International Conference on
the Sustainable Contribution of Fisheries to Food
Security
Kyoto, Japan, 4-9 December 1995
Mr Chairman,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Representatives and Members of
Delegations,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am honoured to speak on behalf of
the Organization I head before the plenary assembly of
this International Conference on the Sustainable
Contribution of Fisheries to Food Security. I wish to pay
tribute to this commendable initiative on the part of the
Japanese Government, and am confident that it will help
the fisheries and aquaculture sector to fully perform its
vital role in feeding humanity in a sustainable manner.
This initiative is further
confirmation of the increasingly instrumental role of
Japan in international cooperation. Allow me, in this
connection, to recall that Japan has become the leading
contributor, in absolute terms, of official development
assistance, providing over 11 billion dollars of aid in
1993. I should like also to take this opportunity to
thank the Japanese Government publicly for its
contribution to FAO's Field Programme: Japan ranks sixth
among the Organization's trust fund donors with a
programme amounting to some 28 million dollars.
Mr Chairman,
The world food situation demands our
full attention at a time when many developing countries
continue to face emergency situations and extremely
unstable supplies, and 800 million people suffer from
chronic malnutrition. Unless these trends are reversed,
more than 700 million people will still find themselves
in this deplorable situation in the year 2010. Moreover,
the demographic experts anticipate an increase of 3
billion in the world population by the year 2030; these
people will of course have to be fed, but against a
backdrop of ever scarcer farmland and increasing pressure
on finite natural resources. We must tackle this
challenge together, now, and win the race between food
production and population growth.
This is why the focus of this
Conference on linking sustainable fisheries development
to food security is so topical.
In this regard, I should like to
remind you that the strategy endorsed by the1984 World
Conference on Fisheries Management and Development
organized by FAO had already set forth certain principles
and guidelines for the contribution of fisheries to
national economic, social and nutritional objectives. One
of the five programmes of action adopted by this
Conference dealt specifically with promoting fisheries as
a way of combating malnutrition, thus pointing the way
even at that time.
At the 21st Session of FAO's Committee
on Fisheries last March, the Ministers responsible for
fisheries examined what had been done to promote the
sustainable development of fisheries for present and
future generations. The Rome Consensus that was adopted
on that occasion welcomed the convening of this
Conference in Kyoto. This is one further step in a highly
encouraging international process that includes the 1982
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; the
Declaration of Canc£n on responsible fisheries and
the Declaration of Rio, both in 1992; the provisions of
Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development; the 1993 agreement to promote compliance
with international conservation measures endorsed by the
Conference of FAO, and the agreement on the conservation
and management of straddling fish stocks and highly
migratory fish stocks adopted in Rome in 1995. I am
particularly pleased to be able to add to this list the
Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries endorsed by the
Conference of FAO last month in Rome.
Here, in Kyoto, top-ranking fisheries
officials will, for the first time, be looking
specifically at the crucial topic of fisheries'
contribution to food security.
This is a fundamental issue both for
the developed countries, where per capita fish
consumption is extremely high (as in Japan), and for the
many developing countries where people suffer from
protein deficiency. First of all, the fisheries sector
represents an important source of income and employment
for over120 million people working in fishery production,
processing and distribution. There is also a strong
multiplier effect in areas where fishing is a primary
economic activity. Moreover, the sector is the source of
an average 20 percent of the animal protein in the human
diet, and so plays a central nutritional role in areas
where fish is the preferred animal protein, whether for
reasons of low price, availability or local eating
habits. In the low-income, food-deficit countries,
fishing is often all- important to the populations living
in coastal areas or on the shores of rivers and lakes,
not only in Africa and Asia, but also in many parts of
Latin America and in the small island States of the
Pacific and Indian Oceans. Finally, fisheries contribute
to food security when they generate hard currency that
can be used to import other food staples such as cereals.
For the developing countries alone, net income from
fishery exports totalled more than 11 billion US dollars
in 1993, outstripping the combined income from coffee,
meat and rice. What we now have to do is to consolidate
this contribution and, more generally, to improve the
state of world fisheries.
