8 JUNE 2016 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG There have only been two WAS events in Indonesia: the first was just after AwF started in 2005 in Bali and the second was the Asia Pacific Aquaculture 2016 conference in Surabaya at the end of April. The people flocked to Surabaya where they embraced 240 exhibition booths and eleven rooms of conference over three crammed but exciting days at the Grand City complex in the center of the large city. The numbers may well have expected to be down a little on usual because of the clash with the Seafood Expo Global in Brussels but, primarily due to local Indonesian support, WAS saw record numbers exceeding 5,500 people attend. Indonesia, of course has a rapidly expanding aquaculture industry – nearly a 20 percent increase in the last five years in the area of aquaculture production and over 5 percent per year increase in tons produced every year for the last ten years. For those visiting from EU, USA and Australia, it was important to see the government and industry partnership, which is obviously needed to maximize aquaculture outcomes. For a country to achieve what Indonesia has over these recent years, you need a formula of a government that sets the governance, infrastructure and incentives to engage people in aquaculture, coupled with industry groups that grasp opportunities, and in the background you need active service industries that supply education, equipment, feed and all the other services. You can see this happening in Indonesia. Of course you also need to be blessed with geographic location – Indonesia is made up of thousands of volcanic islands, known for its natural beauty with beaches, volcanoes and jungles sheltering elephants, tigers and Komodo dragons. It is a great recipe. Additional to the normal program of events The International Symposium on Tilapia in Aquaculture (ISTA) along with several special industry sessions/workshops with the latest in practical knowledge for the Indonesian aquaculture producers were held, attracting many domestic farmers. IndoAqua, Fita and 12th All Indonesian Young Koi Show were also included in this event, adding to the overall effect. WAS-APC put on a great show in Surabaya and, along with AwF, importantly engaged students in a terrific session, followed by a Students Reception that saw many talented young people engage, giving a glimpse what could be to come for the burgeoning aquaculture industry in the future. An aquaculture competition, national dress competition, cat-walk competition and a talent show ensured that everyone had a great chance to ‘strut their stuff’ and benefit from the prize money on hand. In the conference student session, AwF Directors Albert Tacon and Roy Palmer gave their own unique stories of how their careers evolved within the industry. The AwF Session included sessions about AwF activities, funding opportunities, women in aquaculture and a number of talks by the WAS-APC students and women aquaculturists who secured scholarships to attend Asia Pacific Aquaculture 2016. Funding for this opportunity was provided by WAS-APC, and Aquaculture without Frontiers facilitated the process. All of the presentations have been posted at www.aquaculturewithoutfrontiers.org/education/slideshows/. Typically the women’s’ network session was an interesting discussion and well led by Dr. Janine Pierce (soon to take over the Secretariat of the AwF Indigenous Network) with great contributions from WAS-APC Directors Maymyat Noelwin and Bibha Kumari and excellent presentations from Arlyn Mandas, Vaishali Joshi, Renata Melon Barroso, Menaga Meenakshisundaram and Nikoleta Ntalamagka. The AwF Women’s Network is now over 550 people strong thanks to secretariat, Julie Kimber, and we expect that will continue to grow as newly elected AwF (USA) director Sally Krueger intends to take special interest in this area. Nikoleta Ntalamagka spoke about her home county of Greece and the issue of Syrian refugees and this created much discussion about how we could all assist. Nikoleta has also emerged as a leader of students and is helping AwF establish the Students Network along with new AwF (USA) board member Michael Lee. Over 350 people joined the Students Network in the first couple of weeks so this augers well for the future. We were very pleased that Lian E. Heinhuis was able to be a special guest presenter for AwF. Lian is an associate analyst working specifically on seafood, working with Gorjan Nikolik, senior industry analyst on food and agribusiness for Rabobank International and an AwF Director. Lian presented on the various Rabobank organizations including Rabobank Foundation which pursues its objectives by supporting cooperatives or member-based organizations that offer an opportunity to save, borrow or insure. The foundation has recently signed a contract for engagement in Indonesia. The timing was excellent because AwF had just received its first Rabobank funding, which is going to assist with the training of women in Vakkom, Kerala, India. We anticipate that the project will get underway in June once all the contracts have been approved and signed. We are very excited about this, as are our MoU partners, Organic Life and the people of Vakkom. We are also grateful to Dinesh Kaippilly for his efforts in linking the opportunity and we hope that this will be the first of many such activities in the area. Another AwF board member, Polly Legendre, is using her skills to create a branding strategy for AwF. Developing a long-term plan for the development of the brand to achieve specific goals is something we have never attempted so will be interesting to see what comes of this. On the subject of strategies, Dos O’Sullivan, Australian director, is working on a Risk Strategy. Aquaculture without Frontiers (UK) CIO had its first meeting in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK during April and appointed Clifford Spencer as Chairman. He was recently appointed Aquaculture Ambassador to New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which is expected to be a driver of a new African strategy for the organization. The important difference with the UK to other AwF’s is that the CIO is equally shared between AwF and Milling for Life. Although ‘Aquaculture without Frontiers (UK) CIO’ is the chosen common name, we must not forget that the CIO is a charity representing both aquaculture and milling. In this respect the objectives of the organization are explicit. Largest Event Delivers for AwF in Indonesia (CONTINUED ON PAGE 72)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjExNDY=