RETA 7307 launches study on the Economics of Fisheries and Aquaculture in the CTI (E-FACT)

RETA Team Leader, Ms. Abie Trinidad, is spearheading the study together with Ms. Lydia Napitupulu (Junior Resource Economist), Mr. Rollan Geronimo (Research Assistant), and Mr. Reniel Cabral (Data Encoder). They will be working with the UniQuest Knowledge Integrators (KIs) Ms. Moi Khim Tan (Malaysia), Mr. Paul Lokani (Papua New Guinea), Ms. Christine Casal (Philippines), and Ms. Delvene Boso (Solomon Islands) for in-country data gathering. Mr. Rui Miguel Pinto and Mr. Johannes Subijanto will be assisting the RETA Team in Timor Leste and Indonesia, respectively.

Australian government extends funding

The Government of Australia, through the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), is providing incremental funds to finance the study. During the first quarter of project implementation, AusAID provided incremental funds in the amount of AUS$ 200,000 (or US$167,000) to allow for site-based data collection in the data-scarce countries of the Pacific.

In the Pacific region, informal fishing activities contribute significantly to the local economies but are not valued appropriately at the national level. The E-FACT study will include specific section on the valuation of coral reefs in the Solomon Islands and value chain analysis of the trade.

Current Activities

The research team is conducting an inventory of data sources that can be accessed through the
internet and available reports. The Research Assistants have visited the local offices of the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the WorldFish Center to collect available information.

The KIs are also gathering data on fisheries trade statistics, including the direction of trade (trading
partners) and the magnitude of exports and imports in volume and value terms according to a standard level of disaggregation.

For more information, visit http://cti.iwlearn.org.

Source: CTI News Volume 2. No. 3 / July - August 2011