The COFI Sub-Committee on Aquaculture (COFI-AQ), during its First Session in April 2002, identified data collection and reporting (to improve knowledge and management of the sector) as a key priority area for future work. The Sub-Committee considered information needs for aquaculture at the global level and recommended that FAO develop an approach (strategy) for improving reporting on aquaculture status and trends similar to that developed for capture fisheries, with special attention to the quality of the information on which it is based.
Following up with this recommendation, the FAO convened, in January 2004, an Expert Consultation on Improving Information on Status and Trends of Aquaculture, which reviewed and approved, with amendments, a draft strategy for aquaculture prepared by FAO.
This document represents background documentation and reviews prepared for the Expert Consultation, the final draft of the strategy which incorporates the recommendations and suggestions of the Consultation and those of the Working Group of Experts on the FAO Aquaculture Questionnaire, "FISHSTAT AQ", which immediately followed the Expert Consultation.
The document has been prepared by the FAO Fisheries Department with the major contribution of Mr Ziad Shehadeh, former Senior Fishery Resources Officer at the Fisheries Department, Mr Rohana Subasinghe (Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service), Mr Alan Lowther (Fishery Information, Data and Statistics Unit), and Mr Raymon VanAnrooy (Development Planning Service), with page layout assistance from Mr Juan Carlos Trabucco.
