Monthly Archives: February 2013

AwF co-executive director Roy Palmer elected director of World Aquaculture Society

Roy Palmer

Australian aquaculture/seafood veteran Roy Palmer has been named Director of the World Aquaculture Society (WAS) following its 2013 board elections.

The international not-for-profit organisation aims to promote sustainable aquaculture by facilitating and strengthening information exchange among academics and the industry. With over 3000 members in over 100 countries, WAS targets high priority issues in aquaculture and helps to raise awareness of aid initiatives in developing countries.

With over 40 years of experience in the import, export, marketing and retail of post-harvest aquaculture, Roy joined WAS more than 10 years ago and soon after became President of the Asia-Pacific Chapter (APC).

“This position is an opportunity for me to ask others their opinions on current issues in the industry and help generate discussion on a global scale. My aim is to try to make a difference and I don’t intend to waste my time in this role,” Roy explains.

“As president of the APC my first priority was to establish boundaries. We created an expert advisory council and roles for country ambassadors to talk more effectively about the issues within each region and discuss possible solutions.”

Since then Roy’s passion for the industry has led to him becoming heavily involved with Aquaculture Without Frontiers — a charity which aims to assist impoverished communities in establishing aquaculture and educating people on the harvesting process to improve health and business.  Read more …

Literature Review on potential contribution of fish-related activities to food and nutritional security and poverty alleviation

The objective of this document is to review the literature that has been published so far on the potential contribution of fish-related activities (aquaculture and fisheries) to food and nutritional security and poverty alleviation. This body of literature – which is found essentially in the aquaculture/fisheries literature, but also for some parts in the nutrition literature – turns out to be relatively heterogeneous and scattered, relying on different types of indicators and data. This information, which has been generated by different methodologies, applied at various scale (household, community, national levels), offers therefore very limited possibility for rigorous comparison or aggregation across projects, location or countries. 

Rebuilding the Tambaks in Aceh

Rebuilding the Tambaks in Aceh is a video by Visual Backstories that features Pak Mohammad, a charismatic leader in his village, who works with local and international experts to bring back aquaculture, or rather a polyculture system, to the brackish water ponds (tambaks) following the devastating tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004.

AwF Director Kevin Fitzsimmons is shown touring the various reconstruction projects undertaken with funding from a number of aid agencies, foundations, and non-profits, including Aquaculture without Frontiers (AwF).

The people of Aceh have transformed the devastation into once more productive ponds, rebuilding their lives and communities in the process.