The Shanghai Declaration and its Call for Action were developed and adopted by the participants of the Global Conference on Aquaculture Millennium +20 (GCA +20), which concluded on 25 September 2021 at Shanghai, China.
The conference, which adopted the theme “Aquaculture for Food and Sustainable Development”, was the fourth to be held and was organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, together with the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA).
The Shanghai Declaration was first outlined and developed by an invited group of experts, informed by regional and thematic aquaculture reviews commissioned by FAO in 2020 in advance of the GCA +20. Members of its International Organizing Committee and International Programme Committee further elaborated the Shanghai Declaration, with FAO and NACA acting as Secretariat while providing additional inputs. The advanced draft was posted online for comments by participants ahead of the GCA +20, which were considered in the final drafting.
The Declaration calls for expanding the contribution of aquaculture to sustainable agri-food systems towards nourishing nations and providing healthy, nutrient-rich and climate-friendly food to people. Aquaculture production must be considered as an integral part of the global agri-food systems with intrinsic linkages to capture fisheries and terrestrial agriculture, the Declaration notes.
The full text of the Declaration can be accessed at https://aquaculture2020.org/uploads/shanghai-declaration-draft-v7.pdf