27 July 2015: The Government of Kenya and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) have launched the Blue Growth Initiative (BGI) in Kenya, to promote more productive, sustainable and socially and economically responsible fisheries and aquaculture sectors.

Designed around capture fisheries, sustainable aquaculture, livelihoods and food systems, and economic growth from aquatic ecosystem services, the BGI aims to enhance the implementation of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF) and the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries and Aquaculture (EAF/EAA).

Under the BGI, FAO, in collaboration with the Government of Kenya, has developed two projects worth a total of US$1 million: ‘In Support of Food Security and Nutrition, Poverty Alleviation and Healthy Oceans’ and ‘In Support of Implementation of Mariculture in Kenya within an Ecosystems Approach.’ Both projects aim to increase knowledge of water basin to coral reef ecosystem services in order to guide and improve investment in sustainable coastal mariculture.

Launching the BGI, Adan Mohamed, Acting Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, called for concerted attention to the sustainability of fish supply. He stressed the need to address improvements in fisheries management, regulatory barriers, difficulty in accessing funding, fragmented research and development, and poor access to markets. Luca Alinovi, FAO Representative in Kenya, noted that mariculture could be developed sustainably through improving the governance and management of the aquatic ecosystems, and conservation of biodiversity and habitats, calling for empowering vulnerable communities engaged in small-scale production “to act as resource users and stewards.”

The BGI launch will be followed by a five-day training workshop on EAA implementation. [FAO Press Release]