Prof. Alice Joan G. Ferrer, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs of the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV), was one of the invited speakers of the 14th Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum (14AFAF) held at New Delhi, India from 12-15 February 2025, with the theme, ‘Greening the Blue Growth in Asia-Pacific.’ The forum was co-organized by the Asian Fisheries Society (AFS), The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Department of Fisheries (DoF), Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of India, and The Asian Fisheries Society Indian Branch (AFSIB).
AFAF is organized by the AFS once every three years to understand the global trends and address issues and challenges faced by the fisheries and aquaculture sector. The forum's main objective is to provide an international platform for eminent scientists, young researchers, and other stakeholders across the globe to share their research experiences and innovative ideas. The 14AFAF had over 800 participants from more than 20 countries.
Prof. Ferrer was the lead speaker of the technical session on Socio-Economic Dynamics & Extension in Fisheries and Aquaculture (TS-10). The lead speakers from the other technical sessions were Prof. Nicholas Andrew Robinsons (Deakin University Australia), Prof. Soottawat Benjakul (Prince of Songkla University), Dr. Krishna R. Salin (Asian Institute of Technology), Dr. Maarten Bavinck (University of Amsterdam), Dr. Nikita Gopal (Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology), Dr. Arun K. Dhar (University of Arizona), Ms. Angela Lentisco (Food and Agriculture Organization-Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific), Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted (CGIAR), Dr. Rishi Sharma (Food and Agriculture Organization), Dr. Lasse H. Pettersson (Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center), Dr. Vikas Kumar (Bowling Green State University), Dr. Marcio Castro de Souza (Food and Agriculture Organization-Fisheries and Aquaculture Division).
Prof. Ferrer has been an AFS member for 20 years. She has served the AFS as Councilor (2013-2015), Vice President (2015-2019), President (2019-2022), and Immediate Past President (2022-2025). She also served the Asian Fisheries Social Science Research Network (AFSSRN), a section of AFS, as coordinator (2017-2018), Chair (2019- 2021), and Immediate Past Chair (2021-2024). Since 2017, she has been the Constitution Coordinator of the Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries, a section of AFS. She convened the 12th Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum in Iloilo City in 2019. Currently, Dr. Ferrer is also an associate editor of Asian Fisheries Science, the journal of the Asian Fisheries Society.
Joining Dr. Ferrer from UPV in the 14th AFAF were Dr. Wilfredo L. Campos, Dr. Anabelle GC del Norte-Campos, Dr. Karen Villarta-Lane, and Mr. Jeric Prince Ladores from the UPV Division of Biological Sciences, who participated in the forum. Dr. Campos is a councilor of the 15th AFS Council. Mr. Ladores presented their paper titled ‘Insights into the Reproduction of the Indian Mackerel Rastrelliger kanagurta in the Western Visayan Sea’ and was awarded as the ‘Best Presenter’ of the Resource Assessment and Management for Sustainable Fisheries technical session that featured 130 papers.
