The Asia-Pacific region is remarkably diverse and wide ranging, geographically, in its flora and fauna, culturally, institutionally and economically. The region includes the two most populous countries in the world, China and India, a greater part of the Asian continent, the Australian continent, and many small islands, mostly in the Pacific Ocean, which are some of the smallest island nations in the world. Fisheries and aquaculture are socio-economically important sectors to most nations in the Asia-Pacific region and most nations in the region have high rates of fish consumption, mostly sourced from aquaculture although the small island nations depend to a greater extent on capture fisheries. This review entails analyses of the aquaculture sector in Asia-Pacific including the status and trends, progress made in achieving sustainable development, salient challenges, issues and anticipated future development. Status and trends are based on data extracted from the FAO Fishery and Aquaculture Statistics (FAO, 2020a; FAO, 2020b), unless stated otherwise, and are mostly for the period from 2008 to 2018 and occasionally for the period from 1990 to 2018 for relevant historical comparison and longer-term contextual analyses.

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circulars While many countries in the Asia-Pacific region have made commendable efforts to set up policies, as well as administrative, legal and regulatory frameworks to properly develop and manage aquaculture, some countries are still lagging behind. And in some of the countries that have made conducive policies, implementation is delayed by a lack of financial and skilled human resources. This issue must be addressed as a priority if the Asia-Pacific aquaculture sector is to continue to develop sustainably.

This document summarizes the status and trends of aquaculture development in North America, focusing on Canada and the United States of America, with some discussion on Bermuda, Greenland, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Relevant aspects of the social and economic background of each country are followed by a description of current and evolving aquaculture practices and the needs of the industry in terms of resources, services and technologies. Impacts of aquaculture practices on the environment are discussed, followed by a consideration of the response by the industry to market demands and opportunities, and its contribution to social and economic development at regional, national and international levels. External pressures on the sector are described, including climate change and economic events, along with associated changes in governance. The review concludes with an analysis of the contributions of North American aquaculture to the Sustainable Development Goals, the FAO Strategic Objectives, and the FAO Blue Growth Initiative. Throughout the review, outstanding issues and success stories are identified, and a way forward is suggested for each main topic.

This review covers the vast Asia-Pacific region comprising Oceania, South, Southeast, East and Central Asia. The outstanding regional characteristics are the dominance (except in Central Asia) of small-scale mostly commercially oriented farms, the dominance of cultured freshwater species in number and output and, as a recent FAO survey reveals, the low productivity of labour and the low employment multiplier of aquaculture in general, except in Oceania. These are circumscribed by the diminishing availability of land and freshwater, climate change and globalization of trade. The governance of the sector has set them towards the proper direction to acquire these capacities; its main features are the increasing use of market-based incentives and the adoption by farmers of voluntary governance mechanisms that include better management practices (BMPs) and codes of conduct (CoCs), bolstered by their association. Guided by progressive policies and regulations, these have shown that they can stimulate higher production, enable better returns, induce responsible farming practices, and produce higher quality and safer aquatic products. This, in capsule, is the major lesson from the region's recent history of aquaculture development. The challenge is to widely promote, adopt and sustain it in practice.

Feeding an expected global population of 9 billion by 2050 is a daunting challenge that is engaging hundreds of millions of farmers, food processors, traders, researchers, technical experts, and leaders the world over. Fish and other aquatic products from aquaculture can and will play a major role in meeting the dietary demands of all people, while also meeting the food security needs of the poorest. To realize the maximum contributions of the aquaculture sector toward achieving the targets set by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2030, coordinated and accelerated actions are required. Not only must these actions increase sustainable production, but also address the broader value chain, markets, and decent employment. Recognizing the critical importance of aquaculture, and the need to exchange and discuss reliable information to further enhance its contribution to sustainable development, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), at the request of its Members, collaborated with the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, to organize the Global Conference on Aquaculture Millennium +20 (GCA +20), 22–25 September 2021, in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China. Under the theme “Aquaculture for food and sustainable development”, the GCA +20 aimed to bring stakeholders from government, business, academia, and civil society together to identify the policy and technology innovations, investment opportunities and fruitful areas of cooperation in aquaculture for food and sustainable development. A key output from the GCA +20 – the Shanghai Declaration on Aquaculture for Food and Sustainable Development – highlights the principles and strategic pathways to maximize sustainable aquaculture in achieving the SDGs, with a special focus on “Leaving no one behind”.

This document provides a synthesis of six regional aquaculture reviews: Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Near East and North Africa, North America and sub-Saharan Africa. Global aquaculture production, including aquatic plants, in 2018 was 114.5 million tonnes, with an estimated value of USD 263 billion. The Asia-Pacific region continued to be the major producer. Globally, aquaculture provides over 50 percent of fish for human consumption. In 2018, aquaculturists were reported to farm about 622 species or species items including 387 finfishes, 111 molluscs, 64 crustaceans, seven frogs and reptiles, ten miscellaneous aquatic invertebrates and 43 aquatic plants. From 2000-2018, aquaculture production in freshwater, brackish water and marine water increased at a compound annual growth rate of 5.7 percent, 7.7 percent and 5.2 percent respectively while total aquaculture production grew at an annual growth rate of 5.6 percent. Global food supply and per capita consumption of fish and fish products continued to increase faster than human population growth. Aquaculture is striving to innovate in order to increase production and sustainability. Progress in biosecurity and fish health management, feed formulation and utilization, and genetic resource management are showing good, but uneven progress. The aquaculture sector faces challenges including competition for land and water resources, as well as external factors such as climate change, conflict, economic uncertainties and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic and other stresses such as droughts and tsunamis, revealed that the aquaculture industry has not engaged sufficiently in disaster preparedness. International and national mechanisms are being put in place to increase the sustainability, good governance and social license of the sector to address these challenges. The diversity of the sector, the opportunities for good jobs and commitments by governments to good governance will help the sector meet these challenges.

This review provides an overview of the status, trends, challenges and projections for aquaculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and evaluates the major trends during previous five years. While the sector still faces various internal and external challenges, the inherent natural potential of the region and rapidly increasing demand for fish has resulted in increased prioritization of aquaculture in almost all SSA countries and the African Union and subsidiary bodies have given special attention to the sector development. In order to realize its full potential, the SSA region needs to address a combination of overarching factors limiting aquaculture development so far, such as ineffective development approaches, weak governance frameworks, underdeveloped value chains and low availability as well as the high cost of key production inputs. Strengthened value chains for tilapia and catfish, promotion of new species, improved biosecurity, continued development of certification and associated harmonized best practices, improved information systems and innovations to address climate-change related impacts are some of the matters to be addressed. Financial institutions and private sector (national and international) have equally started investing, even though in the global picture such interventions may seem negligible, which makes the continent to call for more and higher levels technical and financial assistance from international partners. Upscale the status of production and productivity via healthy investments would help the sector to generate a variety of benefits including food security, livelihoods, employment, domestic and intra-regional markets, foreign currency income and other socio-economic benefits.