The program, funded by the AECID and the CSIC, involved 86 teachers and more than 150 students from 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries.
A pioneering training program led by the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) of Barcelona aimed at improving aquaculture resources management in Latin America and the Caribbean was successfully completed last February at La Antigua Training Center (Guatemala). The program, funded by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), involved 86 professors and more than 150 students from 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The training, addressed mainly to professionals working for public administrations and research centers in Latin America and the Caribbean, sought to improve their knowledge about new advances, methods and tools aimed at increasing the sustainability of aquaculture production.
"We are extremely satisfied with the acceptance of the program, which will improve aquaculture production and management in line with sustainable development goals," states the training coordinator, Francesc Piferrer.
The training program, in which other CSIC centers, Spanish and Latin American universities also participated, included courses on reproduction and biotechnology, genetics and genomics, fish, crustacean and mollusk welfare, larviculture and auxiliary species, nutrition and pathology.
Providing all this knowledge to workers and managers in the aquaculture sector is key, especially at the present time, as the world's population continues to grow, which also increases protein consumption. However, fishing is increasingly stagnant.
"Both Latin America and the Caribbean have great fish biodiversity, especially freshwater species, so it is essential to provide them with the right tools to manage all these resources well," adds Piferrer, who is convinced that the program will ultimately serve as a basis for designing new policies and action plans for more sustainable and higher quality aquaculture production.