Aquaculture system diversity and sustainable development : fish farms and their representation

Initiatives for the sustainable development of aquaculture have so far focused on the production of codes of conduct, of best management practices, of standards etc., most of which have been developed by international organisations, the industrial sector and non governmental organisations. They were, to a large extent, produced using a "top down" process and inspired by models from intensive industrial shrimp and sea fish farming (mainly salmon). However, most of global aquaculture production comes from small-and medium-sized farms, essentially in Asia which contributes 92% of the total world aquaculture production volume. The objective of this article is to define the contours of systemic typologies that are able to express the sustainability conditions of aquaculture systems. The proposed approach builds on surveys of aquaculture systems which differ in terms of their biogeographical nature (temperate/tropical and north/south countries) or their farming techniques and their governance systems. This work is a prerequisite to any attempt at an individualised and comparative evaluation of specific aquaculture systems from either global or territorial viewpoints. In order to go beyond the cleavage of a typology based on the differentiation between developed and developing countries, three typologies were produced. These typologies allow for discriminatory variables to be identified such as for example the marketing methods or the pace of innovation: a structural typology, a functional typology and a systemic typology. Finally, the representations of aquaculture activity and of its sustainability that producers have of the 4 different types that emerge from the systemic typology were recorded and analyzed

Adaptation des typologies d_exploitations aquacoles aux exigences du développement durable = Adaptation of aquaculture system typologies to the requirements of sustainable development

The new sustainable development data repository requires new analysis grids, in particular for factors accounted for in productive system typologies. This paper, based on the aquaculture example, analyses the diversity in aquaculture systems with respect to sustainable development. Various typologies are obtained by evaluating structural and functional approaches integrating variables related to production and regulation systems and to the territorial insertion of fish farms. Categories have been defined on a scale based on a set of five sites, which are representative of a wider range of aquaculture systems. Use of these categories goes beyond the local typologies and prepares a generic meta-typology classification for the systems. This generic classification is then compared to the views of sustainable development held by the fish farmers working on the various types of farms

Economics of fish resources and aquatic ecosystems : balancing uses, balancing costs

It cannot be said that aquaculture has ignored sustainable development (SD), judging by the number of standards, guides and indicators devoted to it, produced mainly under the aegis of international organizations such as FAO, The European Union and sorne NGOs. However, these continue to be perceived in large measure as constraints rather than as shared objectives by actors. Faced with this situation, which is not specific to aquaculture but on the contrary quite general regardless of sector, context or scale, the authors seek to propose a generic approach that through a collective process, i.e. a co-construction, promotes the implementation and appropriation of SD. What makes this approach original is not only the participatory nature of the construction, but also the regional nature of the approach which includes both aquaculture systems and their host area. It is based on a selection process that nests princip les, criteria and linking indicators to the actors' issues and representations, encourages their appropriation of both SD and the indicators produced. This approach is the fruit of fieldworks undertaken by a group of French researchers in partnership with teams of scientists and actors in France, in Europe and in Southern countries (Cameroon, Indonesia and Philippines). Aquaculture systems, representative of a broad range of farming systems and governance mechanisms, were studied. Designed in a form of an instruction manual that is as flexible as possible, the approach alternates various sequences in order to modulate the range and the involvement of stakeholders and to emphasise the collective learning process. In this paper, the authors first present the postulates which underlie the adaptive and participatory nature of the approach and then outline the linking phases. They conclude with sorne of the results obtained from the implementation of the method

Adaptation des typologies d_exploitations aquacoles aux exigences du développement durable = Adaptation of aquaculture system typologies to the requirements of sustainable development

The new sustainable development data repository requires new analysis grids, in particular for factors accounted for in productive system typologies. This paper, based on the aquaculture example, analyses the diversity in aquaculture systems with respect to sustainable development. Various typologies are obtained by evaluating structural and functional approaches integrating variables related to production and regulation systems and to the territorial insertion of fish farms. Categories have been defined on a scale based on a set of five sites, which are representative of a wider range of aquaculture systems. Use of these categories goes beyond the local typologies and prepares a generic meta-typology classification for the systems. This generic classification is then compared to the views of sustainable development held by the fish farmers working on the various types of farms