African Chapter President's Column June 2024

WAS AC features at various strategic global fora as a way to create new partnerships and collaborations but also to promote African events to the global aquaculture community. Top: Mr Lanre Badmus attending Aquaculture UK 2024; Bottom: Dr Khalid Salie attending the Belmont Forum, South Korea that connects African and Korean Students. RIGHT: Dr. Francisca Delgado and Dr. Judith Makombu - African Chapter Executives promoting WAS and AFRAQ24 to the French and Portuguese communities in Africa. Africa has up to 34 French speaking countries and territories and about six Portuguese speaking nations.

As predicted in my previous column, the first half of 2024 has been quite busy for us, filled with events and activities as we continue striving to serve and raise the profile of the aquaculture sector in Africa. The executive board members, WAS AC members at large and our partners have been quite visible in organizing and featuring at several strategic meetings, both physically and virtually.

To begin with, in February 2024, I had the privilege to attend the Aquaculture America 2024 Conference in San Antonio, Texas. I was accompanied by the AC President-Elect, AC Secretary, and AC Regional Director for West Africa. It was a good opportunity to connect with other global WAS members and aquaculture actors during the conference. While in San Antonio, I also represented the African Chapter in the WAS Global Board, and Mid-Term Review Meeting where we were further appraised on the overall WAS Strategic Plan and WAS’s direction on various initiatives. The need to intensify our efforts in developing a sound student program to increase and valorize our membership outreach plans was highlighted. It was also a great joy for us to have the Board’s approval of individuals from all African countries qualifying for the low-income annual membership fee of $45. We believe this gesture of inclusiveness will go a long way in boosting our African membership base. Moreover, we had the WAS-AC students and other side meetings, during which we had good opportunities to connect, network, and interact with WAS-AC students, and WAS members from the USA and globally. We discussed various elements to collaborate on matters to advance the African chapter strategically.

Aquaculture Africa 2024 (AFRAQ24) Tunisia was launched successfully with the first joint Steering and National Organizing Committees held on 6 February 2024 in Tunis. Through the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources, and Fisheries the Tunisian government formally approved hosting the event in Hammamet on 19-22 November 2024. An Event Planner has been developed as a roadmap to guide all organizational formalities. We have stepped up efforts to promote the event widely to the African and global aquaculture communities to ensure their maximum participation. I wish to thank the organizing committees led by our highly esteemed WAS member in Tunisia, Dr. Nadia Cherif, who will assume the role of Conference Chair. I also thank our able executive officer (secretariat) Mr. Blessing Mapfumo for ensuring the successful outcomes. I will update you on AFRAQ24 conference organizational proceedings in my next column. Details are available on the event webpage: https://www.was.org/meeting/code/AFRAQ24.

In April 2024, we also launched World Aquaculture 2025, dubbed Aquaculture Safari 25 which will take place in Entebbe, Uganda on 23-26 June 2025. You may recall that following the success of the first World Conference in Cape Town in 2017, the WAS Board in 2021 (at a Board meeting in Mexico) approved the hosting of a World Conference in Africa We are overly grateful for the support rendered by the EU-funded Truefish project being implemented around Lake Victoria and coordinated by our highly esteemed Mr Etienne Hinrichsen. I will be delighted to welcome the global aquaculture community to Uganda next year. Details about the conference will be uploaded on the WAS website shortly.

The WAS executive board members also featured at several strategic global events during the season. These include Dr. Sherif Sadek’s featuring at an aquaculture workshop in Oman (April 2024); Mr. Lanre Badmus’s participation at Aquaculture UK (Scotland, May 2024); Dr Francisca Delgado attending the African Women in Maritime events in London and Cameroon (May 2024); Dr. Khalid Salie’s University missions to South Korea (May 2024); and, Dr. Bernice Mclean and Alexander Kefi organizing an Africa Seaweed Aquaculture Value Chain Workshop in Tanzania (May 2024). Our visibility, role, and involvement in many of these events, raised the profile and voice of African aquaculture but were also platforms to promote our strategic events, including the upcoming AFRAQ24. There were also some virtual meetings organized by WAS members which many of our members and African aquaculture actors attended, such as the June 2024 launch of the “Global Aqua Business Investment Guide” - which has been designed to promote sustainable, commercially driven growth of the aquaculture sector globally.

Towards the end of May 2024, I also featured at this year’s Aquaculture Ghana 2024 Conference, another large-scale aquaculture event in West Africa organized by the Chamber of Aquaculture Ghana. I had the opportunity to give an address and to connect with members and partners. I also declared open the WAS-AC one-day workshop which was well attended — thanks to Mr Lanre Badmus and his team for taking the lead in organizing the workshop. I will send some of the highlights of this Conference in my next column. The Aquaculture Ghana 2024 conference was strategic as it gave a foundation for hosting a future Aquaculture Africa event for the first time in West Africa, hopefully in 2026. Ghana has long been identified as a strategic host country.

Recently, I have been invited by the FAO to participate as an expert in a workshop for the revision of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries Aquaculture (CCRF: AQ) in Bangkok, Thailand. I was honored to serve on this panel in my recognition, but I used my participation to project the activities of the WAS Global, Africa, and Nigeria fisheries.

Moving ahead, the coming season is well packed with many WAS and affiliated premium events to look out for — all preceding our very own Aquaculture Africa 2024 Conference scheduled for Tunisia in November 2024. These include:

• The Third Eastern Africa Aquaculture Conference (EARAC III), 13-15 August 2024 in Mwanza, TANZANIA www.earac.org
• World Aquaculture 2024 (AQUA 2024), 26-30 August 2024 in Copenhagen, DENMARK www.was.org
• The 15th Aquaculture Association for Southern Africa (AASA 2024), 9-13 September 2024 Stellenbosch, SOUTH AFRICA www.aasa-aqua.co.za
• The 3rd Aquaculture Africa 2024 (AFRAQ24), 19-22 November 2024 Hammamet, TUNISIA www.was.org

Be sure to register online for these events, submit abstracts, present papers, and chair sessions as we all get inspired to share, connect, and network with the broader African and global aquaculture community. We also welcome exhibitors and sponsors to these large-scale events. I hope to see many of you there! In my next column, I will be more technical in unpacking the contribution of African aquaculture to global trends, now that the FAO has just released the 2024 edition of The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA). Watch this space!

Over and above, I wish to thank all WAS-AC members and partners for all the roles you continue to play and visible efforts in raising the profile of African aquaculture. Let’s catch up in the next column in September 2024! Stay safe and blessed as always!
Ms. Foluke O. Areola, President: African Chapter of the World Aquaculture Society (WAS-AC). Email: foareola@gmail.com