Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 46

PART 1 WORLD REVIEW
» previously allowed. As a consequence, Hubei
The trends in the number of people engaged in
the fisheries and aquaculture primar y sectors
var y by region. Europe and North America have
experienced the largest proportional decreases in
the number of people engaged in both sectors,
with particular decreases in capture fishing
(Table 11). In contrast, Africa and Asia, with higher
population growth and increasing economically
active populations in the agriculture sector, have
shown a generally positive trend for the number
of people engaged in capture fishing and even
higher rates of increase in those engaged in
aquaculture. The Latin America and Caribbean
region stands somewhere in between these two
trends, with decreasing population growth, a
decreasing economically active population in the
agriculture sector in the last decade, moderately
growing employment in the fisheries and
aquaculture sectors, and rather high sustained
growth in aquaculture production. However, the
region’s vigorously growing aquaculture
production may not result in equally high growth
in the number of employed fish farmers, as
several of the important organisms cultivated in
the region are intended for highly competitive
foreign markets. Increasing their production thus
requires a focus on efficiency, qualit y and lower
costs and relies more on technological
developments than on human labour.
fisheries officials envisaged a plunge in fish
production of close to 7 percent in 2017. On the
other hand, fisheries authorities have intensively
promoted a series of new aquaculture
technologies and high-yielding farming systems
since 2016, coupled with large-scale expansion of
crop–fish integration, including rice–fish culture.
The immediate effect of these actions on fish
production is not yet known at the time of
preparing this report, but it is not expected to be
as significant for total fish supply as the effects of
planned cuts to the countr y’s fishing capacit y. n
FISHERS AND FISH
FARMERS
Many millions of people around the world find a
source of income and livelihood in the fisheries
and aquaculture sectors. The most recent official
statistics (Table 11) indicate that 59.6 million people
were engaged in the primar y sector of capture
fisheries and aquaculture in 2016, with 19.3
million people engaged in aquaculture and 40.3
million people engaged in fisheries.
Total employment in the sectors showed a general
upward trend over the period 1995 –2010,
followed by a levelling off. The increase was
inf luenced to some extent by improvements in
the statistical estimation routines applied. The
proportion of those employed in capture fisheries
decreased from 83 percent in 1990 to 68 percent
in 2016, while the proportion of those employed
in aquaculture correspondingly increased from
17 to 32 percent.
In Oceania, a large increase in the number of
fishers was reported for 2015 and 2016, attributed
to the availabilit y of improved estimates on
subsistence fishers.
Table 12 presents the engagement statistics for selected
countries. Engagement in fisheries and aquaculture
in China remained between 14.2 million and 14.6
million in the period 2012–2016 (about 25 percent of
the world total). In 2016, 9.4 million people were
engaged as fishers and 5.0 million in aquaculture.
In 2016, 85 percent of the global population
engaged in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors
was in Asia, followed by Africa (10 percent) and
Latin America and the Caribbean (4 percent). More
than 19 million (32 percent of all people employed
in the sectors) were engaged in aquaculture,
concentrated primarily in Asia (96 percent of all
aquaculture engagement), followed by Latin
America and the Caribbean (2 percent of the total
or 3.8 million people) and Africa (1.6 percent or
3.0 million people). Europe, North America and
Oceania each had less than 1 percent of the global
population engaged in the sectors.
Employment data are a keystone for socio-
economic assessment of the fisheries and
aquaculture sectors, as the activities generate
food, income and livelihoods. The main focus of
FAO’s socio-economic data collection programme
is on estimation of the number of people directly
involved in the activities, in addition to
demographic patterns, the contribution of
remuneration to livelihoods and general
profitabilit y of the activit y (e.g. following the
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