A Report on the Oecd Workshop on Advancing the Aquaculture Agenda: Policies to Ensure A Sustainable Aquaculture Sector

The aquaculture sector is uniquely placed to complement production from the stagnating capture fisheries sector and it has advantages in terms of controllable production characteristics. However, aquaculture poses undeniable economic, environmental and social challenges that may be poorly evaluated or inadequately addressed within current policy frameworks. In such cases, the sustainability of future operations may be compromised. Issues that may constrain the sector development and performance include the business environment (e.g. competing uses of land and water; introduction of new technologies to improve the overall economic efficiency of aquaculture to better exploit natural conditions) and administrative and regulatory structures that can create constraints rather than underpin further aquaculture developments (e.g. regulation of access to resources; environmental prescriptions). With a view to collect further evidence and analysis on the issues confronting aquaculture development the OECD Committee for Fisheries hosted a major international workshop in April 2010. The objective of the workshop was to provide a platform for policy makers, technical experts, international organizations, the private sector and NGOs to examine policy challenges that OECD governments face in aquaculture development. The event informed policy makers, in particular in OECD countries, about critical economic, environmental and social aspects of the aquaculture sector as well as about the interactions with other sectors. This paper presents the key outcomes of the workshop. It identifies key challenges and explores the policy options for governments in addressing the implementation gaps to ensure a sustainable and profitable aquaculture sector