7 NGO Approaches to Aquaculture
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NGOs and industry representatives can sign memorandums of understanding or
other agreements that benefit both organizations. For example, CAAR recently
signed a Framework for Dialogue with Marine Harvest Canada in which they
agreed to jointly conduct further research on both closed containment production
and sea lice impacts. Marine Harvest also agreed to remove salmon from a farm
located on a migratory wild salmon route and where impacts of the farm on the
migrating salmon have been contentiously debated. Consequently, CAAR agreed
not to specifically target Marine Harvest in their campaigns. Agreements such as
this have the potential to result in mutually beneficial long-term solutions.
Collaboration between industry and NGOs can include more than one company
and one NGO. As detailed below, WWF-US is working together with industry and
other stakeholders to agree on key impacts and ways to reduce their impacts to
acceptable levels. Participants in the WWF initiated-aquaculture dialogues have
agreed to mutually beneficial goals and objectives as a basis for working together.
7.4 WWF-US and Aquaculture
WWF-US (hereafter WWF) first began to focus on aquaculture in the 1990s. In
1994, WWF supported a research project to compare the environmental impacts of
shrimp aquaculture and shrimp trawling. Through this work, it was decided that
while neither was sustainable, shrimp farming had the potential to become more
sustainable through technological innovation and improved management strategies.
The main recommendation from the study was that WWF identify strategies to both
reduce the major impacts of the shrimp aquaculture industry and engage shrimp
producers and governments alike in a productive dialogue. To carry out this work,
WWF joined with the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, and the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia Pacific to form
the Consortium on Shrimp Farming and the Environment. The work of the
Consortium, from 1999–2002, generated analyses of the negative impacts of shrimp
aquaculture, identified better practices around the world to reduce such impacts
while ensuring financial viability, and demonstrated the financial business case for
the use of better practices. Through consultation with a broad range of stakeholders
the Consortium created a consensus on the key impacts of shrimp culture and their
analyses became regarded as the most credible data on these impacts to date. The
information was used to develop the International Principles for Responsible
Shrimp Farming and is currently being used as the basis for the development of
performance based standards for responsible shrimp farming.
7.4.1 Collaboration
Learning from their early experiences with the Consortium, WWF continues to
focus on collaborating with producers and other stakeholders to develop voluntary
measures that are appropriate globally and which, when implemented, move
241
NGOs and industry representatives can sign memorandums of understanding or
other agreements that benefit both organizations. For example, CAAR recently
signed a Framework for Dialogue with Marine Harvest Canada in which they
agreed to jointly conduct further research on both closed containment production
and sea lice impacts. Marine Harvest also agreed to remove salmon from a farm
located on a migratory wild salmon route and where impacts of the farm on the
migrating salmon have been contentiously debated. Consequently, CAAR agreed
not to specifically target Marine Harvest in their campaigns. Agreements such as
this have the potential to result in mutually beneficial long-term solutions.
Collaboration between industry and NGOs can include more than one company
and one NGO. As detailed below, WWF-US is working together with industry and
other stakeholders to agree on key impacts and ways to reduce their impacts to
acceptable levels. Participants in the WWF initiated-aquaculture dialogues have
agreed to mutually beneficial goals and objectives as a basis for working together.
7.4 WWF-US and Aquaculture
WWF-US (hereafter WWF) first began to focus on aquaculture in the 1990s. In
1994, WWF supported a research project to compare the environmental impacts of
shrimp aquaculture and shrimp trawling. Through this work, it was decided that
while neither was sustainable, shrimp farming had the potential to become more
sustainable through technological innovation and improved management strategies.
The main recommendation from the study was that WWF identify strategies to both
reduce the major impacts of the shrimp aquaculture industry and engage shrimp
producers and governments alike in a productive dialogue. To carry out this work,
WWF joined with the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, and the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia Pacific to form
the Consortium on Shrimp Farming and the Environment. The work of the
Consortium, from 1999–2002, generated analyses of the negative impacts of shrimp
aquaculture, identified better practices around the world to reduce such impacts
while ensuring financial viability, and demonstrated the financial business case for
the use of better practices. Through consultation with a broad range of stakeholders
the Consortium created a consensus on the key impacts of shrimp culture and their
analyses became regarded as the most credible data on these impacts to date. The
information was used to develop the International Principles for Responsible
Shrimp Farming and is currently being used as the basis for the development of
performance based standards for responsible shrimp farming.
7.4.1 Collaboration
Learning from their early experiences with the Consortium, WWF continues to
focus on collaborating with producers and other stakeholders to develop voluntary
measures that are appropriate globally and which, when implemented, move