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Asia’s robust economic growth in the past decades has lifted millions out of poverty. From an estimated 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty in 1990 the number had gone down to about 903.4 million by 2005.1 Still, rapid economic growth and pervasive poverty have continuously degraded the region’s natural resources. The quality of the environment has deteriorated, and climate change has had an impact, threatening the productivity and integrity of natural systems as well as people’s health, safety, and livelihoods.

A strong state reinforces investment yield, whether this results from public or private sector investment. Th e development needs of a weak state must diff er from those of a strong state. Th e fragile states of the Pacifi c are not the dynamic societies of Asia.1 Th ese may sound like obvious statements but the special needs of Pacifi c fragile states have not been apparent in earlier approaches to development in the Pacifi c region. Current Asian Development Bank (ADB) regional and country strategies and programs diff er from those of earlier years. Emphasis on maintaining project loan portfolios has been lessened and replaced by an emphasis on strengthening state operations, including testing and strengthening the demand for reform, and engaging civil society in development decisions. Th e shift is toward greater participation in development with the aim of building demand for good governance and reform to support performance-oriented delivery of public and private goods and services.

This report updates and expands on the 2001 report on The Contribution of Fisheries to the Economies of Pacific Island Countries. The focus of that publication was the contribution of fishing to gross domestic product (GDP) and it provided an independent estimate of that contribution. In the present report, the scope is expanded to include Pacific Island territories, aquaculture and freshwater fisheries, and some important factors likely to affect the flow of benefits from fisheries in the future. Information on benefits from fisheries is provided for each of the 22 Pacific island countries and territories in terms of (i) recent annual production and value for six categories—coastal commercial fishing, coastal subsistence fishing, locally based offshore fishing, foreign-based offshore fishing, freshwater fishing, and aquaculture; (ii) official and reestimated contribution to GDP and exports; (iii) government revenue; (iv) employment; and (v) contribution to nutrition. Where data were available, comparisons are made between the situation in 1999 and 2007, the focus years of the 2001 study and the present study, respectively