EfD’s collaborative program Blue Resources for Development (BlueRforD) focuses on cross-boundary research on marine and coastal resources-related issues, that is, how the fisheries and aquaculture industries can contribute to sustainable development. Some of their current projects were highlighted at EfD’s Annual Meeting in Ghana.
“Fisheries and aquaculture are growing industries in many countries. They also face a lot of challenges; environmental issues, climate change, free-riding, transboundary problems, and difficulties with law enforcement,” says Ho Quoc Thong, EfD Vietnam and one of the leaders of BlueRforD.
The BlueRforD program is coordinated by EfD Vietnam. It has, among others, initiated two projects that involve the EfD centers in Chile and Vietnam, one about externalities in aquaculture (pollution) and one on relevant perceptions towards wild caught mussels versus farmed mussels.
The researchers in BlueRforD are also working on a series of papers about aquaculture performance indicators.
“We have currently three manuscripts from Vietnam, Chile, and Colombia and expect one or two more from Africa. Håkan Eggers and Carlos Chávez have been very active in nudging the authors to finalize these papers.”
The World Bank has developed a powerful tool to work more efficiently with surveys, called Survey Solutions. Along with the EfD Global Hub, EfD Vietnam has coordinated and promoted the use of this tool to members of the collaborative program in other countries.
“We want to conduct global surveys on particular topics, such as climate change in fisheries and marine spatial planning. Survey Solutions would be a very useful tool for such studies. This also encourages collaborative members to be more interactive and promotes collaboration,” says Ho Quoc Thong.
By: Petra Hansson
About BlueRforD
Interested in joining BlueRforD? Contact Ho Quoc Thong
More information about the program can be found here.