Background

Introduction

Global production from aquaculture has grown substantially, contributing in ever more significant quantities to the world's supply of fish for human consumption. This increasing trend is projected to continue in forthcoming decades. The sector's vision is to contribute more effectively to food security, poverty reduction and economic development by producing - with minimum impact on the environment and maximum benefit to society - 83 million tonnes of aquatic food by 2030, an increase of 37.5 million tonnes over the 2004 level.

Aquaculture has an important role to play in global efforts to eliminate hunger and malnutrition through supplying fish and other aquatic products rich in protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Aquaculture can also make significant contributions to poverty reduction and development by improving incomes, providing employment opportunities and increasing returns on resource use. With appropriate management, the sector appears ready to meet the demand gap for aquatic food (fish) for the coming decades, a consequence to the increasing global population and stagnant capture fishery production. The main challenge for policy makers and development agents is to create an 'enabling environment' to support the expansion needed to meet this potential. This enabling environment is multi-faceted and requires significant political will, policy support and investment. The failure to provide this environment may result in the inability for the fisheries sector to provide the supply of aquatic food required to even maintain current levels of consumption.

The increasing recognition by governments to implement aquaculture programs based on sound policies, the growth in population and increasing purchasing power of people, the opening of new markets facilitated by trade liberalization, and the technological advances bring greater opportunities for further development of the sector. On the other hand, the stagnating level of capture fisheries, the need to further strengthen capacities of institutions and other stakeholders, the increasing consumer demand for diversified, safe and quality products, the scarcity of land and water resources, and the need to support small-scale farmers pose major challenges to the sector.

Aquaculture Certification

Driven by concerns that some forms of aquaculture (mainly shrimp and salmon) may be environmentally unsustainable, socially inequitable, and that products are not safe for consumers, over the years there have been attempts to respond to the consequent public perceptions and market requirements. Food safety standards have been elevated and international trade regulations tightened. Policy and regulations governing environmental sustainability have been put in place in many countries, requiring aquaculture producers to comply with more stringent environmental mitigation and protection measures. In some countries these changes were initiated by the aquaculture sector itself, usually within the more organized private industry sector, to ensure its sustainability and protect operations from poorly managed activities. The private sector has made significant advances in the management of its activities and there are many examples of improved management of farming systems that have reduced environmental impacts and improved efficiency, including profitability, in all regions.

Owing to the need for responding to these environmental and consumer concerns on aquaculture production and in order to secure better market access, there is increasing interest in certification of aquaculture production systems, practices, processes and products from aquaculture. For example, recent legislation in both Europe and the US require mandatory certification to identify whether aquatic products are produced from aquaculture or wild caught. These markets increasingly recognize that some form of certification is a way of assuring buyers, retailers, and consumers that fishery products are safe to consume and originate from aquaculture farms or capture fisheries adopting responsible management practices. Certification has been introduced to capture fisheries for some time. Guidelines for eco-labelling of capture fishery products have been developed by FAO in 2005 and efforts are being made to develop eco-labelling guidelines for inland fisheries.

In several countries, aquaculture producers are introducing environmental certification of aquaculture products, either individually or in a coordinated manner, in order to credibly demonstrate that their production practices are non-polluting, non-disease transmitting and/or non-ecologically threatening. Some countries are attempting to introduce state-mediated certification procedures to certify that aquaculture products are safe to consume and farmed in accordance with certain environmental standards. Most of the work done on improved management has been on salmon and shrimp, mainly due to their high commodity value and the importance attached as the most internationally traded products.

During the Third Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries Sub-Committee on Aquaculture held in India in 2006, the participating member governments stated that there was a need for more globally accepted norms for aquaculture production, which could provide more guidance and serve as a basis for improved harmonization and facilitate mutual recognition and equivalence of such certification schemes. The Sub-Committee encouraged FAO to play a lead role in facilitating the development of guidelines which could be considered when national and regional aquaculture standards are developed. Several Members of the Sub-Committee as well as NACA and a number of intergovernmental organizations offered to cooperate at national, regional and international levels, and requested FAO to provide a platform for such collaboration and discussion.

Purpose of this section of the NACA website

This website is a collaboration between FAO and NACA, aiming at providing information on the work undertaken by FAO and NACA, in collaboration with relevant partners and stakeholders, on developing international guidelines on aquaculture certification, through a credible and transparent process. This site provides an opportunity for stakeholders to share experiences, reports and engage actively in the debate on aquaculture certification and build consensus. FAO and NACA invite you to send your comments and views to certification@enaca.org