7 NGO Approaches to Aquaculture
237
7.3.2 Target Consumers and Communities
An educated consumer can alter their eating habits and perhaps those of a few of their
friends or family. A number of NGOs work to shift the demand of seafood consumers
in the U.S. and Europe. This is done through general education on the impacts of
fisheries and aquaculture, seafood guides which highlight better and worse seafood
choices, and campaigns. NGOs such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the U.S.,
the Marine Conservation Society in the UK, and the North Sea Foundation in the
Netherlands produce pocket or wallet-sized seafood guides that consumers can
use to make choices on seafood purchases, both wild and farmed. This provides
consumers with information that is relatively simple and in a useful form.
Campaigns and guides that generalize the aquaculture industry play an important role in overall education. However, such work requires NGOs to aggregate
information on producers and to base their recommendations on a broad brush
stroke of the industry. This works better for fisheries, where a guide can highlight
a specific population of a given species, and in specific cases for aquaculture, such
as tuna fattening, where it is generally agreed that current production practices are
unsustainable. The impacts of aquaculture production vary in part by species and
production system, but depend heavily on farm management. The sustainability of
a farm depends on management practices as well as the local or regional ecosystem.
These generalized seafood guides play an important role in raising consumer
awareness, but they are of limited utility as a guide for selecting farmed products
since the practices used by the aquaculture industry vary greatly from farm to farm
and region to region.
The percentage of consumers that can be reached through NGO activities varies
from country to country, and European consumers tend to be most receptive to
changing their purchasing habits based on such education. However, this is a niche
market and the percentage of consumers who change their habits will always
remain relatively low. Consumers can be overwhelmed and confused by the information they receive about seafood and aquaculture. Frequently, they know that
there are sustainability issues related to seafood, but are not clear on specific facts
and therefore do not know how to act on their concerns. This holds true for many
seafood buyers, wholesalers, and chefs (Bridgespan 2005).
Many NGOs of varying size develop and distribute electronic or hard copy
newsletters with the aim of educating the public about the environmental and social
impacts of aquaculture. Aquaculture related information is often included in
broader organizational newsletters that cover the entire range of interest of an NGO.
Smaller local NGOs based in aquaculture producing regions often organize local
communities through campaigns that identify impacts of the industry on them both
as consumers of the product and residents of the production zone. They call on residents to take actions such as changing their purchasing habits and writing letters to
their local government representatives. In regional and local efforts, tourism and
fishing interests frequently align themselves with NGOs against aquaculture due to
concerns that aquaculture may impact their livelihoods.
237
7.3.2 Target Consumers and Communities
An educated consumer can alter their eating habits and perhaps those of a few of their
friends or family. A number of NGOs work to shift the demand of seafood consumers
in the U.S. and Europe. This is done through general education on the impacts of
fisheries and aquaculture, seafood guides which highlight better and worse seafood
choices, and campaigns. NGOs such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the U.S.,
the Marine Conservation Society in the UK, and the North Sea Foundation in the
Netherlands produce pocket or wallet-sized seafood guides that consumers can
use to make choices on seafood purchases, both wild and farmed. This provides
consumers with information that is relatively simple and in a useful form.
Campaigns and guides that generalize the aquaculture industry play an important role in overall education. However, such work requires NGOs to aggregate
information on producers and to base their recommendations on a broad brush
stroke of the industry. This works better for fisheries, where a guide can highlight
a specific population of a given species, and in specific cases for aquaculture, such
as tuna fattening, where it is generally agreed that current production practices are
unsustainable. The impacts of aquaculture production vary in part by species and
production system, but depend heavily on farm management. The sustainability of
a farm depends on management practices as well as the local or regional ecosystem.
These generalized seafood guides play an important role in raising consumer
awareness, but they are of limited utility as a guide for selecting farmed products
since the practices used by the aquaculture industry vary greatly from farm to farm
and region to region.
The percentage of consumers that can be reached through NGO activities varies
from country to country, and European consumers tend to be most receptive to
changing their purchasing habits based on such education. However, this is a niche
market and the percentage of consumers who change their habits will always
remain relatively low. Consumers can be overwhelmed and confused by the information they receive about seafood and aquaculture. Frequently, they know that
there are sustainability issues related to seafood, but are not clear on specific facts
and therefore do not know how to act on their concerns. This holds true for many
seafood buyers, wholesalers, and chefs (Bridgespan 2005).
Many NGOs of varying size develop and distribute electronic or hard copy
newsletters with the aim of educating the public about the environmental and social
impacts of aquaculture. Aquaculture related information is often included in
broader organizational newsletters that cover the entire range of interest of an NGO.
Smaller local NGOs based in aquaculture producing regions often organize local
communities through campaigns that identify impacts of the industry on them both
as consumers of the product and residents of the production zone. They call on residents to take actions such as changing their purchasing habits and writing letters to
their local government representatives. In regional and local efforts, tourism and
fishing interests frequently align themselves with NGOs against aquaculture due to
concerns that aquaculture may impact their livelihoods.