NACEE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The 3rd General Assembly of NACEE was held between 3-4 May 2012 at Retimajor in Hungary. Retimajor is the site of a multi-functional fish farm called Aranyponty, where all conditions are available even for the organisation of international conferences. The General Assembly was the third one after the registration of NACEE as a non-profit organisation; however, this was the 9th meeting of the directors of the NACEE member institutions since the establishment of the Network in 2004. Directors and leading experts of 13 NACEE member institutions and organisations attended the General Assembly from 9 Central and Eastern European countries (Belarus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russia and Ukraine). Croatia was represented as an observer.

One of the major activities was the meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee (having representatives from most member institutions and organisations), which was discussing and elaborating the research agenda of NACEE. The General Assembly adopted the annual progress and financial report and the work program. NACEE is a project-oriented inter-institutional network in aquaculture, which has a small secretariate (part-time staff) and operates with significant contribution of the members. Efforts have been made to be involved in international aquaculture R&D projects. Currently, the preparation of an FAO project (TCP Facility) on aquatic genetic resources management is close to completion and members together with the secretariat are working on the preparation of EU FP7 project proposals. NACEE is involved in the dissemination activity of some running EU projects such as ARRAINA and AQUAEXCEL, mainly in partnership with the Hungarian Research Institute for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Irrigation (HAKI).

It is a tradition of NACEE to organize a professonal workshop as a side event of the General Assembly. This year, three specific topics of freshwater aquaculture were discussed according to the following: Innovation in carp farming (new systems and technologies); aquatic genetic resources management; and multi-functional aquaculture. The presentations of the keynote speakers (advanced farmers) were followed by invited speakers from research institutions from CEE countries. The workshop was open for stakeholders of the aquaculture sector and
simultaneous interpretaton was provided in three languages (English, Hungarian and Russian).

Further information:

Programme

NACEE General Assembly:

Minutes of the GA

Draft research agenda

Progress report

Workshop on some specific issues of freshwater aquaculture:

Gyula Borbely, Balazs Csorbai: Combined fish production systems

Laszlo Varadi: Newly discovered form of aquaculture: Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture (IMTA)

Aleksandr Kiselev: Innovative technologies in pond fish culture (RU)

Sandor Gorda: Aquatic genetic resources – the Hungarian Carp Breeding Programme (HU)

Andrzej Lirski, Ryszard Kolman: Role of carp farming in European aquaculture (RU)

Istvan Lehoczky: Aquatic genetic resources in Central and Eastern Europe

Peter Lengyel: Information on a planned FAO TCPf project on aquatic genetic resources in Central and Eastern Europe

Ferenc Levai: Multi-directional nature utilization on a wetland habitat – Aranyponty multifunctional fish farming

Gyorgy Hoitsy: Development of tourism based on trout farming (HU)

Ihor Hrytsynyak: Multifunctional fish farms in Ukraine

Photo gallery