The ADB recently awarded Indonesia a grant of US$880,000 towards the consultancy costs of a $1.18 million technical assistance study to help the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries prepare a national long-term marine fisheries development strategy. Due for completion by the end of this year, the study will help the ministry plan the sustainable development of marine and fisheries output which is estimated to be worth over $5 billion annually. Indonesia is a diverse archipelago of more than 17,000 islands. It is one of the world's largest marine and farmed fish producers, and the 10th largest fish exporter.
In the Asia-Pacific region, in 2004, the Bank also agreed to grant-finance for part of the consultancy costs of a technical assistance scheme to assist the government of Fiji to review its fisheries sector and draw up a long-term marine fisheries development strategy.
The ADB is also involved in regional fisheries development, recently funding the technical assistance costs of an initiative to bring foreign, tuna-fishing fleet owners and Pacific island governments together. This was to try to develop a mutually beneficial, long-term tuna fishing licensing system to increase local investment and economic returns from tuna fisheries. It would replace the present short term licensing system.
Policy review & money
These three fishery technical assistance schemes come as the ADB has begun an internal review of its fisheries development policy. The Bank has appointed a team of natural resource specialists to prepare an updated policy to guide ADB's fisheries development support strategy for the next decade.
The review will impact on a fisheries support programme that has provided loans and grant financing worth more than US$85 million since the late 1990s to more than 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, from Sri Lanka in the west to Fiji and neighbouring island-nations in the Pacific.
Established in 1966, the ADB today has 63 member countries including 36 (borrowing) developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The other members are mainly developed countries and include the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and western European countries which provide part of the Bank's reserves for lending.
Between 1966 and 2004 the ADB also lent a total of US$110 billion to finance projects in developing member countries. The loans were for three sectors: agriculture and natural resource development including fisheries; energy development; and transport and communication development. Each accounted for 20 per cent of accumulated lending. The other major sector to receive substantial loan support was social infrastructure, which made up approaching 20 per cent of total lending.
The pattern of ADB lending has changed during the past decade, reflecting the new borrowing needs of developing countries in the region. Loans for agriculture and natural resources and energy have declined while lending for transport development, particularly road construction, has grown dramatically.
In 2004 the ADB approved project loans totalling US$5.3 billion, of which agriculture and natural resources accounted for four per cent while transport and communications projects received 42 per cent of total funding, almost double the figure for 2000. Energy projects accounted for 14 per cent of lending, education five per cent, health care six per cent and economic management and public policy 11 per cent.
More money for fish
More money for fish
Fisheries form a relatively small part of the ADB's agriculture and natural resources development programme. But is likely to become more important in the future as the development of sustainable fisheries and protection of the coastal marine environment receive greater attention due to large, low-income populations that live in Asia's coastal regions.
“The ADB has had its present fisheries policy for nine years. Now it is up for review,” according to Thomas Gloerfelt-Tarp, senior natural resources specialist in the ADB's Pacific Department, “We will rewrite it and say what the Bank will do and will not do. The new policy will come out this year.”
Because of its large lending resources, the ADB is one of the two most important sources of development finance in the Asia-Pacific region. The other is the World Bank, which also operates a similar development loan finance programme.
The ADB's role is to support major development programmes that require financial and technical expertise which most borrowing governments do not possess and the commercial banks are not usually equipped to provide. In the past, ADB fisheries lending focused on cold storage facilities, fishing boats and fishing harbours. Loans were provided mainly to government departments and through them to coastal provincial and municipal authorities, rather than to privately run fishery enterprises.
Expansion or conservation?
Over-fishing and damage to the coastal marine environment caused by dynamite fishing and other illegal practices in many parts of Asia pose different issues for fisheries development today.
In reviewing its fisheries policy, the ADB will need to consider which lending strategies are most appropriate to increase incomes in fishing communities, while conserving marine resources for coastal communities for the long term
Lending to increase fisheries production may not always be appropriate and greater emphasis on fisheries conservation, to ensure sustainable output, may be more beneficial to those communities.
“I have reservations. I don't think there is much room for fishery expansion anywhere. I don't think the fish stocks can take it as there are signs of over- fishing in many places,” Gloerfelt-Tarp said, “Groupers, snappers, bêche de mer [(sea cucumber) which is very much an artisanal fishery in the region] and trochus shells (to make shirt buttons) get skimmed off first in most Asian countries. The problem is that coastal communities are left without resources [because of the] three to five year harvest cycles. The sea's productivity does not decrease, but you get more lower-value fish being caught in mid-cycle.
“In tropical ecosystems, if you remove the top-dwelling predators or the bottom-dwelling creatures, the ecosystem is less resilient to shocks. Elsewhere, we have seen the spectacular collapse of the Great Banks of Canada cod fishery, where the fish numbers have not bounced back as expected. Something happened to the ecosystem to stop it bouncing back. That's the major challenge today. The robustness of the system is what is interfered with.”
No farm cash
The ADB fisheries policy review is unlikely to approve support for aquaculture due to the damage that can occur to the coastal environment and the high input of resources needed compared with the nutritional food value of farmed products.
