The Fourth Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Aquatic Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture will be held from 21-23 February 2023. The meeting will be conducted in person. The Session will be convened under the Regular Programme of the Organization and will have interpretation in all UN languages

It is intended to hold the Session in-person at FAO headquarters. However, should the conditions prevailing from the COVID-19 pandemic at the time of the Session prohibit physical meetings, the Session will be held virtually on the same dates.

The Working Group was established, on an ad hoc basis, by the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at its Fifteenth Regular Session in January 2015 and established as a regular Working Group at its Seventeenth Session in 2019. Issues addressed by the Fourth Session of the Working Group will include:

• a follow up to the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation, Sustainable Use and Development of Aquatic Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture; and
• the progress with the development of indicators for monitoring the status of aquatic genetic resources;

The last Regular Session of the Commission also requested the Working Group to discuss:

• the role of aquatic genetic resources in mitigation of and adaptation to climate change;
• the access and benefit-sharing for aquatic genetic resources; and
• “digital sequence information” and potential implications for the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources.

Report of the Fourth Session of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Aquatic Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Ar, Es, Fr, Ru, Zh)