FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

Asia and the Pacific's Blue Growth Initiative

The world’s marine and freshwater ecosystems – the Blue World – provide essential ecosystem services, biodiversity, food and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people. The concept of a "blue economy" came out of the 2012 Rio+20 Conference. It is based on the premise that healthy and sustainable ocean ecosystems are more productive and a must for sustainable ocean-based economies.

The goal of this regional initiative is to achieve sustainable use of living aquatic resources and sustainable growth of regional aquaculture to enhance food and nutrition security through meeting increasing  regional and world demand for fish, aid poverty alleviation and encourage economic development in the region.

Asia and the Pacific's Blue Growth Initiative: SDG 14 and Blue Growth Working Together toward Sustainable Fisheries

Fish and other aquatic animals are an important source of food in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2016, fisheries and aquaculture provided 24-185 kg per capita of food for people in Asia in 2016 as compared to the global average 20 kg. To ensure  sustainable aquatic resources, the FAO is implementing the Blue Growth initiative in the region.

The FAO regional initiative on Blue Growth focuses on:

  •  conducting studies and consultations in order to have data to support for regional policy and strategy development
  • supporting Member Nations to develop national strategies and action plans
  • develop capacity at regional and country levels
  • providing expert advice, assistance and technical support to document, scale-up and pilot innovative management and production practices, systems and technologies for fisheries and aquaculture

FAO implements this strategy for Blue Growth within the following priority areas:

  • promoting sustainable growth of aquaculture
  • strengthen the enabling environment and governance for sustainable growth of aquaculture, sustainable capture fisheries and conservation of marine and inland water ecosystems and aquatic biodiversity
  • promoting sustainable capture fisheries and protection of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem services through combating IUU fishing and conservation and enhancement of habitat and living aquatic resources;
  • developing inclusive and gender sensitive equitable aquaculture and fisheries value chain
  • Increasing the  resilience of farmers and fishers in adapting to climate change impacts and coping with natural and socioeconomic risks
  • Promoting habitat restoration and conservation with regulatory regimes and environmental protection schemes such as ecosystem services, marine protected areas, carbon capture, storm and wave defences and sustainable tourism that increase biodiversity conservation and sustainabilty.

The important work of FAO in fisheries and aquaculture is making a significant contribution to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals and the targets set by the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the World Food Summit, in particular SDG 14 "Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development". It also makes a strong contribution to achieving SDG 1 and 2 (End Poverty and Zero Hunger) as well as SDGs 3, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13 and 15.