DUSHANBE, November 11, 2008, Asia-Plus — A three-day interregional meeting on problems of fish industry that opened in Dushanbe on November 10 has brought together specialists from Central Asia’s states, Russia, Armenia and China to discuss the situation and begin formulating a coordinated response.
The meeting is staged by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) in cooperation with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Inaugurating the meeting that runs through November 12, Agriculture Minister Qosim Qosimov noted that the main objective of the meeting was to discuss the possibility of establishment of the Central Asian regional fisheries organization. “Such an organization would help ensure sustainable management and development of fish industry and aquaculture in Central Asia,” the minister said.
We will recall that to develop fish industry in the country the government of Tajikistan established the state unitary enterprise Mohii Tojikiston (Tajikistan’s fishery) last April and adopted the national fishery development program for 2009-2015 on July 2, 2008.
In the meantime, an item titled “Fisheries Crisis in Central Asia” posted on FAO website on November 10 noted that fisheries production in the Central Asian and Caucasus republics has plummeted dramatically in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union and today the region”s fishing and aquaculture sectors are in a state of crisis.
According to FAO, between 1989 and 2006 annual inland fisheries and aquaculture production in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan fell from between 60 to 72 percent. Tajikistan”s production dropped 94 percent, and Kyrgyzstan”s 98 percent, during the same period.
As a result, fish consumption in the entire region is down — to less than 1 kilogram per capita per year — and fish and fisheries products have largely disappeared from the population”s diet.
According to a background report prepared by FAO for the meeting, multiple factors have combined to produce the collapse. These include: overfishing and poor management; dramatic cuts to investment in research and production facilities; decreased spending on maintenance of fleets and hatcheries; weak management of water bodies and other ecological problems, including pollution of rivers; and lack of investment in modern processing and marketing facilities and equipment.
The meeting could wrap up with initial steps being taken to establish an intergovernmental fisheries body that would lead efforts to rescue fisheries and aquaculture and promote their future sustainable development.
