The World Bank is to invest 1 billion US dollars in a new fishery and aqua culture initiative tagged "New Global Program on Fisheries (PROFISH)," the bank's Environment Director Warren Evans said Wednesday.

In a statement issued in the Nigerian capital Abuja, Evans said the initiative would be executed in association with key donors and other stakeholders.

Evans, who is attending an ongoing four-day summit of African fisheries in Abuja with participants from 26 African countries and related international organizations, said the PROFISH program was aimed at meeting the challenges of growing crisis and would focus on sustainable fisheries management and governance.

The director said the overall objective of the PROFISH was to "assist developing countries in the design and implementation of sector strategies and plans for sustainable fisheries."

At the global level, he said, the PROFISH would address issues of illegal fishing, subsidies, knowledge building and raising awareness in favor of sustainable fisheries policies.

Evans said the livelihood of about 150 million people depended on fisheries, aquaculture and associated activities, while more than 20 percent of the world's 38 million full-time fishers earned less than one dollar per day.

He said many fishers lived in the world's poorest countries, where communities were often marginalized and landless.

The director said the export value of world trade in fish in 2002 was 58 billion dollars, more than the combined value of net exports of sugar, rice, coffee and tea.

"Half of the global fish trade comes from developing countries,while global consumption increased by 21 per cent between 1992 and 2002," he said. He approximated that 25 percent of the world's marine fish stocks were considered over-exploited, while additional 50 percent were fully exploited. He said the depleted state of wild fish stocks was due to over fishing, increasing degradation of coastal and freshwater ecosystems and habitats. Evans said in many developing countries, the sustainable benefits were declining, perpetuating poverty for many small-scale fishers and communities dependent on fisheries.

He disclosed that the World Bank supported a number of country projects which had significant fisheries components.

Source: Xinhua