With the aim of alleviating poverty, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA) identified a need among governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and donor organizations for insurance and risk management facilities to be made available to developing aquaculture in Asia. In response to this need, a Regional Workshop on the Promotion of Aquaculture Insurance in Asia was held in Bali, Indonesia, from 30 April to 2 May 2007. At the workshop, the proposals for addressing the needs were presented, discussed and finalized as the Guidelines for action to meet insurance and risk management needs in developing aquaculture in Asia.

This document has four chapters. Chapter 1 contains the Guidelines for action to meet insurance and risk management needs in developing aquaculture in Asia. These Guidelines are an attempt to devise practical ways of reconciling two widely differing aims – that of the insurance sector to make a profit, and that of governments, NGOs and donor organizations to provide altruistic compensation programmes to the less sophisticated and developing sectors of Asian aquaculture. These programmes need to meet social needs in the face of natural and human-induced disasters and other hazards, and must be risk management-led.

Chapter 2 contains the Report of the Regional Workshop on the Promotion of Aquaculture Insurance in Asia. The Regional Workshop concluded that aquaculture insurance is likely to be attractive to farmers whose aquaculture operations are their principal form of livelihood and where they have invested significant livelihood assets such as time, labour, infrastructure and funds. It was noted that aquaculture insurance schemes in Asia do not currently cover small-scale aquaculture. At present, there is high uncertainty over the viability of aquaculture insurance in this sector. In this regard, the workshop concluded that the hybrid approach involving partnerships between governments, insurers, and private and public sector organizations, as detailed in the Guidelines, would be the most suitable approach for the region to develop schemes accessible to groups or clusters of medium- and small-scale aquaculture producers.

Chapter 3 consists of a background paper for the Regional Workshop, Aquaculture insurance, by Philip A.D. Secretan. This paper provides a general introduction to aquaculture insurance for the layman, including, inter alia: a description of development constraints and opportunities for aquaculture insurance, with a focus on aquaculture stock insurance; the processes applied in the insurance market in terms of needs and risks assessments, risk management, claim handling procedures, benefits and costs of being insured; suggestions for the development of the aquaculture insurance market; and lessons learned from recent experiences with aquaculture insurance. The background paper also contains in its annexes a glossary of insurance terminology, policy terms and conditions, example proposals and example insurance policy wordings.

Chapter 4, the final part of this document, is dedicated to another background paper prepared for the Regional Workshop, The role of Better Management Practices (BMPs) in aquaculture insurance.