Technological innovation in capture
fisheries and aquaculture has developed strikingly since
the establishment of FAO fifty years ago, and there has
been unprecedented progress in processing and
distribution. However, whereas the period up to the late
1980s was marked by optimism, with upward trends in
fisheries production and an increasing developing country
share in world production, today's major economic
indicators are quite alarming.
The overcapacity of fishing effort on
70 percent of world stocks is an acknowledged fact. World
fishery production, which for the first time began to dip
between 1989 and 1992, seemed to recover at 101.5 million
tons in 1993 and some 105 million tons in 1994. This rise
was, however, mainly due to a substantial increase in
aquaculture production, with a total of 16.3 million tons
in 1993, and to significantly higher catches of certain
small pelagics, basically for fishmeal and oil. The share
of marine fisheries for human consumption has also stood
still at the same figure of 70 million tons since the
early 1990s, which means that the contribution of marine
fisheries to human consumption is actually falling.
There must be effective implementation
of management and conservation measures to offset
overfishing, overcapitalization, excessively large fleets
and the unacceptable waste of fishery resources suitable
for human consumption, if inland and marine fisheries are
to continue to play their part in ensuring world food
security.
There has also been a decline in per
capita world fish consumption in recent years: from 13.6
kg in 1989 to 13 in 1993. According to the projections,
demand will continue to exceed supply even as the next
century begins, at least in countries where population
growth is rapid and economic growth slow, and especially
in Africa and Southern Asia. Elsewhere, fish will
probably still be available but at a much higher real
cost than today.
Lastly, the globalization of trade is
creating new flows in the distribution of fish products.
These flows, which are highly sensitive to variations in
price, may well work to the advantage of the richer
consumers. A lack of vigilance in this area could easily
and unacceptably aggravate the food deficit of those most
in need, particularly children, in rural as in urban
areas.
The preparatory papers for this
Conference do in fact point to worrying, indeed alarming,
early global projections for several groups of countries,
should the relevant governments and the fishing industry
fail to take specific action to rectify current trends.
There is thus an absolute need to strengthen
international cooperation in fisheries conservation and
management if we wish to maintain adequate supplies of
fish products, limit overfishing, and control the factors
that restrict supply.
It is my hope that the necessary
corrective and preventive measures will be formulated and
implemented so that marine and inland fisheries may
resume and perhaps even surpass their former peak
production levels by the year 2010, if possible. I pin my
hopes primarily on aquaculture, which already accounts
for half the national supply in countries such as China,
and which could be producing some 33 million tons or more
in 15 years, if sufficient resources are mobilized.
Mr Chairman,
It is against this background that the
Conference is asked to reflect upon such major issues as
the changing factors that affect fish supply and demand
and the redefinition of the role of the private and
public sectors in this context. The Conference might also
be well-advised to review ways of organizing the
activities of each subsector so that the sector as a
whole can sustainably continue to supply food and income
while allowing more equitable access to fishing and
employment (particularly for the artisanal subsector),
and more equitable access to fish, particularly for the
poorest members of society.
FAO will continue to support the
already substantial efforts by the international
community to promote responsible fisheries and increase
food security. At the 106th Session of the FAO Council in
May 1994, the Organization pledged to retain food
security as its top priority. The Special Programme on
Food Production in Support of Food Security in
Low-income, Food-deficit Countries with its focus on
increasing food production and generating employment and
income in the agricultural sector, was thus launched in
late 1994.
Additionally, a World Food Summit will
be held in November 1996 at FAO Headquarters to deal with
every aspect of food security from the global standpoint,
and to tackle the root causes of hunger and malnutrition
throughout the world. The Summit's objective is to raise
awareness at the top policy-making level that humanity's
fundamental problem, the lack of food security, demands a
solution. The Summit is expected to lead to the adoption
of appropriate national and international policies and
strategies, and to produce a plan of action to be
implemented by all parties concerned.
Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am convinced that the results of
your Conference will be a major contribution to this
Summit, spurring initiatives that will allow fisheries
development and the sustainable utilization of fishery
resources to play their foremost role, that of feeding
the people.
I wish you full success in your
discussions and thank you for your attention.