“Another myth, in my opinion, is that aquaculture will replace lost marine fisheries,” he said. “Aquaculture is primarily focused on top predator fish. It does not improve the food situation [because] these fish need a high-protein diet. For example, Atlantic salmon eat five kg of trash fish to put on one kg of their own weight. This does not add up.
“Maybe you can get away with it in temperate waters where there are just 10 per cent of the number of species compared to tropical waters and where there is not a large population of trash fish. In Asia poor people live along the coast and eat all the fish that are caught, so with aquaculture you are losing protein.”
Fish aquaculture in China, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan is based largely on carp and tilapia; also in Southeast Asia, catfish are reared. Milk fish are important to the Filipino aquaculture industry, but are low value and contain a lot of bones. Prawn farming is important in some Asian countries, with most production being exported to the United States, Japan and Europe.
“Prawn farming is extremely damaging to coastal areas. With many coastal farms disease sets in and there is saltwater intrusion,” Gloerfelt-Tarp said. “But if I were a coastal dweller I would do it because three good prawn harvests are enough to put your children through school. ADB did support prawn farming in the past, but not now because of long term damage. It‚s only recently that all this has happened.”
Who got what
Who got what
Six countries have received ADB loans for fisheries development since 1997, of which Indonesia and Papua New Guinea have received two loans each. The other borrowers are China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
In addition, the ADB has funded consultancy costs for fishery technical assistance schemes in nine countries, along with funding for two regional, fishery, technical-assistance schemes covering groups of countries.
Other countries also using ADB consultants to promote fisheries development include Cambodia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, the Solomons and the Marshal Islands. The Indonesian government has received two ADB loans totalling US$74 million to finance coastal fisheries and coral reef rehabilitation, along with several technical- assistance consultancy grants to support fisheries development and management planning. A $33 million ADB loan is being used to fund a coral rehabilitation and fisheries management project covering six areas in Sumatra and it will run until mid-2009.
Training is being provided both to local fishery officers and fishing communities to develop and monitor non-destructive fishing methods in order to create sustainable coral reef fisheries which could also offer additional income-generating opportunities through the development of marine-based tourism
Papua New Guinea is using a $5.7 million loan for a coastal fishery management project which is due to run until the end of 2007. In addition to re-organising Papua New Guinea's National Fisheries Authority, the project includes constructing a wharf for long-line tuna fishing vessels, jetties and access roads to allow fish to be transported to cold stores and markets.
In Sri Lanka, implementation of a coastal resources management programme is due for completion at the end of this year. The government has used a $40 million ADB loan to build a number of fishing harbours, improve coastal erosion defences and engage international consultants to provide technical assistance to strengthen the institutional capability of the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development. Most ADB fishery projects include training and education for fisheries officials and fishermen to encourage conservation and ensure sustainable fisheries production.
Delicacies and farming
Over-harvesting prized seafood delicacies, often for export, is a continual threat to the marine environment and fishermen's incomes. “Fishing is not like agriculture. You do not have to wait for the harvest,” Gloerfelt-Tarp said. “Fish traders come with cash, for example, and get a sea cucumber license. Maybe the village chief gets a TV set from this, but the villagers get nothing. Pacific countries have faced this problem with live reef fish. The extent that reef fish capture has expanded is enormous. The fish are transported live to Hong Kong and China for sale. It's a massive loss and not sustainable. A lot of this is illegal and not done officially through governments and licensing,”
The ADB has previously funded a regional technical assistance programme to help Pacific countries devise strategies to prevent uncontrolled reef fish capture and to generate greater income from controlled fishing. More recently the Bank launched a regional initiative to increase Pacific nations' income from tuna fishing by encouraging Pacific governments to work more closely with foreign tuna fishing fleet operators that fish in their waters.
“When you look worldwide, most fisheries are down. Only the North Sea herring has bounced back,” Gloerfelt-Tarp said, “The Pacific is the only place where a drop has not happened. Maybe we can make Pacific tuna fisheries sustainable. It would be an achievement.We want to work with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). If we get them in and get the big Pacific tuna-spawning grounds protected, it will be an assurance of the long term viability for the tuna fishing investor,” he added.
“WWF has helped with their green label. We would like to tap into WWF marketing as a boost for the Pacific islands. This is an original idea to cope with the lack of transparency and profit management in tuna fisheries.”
Following the ADB's fisheries policy review, cooperation could also increase with bilateral, NGO and other agencies involved in fisheries development. The Bank already cooperates with the World Bank in co-financing long term fisheries resource and management development in Indonesia, while other ADB fishery schemes have involved cooperation with British, Australian and Canadian bilateral aid agencies.
“Fisheries will become more important to the ADB for food-security reasons after the policy review. We will come up with a good fisheries policy document. Fisheries is a difficult sector. When there is a free-for-all, it goes wrong. When fisheries goes wrong in a developing country, government policy is not there to help as money is not there to stop destruction.
“If we can make ADB's fisheries policy more clear, so that other organisations can see where we stand, bilateral agencies and other donors will see ADB as a viable project partner. We also can be a guarantor for project implementation transparency.
“We have money for infrastructure lending that the WWF does not have, for example. If we are clear about our position in fisheries this will attract bilateral agencies and NGOs like the WWF to work with us as a reliable partner.”
