WorldFish
| WorldFish | |
|---|---|
| Motto | "To reduce poverty and hunger by improving fisheries and aquaculture" |
| Formation | 1975 |
| Type | Nonprofit research organization |
| Purpose/focus | Research |
| Headquarters | Penang, Malaysia |
| Region served | Worldwide |
| Membership | FishBase Consortium |
| Parent organization | Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research |
| Website | Worldfishcenter.org |
| Remarks | Formerly the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM). |
WorldFish, a CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Center, is an international, non-profit research organization dedicated to reducing poverty and hunger by improving fisheries and aquaculture. CGIAR is a global research partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for sustainable development. CGIAR research is dedicated to reducing rural poverty, increasing food security, improving human health and nutrition, and ensuring more sustainable management of natural resources. It is carried out by the 15 centers who are members of the CGIAR Consortium in close collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector.
Working in partnership with private and public sectors and civil society, WorldFish develops pro-poor sustainable aquaculture that supports the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). All services and solutions developed by the Center are international public goods[1] that are made freely available to all.
WorldFish takes a comprehensive, multidisciplinary research approach that acknowledges the complex and multi-faceted problems that face fisheries and aquaculture. Failure to embrace this complexity has led to piecemeal efforts in the past and undue faith in single technology or development approaches. The Center prioritizes its research efforts to include those areas in which it will have the biggest impacts, and assumes the role of broker and catalyst of research among the full range of development partners needed to close the gap between research and development action.[2]
WorldFish Research
WorldFish expertise in Policy Economics and Social Sciences, Natural Resource Management and Aquaculture and Genetic Improvement work together to provide a wide range of research and analysis to meet complex challenges like these.
- Policy Economics and Social Science division focuses on social and economic analysis of the aquaculture and fisheries sectors; connecting the fisheries and aquaculture sector to poverty reduction initiatives at local to global scales; policy and institutional analysis for the improved governance of aquatic resources; assessing the potential impacts of climate change on fisheries and adaptive measures that can be taken; and human health consequences of fisheries, reducing risks, and fisheries options that benefit health-impaired populations (HIV/AIDS and malaria). WorldFish also works with communities to manage their fisheries.
- The Natural Resources division produces integrated assessment and management technologies for small-scale fisheries, designs and manages global information systems on aquatic resources (FishBase, ReefBase), studies post-disaster livelihood recovery in fisheries-dependent regions, assesses impacts of built structures on aquatic resources in river basins and analyses external drivers such as climate change on livelihoods of fishery-dependent households.
- The Aquaculture and Genetic Improvement division is dedicated to developing methods for breeding improved fish strains for aquaculture; aquaculture technologies for the poor, including women and the landless; integrating aquaculture with terrestrial small-scale agriculture; developing strategies and options for aquaculture production and national action plans; connecting small-scale producers to markets and developing technologies that improve water productivity while protecting environmental flows.
Impact and Innovation
WorldFish, with its partners, has raised incomes for millions of poor people (and reduced suffering of HIV/AIDS-affected families) by integrating aquaculture with agriculture and has empowered poor communities to participate in the sustainable co-management of their fisheries. It has helped countries cope with disaster and conflict by restoring fisheries, providing nations with tools to improve the planning and management of major river basins and developed widely-consulted global databases, and strengthening national capacities for fisheries management.
Three areas of work have generated particularly large impact:
- The breeding of much higher-yielding tilapia fish varieties (GIFT), widely used in aquaculture across Asia, greatly raising productivity and incomes: $170 returned for each $100 invested per annum.[3]
- Integrated aquaculture-agriculture in Malawi that has sharply increased incomes and reduced childhood malnutrition, and helping HIV/AIDS-affected families cope; $115 returned for each $100 invested per annum.[4]
- Fisheries co-management in Bangladesh, which is increasing biodiversity, raising incomes by 100% and fish catches by 30%, particularly by empowering women. The Science Council commended co-management as an “eminently replicable model for contemporary rural development.”[5]
References
- ↑ Sagasti, F.; Timmer, V. (November 2008). "An Approach to the CGIAR as a Provider of International Public Goods". Retrieved 2012-10-24.
- ↑ "Home". WorldFish website. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
- ↑ Standing Panel on Impact Assessment, Science Council Secretariat, CGIAR (October 2006). "Improved Tilapia Benefits Asia". Science Council Brief (6). Rome: CGIAR. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
- ↑ Standing Panel on Impact Assessment, Science Council Secretariat, CGIAR (October 2006). "Development and Dissemination of Integrated Aquaculture–Agriculture Technologies in Malawi". Science Council Brief (11). Rome: CGIAR. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
- ↑ Standing Panel on Impact Assessment, Science Council Secretariat, CGIAR (November 2008). "Community-Based Fisheries Management in Bangladesh". Science Council Brief (30). Rome: CGIAR. Retrieved 2012-10-24.