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Canadian IDRC supports project to develop a more sustainable aquaculture innovation in the Asia-Pacific region

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Aquaculture Magazine reports:

Asia-Pacific produces over 90% of the world’s farmed aquatic foods

Recently was launched in Bangkok, Thailand, the Aquadapt project, created by the Network of Aquaculture Centers in Asia-Pacific and FutureFish with the support of the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The research project aims to promote sustainable aquaculture in the Asia-Pacific region and help develop greener innovations for this vital sector.

The IDRC-supported project will help a new Aquaculture Innovation and Investment Hub drive this roadmap’s agenda as a one-stop shop, linking innovators, investors and producers to scale innovations.

The project is part of the Aquadapt initiative, a four-year partnership between IDRC and Global Affairs Canada that addresses the intertwined challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and food insecurity through applied research on nature-based solutions in aquaculture in the Asia-Pacific region.

The help of the researchers

As part of the new hub, researchers are identifying greener innovations to champion, such as fish feeds from agriculture wastes and algae-based alternatives to shrimp antibiotics, two Aquadapt projects. The hub will also work with governments in Fiji, the Philippines and Thailand to develop greener aquaculture national innovation and investment plans.

For Eduardo Leaño, project leader and director-general of the Network of Aquaculture Centers in Asia-Pacific, promising solutions exist. The challenge, according to him, is to show the private sector that the innovations are really working at the farm level, to encourage them to invest. This means finding technologies that can make aquaculture both greener and more profitable, and then sharing that knowledge.

The hub will also work with governments to identify the incentives that farmers need to change practices so that the entire sector can move forward more sustainably — from the large aqua-businesses that employ hundreds of people to the small-scale farmers who supply the region’s local food markets.

How to green the sector

Asia-Pacific produces over 90% of the world’s farmed aquatic foods. Meeting future global demand for fish and seafood is expected to require massive increases in aquaculture production. As a key source of low-carbon protein, aquaculture development can support climate mitigation and livelihoods.

Without adequate safeguards, however, aquaculture’s growth will exacerbate environmental degradation and make farms more vulnerable to climate change and disease shocks. For aquaculture to become more sustainable, actions from governments, researchers and the private sector are needed.

To address these challenges, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Network of Aquaculture Centers in Asia-Pacific led regional consultations on how to green the sector. The process culminated in a sustainable aquaculture transformation roadmap white paper.

Driving global change

As part of Canada’s foreign affairs and development efforts, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) champions and funds research and innovation within and alongside developing regions to drive global change. They invest in high-quality research in developing countries, share knowledge with researchers and policymakers for greater uptake and use, and mobilize their global alliances to build a more sustainable and inclusive world.

The head office of the IDRC is located in Ottawa, Canada, while five regional offices keep them close to the researchers and projects they fund. The regional offices are located in Montevideo, Uruguay; Nairobi, Kenya; Dakar, Senegal; Amman, Jordan; and New Delhi, India.

IDRC is governed by a board of up to 14 governors, whose chairperson reports to Parliament through the Minister of International Development. The entity was established by an Act of Canada’s Parliament in 1970 with a mandate “to initiate, encourage, support, and conduct research into the problems of the developing regions of the world and into the means for applying and adapting scientific, technical, and other knowledge to the economic and social advancement of those regions.”

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