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Soto, D.; Aguilar-Manjarrez, J.; Hishamunda, N. (eds).
Building an ecosystem approach to aquaculture. FAO/Universitat de les Illes Balears
Expert Workshop. 7–11 May 2007, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Proceedings. No. 14. Rome, FAO. 2008. 221p.
ABSTRACT
Aquaculture growth worldwide involves the expansion of cultivated areas, a higher
density of aquaculture installations and farmed individuals and greater use of feed
resources produced outside of the immediate culture area. Such evolution of the sector
could carry negative impacts on the environment and on portions of the society when
unregulated and badly managed. In response to the explicit request of the Third Session
of the Committee of Fisheries (COFI) Sub-Committee on Aquaculture to improve the
management and enhance the socio-economic impacts of aquaculture, the Aquaculture
Management and Conservation Service (FIMA) of the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture
Department initiated in 2006 an effort to look into the development and application of
the ecosystem approach to aquaculture. This activity is funded under a Japanese Trust
Fund Project (Towards Sustainable Aquaculture: Selected Issues and Guidelines) and
conducted in collaboration with the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Development and
Planning Service (FIEP).
Several activities have taken place to support sustainable aquaculture, including the
workshop coorganized with the Universitat de les Illes Balears that took place from
7–11 May 2007 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain on “Building and ecosystem approach to
aquaculture”. The workshop participants, a multidisciplinary and multinational group
of experts, agreed that: “An ecosystem approach for aquaculture (EAA) is a strategy for
the integration of the activity within the wider ecosystem in such a way that it promotes
sustainable development, equity, and resilience of interlinked social and ecological
systems”. Such strategy should be guided by three main principles that should ensure
the contribution of aquaculture to sustainable development: i) aquaculture should be
developed in the context of ecosystem functions and services with no degradation of
these beyond their resilience capacity; ii) aquaculture should improve human wellbeing
and equity for all relevant stakeholders; and iii) aquaculture should be developed
in the context of (and integrated to) other relevant sectors. Three scales/levels of EAA
application were identified and discussed: the farm; the waterbody and its watershed/
aquaculture zone; and the global, market-trade scale. These proceedings present the
output of this workshop and include contributed papers on: concepts, principles,
scales and management measures; human dimensions; economic implications; and
legal implications; that are relevant for an ecosystem-based management to the sector.
Two comprehensive review papers cover the status of brackish, marine and freshwater
aquaculture under the light of an ecosystem-based management, indicating the major
shortfalls and opportunities for such an approach are also included.
Clearly, the implementation of the EAA will require changes in human behaviour
and understanding of ecosystem’s functioning; it will also require the development of
institutions capable of integrating different sectors including aquaculture, especially in
terms of shared agreed objectives and standards. As some of the reviews point out, scarce
participatory processes, poor understanding of social sustainability requirements and poor
governance hinders the widespread adoption of an ecosystem approach to aquaculture.
Therefore more guidance is needed on these matters; these proceedings attempt to
contribute to that by providing baseline information and some initial guidance.
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