Sustainable aquaculture: Do donors care?

This paper provides an overview of the past 10 years of donor (development agency) support for aquaculture. Tn addition, selected examples of present donor projects and future directions for sustainable aquaculture are outlined. While there has been significant past support for aquaculture and aquaculture has a clear potential for contributing to food security, there is currently an image problem plaguing aquaculture. This poor image is affecting support for this sector by development agencies as much or perhaps even more than other factors. Until this issue is dealt with, development agency funding will likely continue to decrease. This paper recommends that in addition to guidelines on sustainable aquaculture that will result from this symposium, there is also a need for a Sustainable Aquaculture Strategy in order to increase donor interest in aquaculture. The elements of this strategy would be to document and disseminate examples of "Sustainable aquaculture success stories"; focus on building donor awareness of sustainable aquaculture and then joint definition of revised areas for donor support under a new set of developing country themes; link to a broader donor framework of biodiversity conservation, Coastal Zone Management and sustainable development; promote the funding and development of sustainable institutions to continue the research agenda for sustainable aquaculture; improve institutional linkages/networking, access to information, improve policies and planning; and develop sustainable aquaculture partners that link development agencies with researchers, NGOs, and private sector firms both in developing and developed countries.