of players including country governments, regional organizations and other partners to share their knowledge and good practices in addressing climate change implications for fisheries and aquaculture in the region, to assess the progress made in addressing issues with marine capture fisheries, inland capture fisheries, coastal aquaculture and inland aquaculture in the context of climate change adaptation and mitigation in implementing the national plan of actions for addressing climate change in fisheries and aquaculture, and to recommend strategies for addressing institutional and capacity gaps in building climate-resilience fisheries and aquaculture industry in the region. The publication is the compilation of the workshop executive report, background technical papers, extended summary of presentations by representatives from participating government and FAO partners, and the workshop conclusions and recommendations.

Fisheries and aquaculture contribute to food security and livelihoods of millions of people in Asia. Both women and men are engaged in fisheries and aquaculture. In the past ten years, many actors have worked on raising awareness on women’s contribution as well as promoting gender equality in fisheries and aquaculture. This study aims to consolidate the efforts to date to provide recommendations for action and future studies. Its objective is to answer the following questions for small-scale fisheries and aquaculture in Asia: (i) What is the division of labour between women and men in specific fisheries and aquaculture practices and what are the differences with respect to their access to assets, resources and entitlements? (ii) What are the drivers of such differences? (iii) What could be critical entry points and opportunities for addressing inequalities and discriminatory practices? To answer these questions, the study conducted an online literature search on gender and fisheries and aquaculture in Asia, selecting articles published between 2011 and 2021. This period was selected to understand the contemporary condition and state of knowledge, and since we aimed for an exhaustive list of literature, some limits in the time period was necessary. The review included both published peerreviewed papers in journals as well as other research and project reports that are available online. In total, it reviewed 253 publications on fisheries and 210 publications on aquaculture. The top four countries where studies were conducted are India (44.3 percent of fisheries and 24.3 percent of aquaculture articles), the Philippines (35.6 percent of fisheries and 17.6 percent of aquaculture articles), Bangladesh (27.7 percent of fisheries and 32.9 percent of aquaculture articles) and Indonesia (30.8 percent of fisheries and 20.5 percent of aquaculture articles). The findings based on each research question are presented in this publication.

This document contains the papers presented at the Consultation on Aquaculture for Sustainable Rural Development which was organized jointly by FAO and NACA and held in Chiang Rai, Thailand, from March 29-31,1999 in order to develop the detailed structure of a regional program on aquaculture for sustainable rural development and to propose a strategy for its implementation. The consultation took an overview of the relevant information emerging from the presentations of country reports; lessons learned by specific projects; experiences of regional and international organizations and donor agencies; and findings of expert reviews. More sharply focused examination of critical issues and discussions on specific components of the draft program concept were followed through parallel working group discussions. The outputs of the working groups were further discussed during the concluding plenary. Finally, a detailed Program Framework on Aquaculture for Sustainable Rural Livelihood Development was conceived through consensus to serve as guiding principles for the formation of the program.--Publisher's description.

The Thirty-sixth Session of the Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission (APFIC) was convened in virtual session, Bangkok, Thailand from 5 to 7 May 2021, hosted by the Department of Fisheries, Government of Thailand. It was attended by 50 registered delegates from 17 APFIC member countries, 3 non-APFIC FAO members and 7 observer Regional Organizations. The Commission reviewed the intersessional programme activities of APFIC and endorsed the report of the meeting of the 77th APFIC Executive Committee. The Commission emphasized the importance of fishery management grounded on science for sustainable marine and inland fisheries and recognized the importance of APFIC as a regionally focused platform and requested broader discussions and consultations among members related to APFIC’s future. The Commission endorsed the 2021-2023 biennial APFIC workplan with an amendment to include the establishment of an ad hoc working group to review the limitations and provide recommendations for future of the Commission . The Commission elected China (Chair) and Thailand (Vice-chair) as the office bearers for the Thirty-seventh Session, with India, Malaysia, Philippines elected as Members of the Executive Committee. The Commission agreed that the 37th Session of APFIC will be convened in China in 2023.