The Expert Consultation on the Development of the Sustainable Aquaculture Guidelines was held in Rome, Italy from 17 to 20 June 2019 to come out with a proposal for developing the Sustainable Aquaculture Guidelines to be presented in August 2019 at the tenth session of the Sub-Committee on Aquaculture of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI). The specific objectives of this Expert Consultation were to propose criteria for selecting case studies aimed at providing lessons learned for the development of the Sustainable Aquaculture Guidelines, and methodologies for documenting the case studies, for analysing the case studies to identify the lessons learned, and for developing the Sustainable Aquaculture Guidelines by also making use of existing guidelines. The consultation was attended by 15 experts, one resource person and FAO staff. The consultation was organized into both plenary and group discussions. The Experts agreed on a proposed methodology for identifying and selecting the lessons learned from strategies and experiences of aquaculture development worldwide; a methodology for documenting and analysing the lessons learned; a list of thematic modules; a gap analysis between existing guidelines and needs for new ones, and; an updated roadmap for the development of the Sustainable Aquaculture Guidelines.

This report was prepared withing the framework of the FAO Fisheries Department's continued efforts to contribute to poverty alleviation and hunger reduction in developing countries through aquaculture development. It seeks to analyse the reasons and factors, especially the role of public sector policies, which were behind aquaculture development in China. The aim is to make the Chinese experience available to other parts of the world, especially developing countries, to enable these countries to evaluate ways whereby they could benefit from this experience of sustainable and lucrative aquaculture practices. The report discusses valuable lessons that can be learned from the Chinese experience.