Sustainable Seafood Speech by Dr. QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

OCEANS STEWARDSHIP 2030

Tuesday, 2 June 2020

 

Sustainable Seafood Speech by
Dr. QU Dongyu,
Director-General of the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

 

QUESTION: The FAO has developed a set of guidelines for sustainable aquaculture and

fisheries. Why is it important for the private sector and policymakers to work

together if we want more sustainable and socially just fisheries, and sustainable

aquaculture?

 

Thank you Professor Eric,

I am very glad, Ladies and Gentlemen, and I saw some old friends and also the Honourable Prime Minister is there.

I think today’ s meeting, on sustainable seafood is number one important food, for me, especially since I grew up in an area with so many lakes and rivers, so we can’ t get rid of the seafood or fish, every day!

Thank you, Indeed, over the years, FAO has developed many guidelines and standards and norms.

It’ s very important for the guidance for all the fish productions. These knowledge products are based on the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, whose 25^th anniversary we celebrate this year. So, FAO has quite a long commitment and we are celebrating the 75 years anniversary this year, even two years earlier than the UN (FAO was established in 1943 in Canada).

 

The Code is the main policy framework that has guided the development of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture practices all over the world.

Every two years FAO publishes The State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture Report, we call it SOFIA, that also presents the global status of implementation of the Code.

This year we will launch the SOFIA through a webinar, due to the pandemic, on next Monday 8^th of June, and I encourage you all to attend the launch, to listen to the scientific evidence that supports my statements today.

I want to emphasize two things, that both capture fisheries and aquaculture production are at the highest, record levels today, it makes crucial contributions to global food and nutrition and livelihood security.

So, this success is a shared one: we all have a responsibility to ensure production records are sustainably achieved and maintained.

Evidence shows that major capture which is the marine fish stocks, which are subject to intense management measures are rebuilding, biomasses are growing and sustainability targets are being met.

So we should be a little bit optimistic, the longer talk can be on the threats and the  problems, of course we need to address the problems but sometimes we have to keep the livelihood of the human beings and the consumers and the fishermen also but this is a real success.

However, in places where fisheries management are poor or non-existent, the ecological sustainability of marine fisheries are in decline. Last year I was in Norway, I participating in our Oceans 2019, I mentioned that.

We couldn’t allow this to continue as, if it does, we will not achieve the SDGs.

So, good management is the best conservation, for the natural marine resources and for the fishes.

Our oceans, coasts and inland waters should be fully assessed and managed on the basis of the ecosystem approach to achieve ecological sustainability.

But potential, what has a big potential is aquaculture, in my opinion.

Contrary to capture fisheries, which is natural production, but the aquaculture sector is still under development.

It has been the fastest growing food production sector globally for the last 50 years, growing at an average of 5.3 percent per year since the turn of the century. So for twenty years it has been ever increasing.

We need this growth to continue in order to reduce hunger and malnutrition, because we will have 10 billion population by 2050

Today, almost 90 percent of global aquaculture is produced in Asia and only 2.5 percent in Africa, and in this continent, in Europe hardly to see. Only small proportions in the Mediterranean region.

So, if we promote innovation and scale up lessons learned;

If we reduce environmental impacts and implement appropriate biosecurity measures then aquaculture will open great opportunities for further growth in food insecure areas.

So, solutions: we need innovation, in short, we need the public/private collaboration,  we need the proper policy, and we need to support the  investment for the fishermen and also aquaculture, that’s a solution.

I said, if we can develop the 1% of aquaculture, we can save 99% of marine capture or freshwater. So the UN Compact it’s a key role to play here. So we need also to build up consensus, Hand in Hand, what I initiated when I came as DG. So we need all the international organizations, private sector and academia people and also private sector to work together, and hand in hand. And make the sustainable development aquaculture and fisheries sector to serve the world for the future and for the long term.

And that is the way and clear message I want to share with you, let’ s work together, lead it together and contribute together. Make the global steel blue and crystal clean.

Thank you