FAO interests in promoting understanding of world seaweed resources,their optimal harvesting,and fishery and ecological interactions

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN has, among its other responsibilities, a concern with the description and proper management of marine living resources, including seaweeds. These interests relative to marine algae, include a better definition of commercial world seaweed resources by species synopses and catalogues, improved methods of assessing and managing the wild resources, and understanding the impact of seaweed harvesting on the other commercial resources for which seaweeds form a habitat, as well as determining the contribution of macroalgae to those marine food chains leading to commercial fish populations. On the utilization side, FAO's interests also encompass methods of cultivation (mariculture), harvest of ‘wild’ stocks, and the processing, marketing and trade in the marine resources. In the present paper we will be dealing particularly with scientific management of these resources, and the initiatives that would be of value in promoting this approach: particularly with respect to improved dissemination of information on appropriate methodologies. A brief outline of some areas of concern in resource management is followed by a discussion of possible actions to assist in achieving these goals, particularly through the applications of the existing skills of experts in marine algae to the proposed FAO initiatives outlined in this paper, preferably acting through an established body of experts such as the International Seaweed Association.