Post-Conference Workshop

Wednesday, June 13, 1:30m–4:30pm, Room TBD

 

Global Aquaculture Occupational Health and Safety: National and International Perspectives

After a round of brief introductions, this ½ day post-conference workshop will open with a series of short presentations of findings from an FAO-funded scan of the global, regional and national terrain of aquaculture/fish farming occupational health and safety and related social and welfare impacts. Panel presenters will draw on regional and national profiles of aquaculture OHS completed in 2017 outlining documented physical, biological, ergonomic, chemical and psychosocial hazards, related injury and disease profiles, and examining how OHS issues are managed across a range of countries and companies engaged in the production of different species and products. These will be explored along the supply chain from diving and construction work through work on ponds, racks and cages to harvest, grading, primary processing and transport of products to market. Particular attention will be paid to OHS challenges associated with vulnerably situated groups including women and children and the precariously employed and some of the major constraints and drivers for good aquaculture OHS. Presentations will place findings in the context of international codes produced by bodies such as the ILO and FAO, civil society codes like those from the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, good labour and industry practice, industry/company guidance and training programmes, national and regional OHS regulations such as those existing in Europe, their uptake and effectiveness.  The role of safety policies that work or specific tripartite structures and codes for example in Norway and Scotland involving industry, trade unions and regulators on land and sea will also be explored.

Part One of the Workshop Programme

  1. Overview of the FAO Aquaculture OHS report and main findings (Andrew Watterson’s 20 minutes)
  2. Brief highlights from each of the regional and country reports (40 minutes)
    1. Asia, European Union and U.K. (Andrew Watterson) (Presentation slides).
    2. Norway (Ingunn Marie Holmen) (Presentation slides).
    3. Canada and the U.S. (Barb Neis and Michael Barnes) (Presentation slides).
    4. Latin America and the Caribbean and Brazil (Lissandra Cavalli) (Presentation slides).
    5. Africa (Mohamed Jeebhay) (Presentation slides).
    6. Australia and New Zealand (Presentation slides).

In the second part of the workshop, attention will shift to dialogue and small group discussion around what is known and gaps in current knowledge, as well as evidence for things that work. There will be an open discussion of improvements that can be made. Opportunities and costs and other constraints as these relate to assessment, communication, mitigation and, in particular, protection from and prevention of OSH hazards and risks in aquaculture will be explored. Critical underlying issues include: who bears the costs of poor OHS; the feasibility of adapting existing general OSH guidance documentation (e.g. as developed for other agricultural and food-producing sectors) to aquaculture; particular opportunities and constraints faced by small-scale (rural) aquaculture farmers and related workers.

Part 2 of the Workshop Program:

  1. Dialogue and small group discussion: what is known, not known, future priorities for research and action in the field of aquaculture OHS? (50 minutes)
  2. Feedback to plenary and closing (30 minutes)

 

(Back to Program Page)

 

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