Abstract:

Fisheries and aquaculture play important roles in providing food and income in many developing countries,
either as a stand-alone activity or in association with crop agriculture and livestock rearing. The aim of this paper
is to identify how these contributions of fisheries and aquaculture to poverty reduction and food security can
be enhanced while also addressing the need for a sustainability transition in over-exploited and over-capitalized
capture fisheries, and for improved environmental performance and distributive justice in a rapidly growing
aquaculture sector.
The focus of the paper is on the poverty and food security concerns of developing countries, with an emphasis on
the least developed. It is therefore most relevant to the OECD states’ roles as donors, signatories to multilateral
agreements relevant to fisheries and food security, and as trading partners with developing countries. The
emphasis is on food security rather than poverty reduction policies and strategies, although the two are of
course related. The food security agenda is very much to the fore at present; fish prices rose along with other
food prices in 2007-8 and as fish provide important nutritional benefits to the poor, food security has become
a primary concern for sector policy