If you would like to send us an article, contact Margaret Stacey

Recognizing the need to continue to engage a broad and diverse group of people in the development of standards for responsible aquaculture, WWF initiated a series of roundtables, called Aquaculture Dialogues. Through these roundtables, WWF is working with farmers, retailers, NGOs, scientists and other aquaculture industry stakeholders worldwide to develop standards for responsible aquaculture.

 

These standards will help to minimize the key negative environmental and social impacts for the following 12 species: shrimp, salmon, abalone, clams, mussels, scallops, oysters, pangasius, tilapia, trout, seriola and cobia. The selection of species is based on their degree of impact on the environment and society, their market value, and the extent to which they are traded in the global market.

 

When finalized, the standards will be given to a new organization, to be co-founded by WWF, which will be responsible for working with independent, third party entities to certify farms that are in compliance with the standards. The goal of the Dialogues is to create draft standards for 12 aquaculture species by the end of 2010.

 

At present, more than two dozen standards or certification programs for aquaculture exist. However, WWF recognizes that none of the programs are effective at making the aquaculture industry more sustainable. WWF believes that standards created by the Aquaculture Dialogues will be credible because they will be science, performance and metrics based; created by a diverse and balanced group of stakeholders; focused on minimizing or eliminating the key environmental and social impacts of aquaculture and developed using the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling Alliance's guidelines for standard-setting.

 

Ultimately, WWF would like seafood buyers to purchase farmed seafood certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), the entity that will manage the Dialogue standards, or GLOBALGAP (Good Agricultural Practices), which will certify farms prior to the upstart of the ASC. This support is a critical step in convincing producers that there is a market for certified seafood and they, therefore, should adopt the Dialogue standards.

 

Jose Villalon, Director for the Aquaculture Programe said "It's energizing to see how the industry sector has embraced this certification program. I look forward to working side-by-side with industry to make it a worldwide success.”

 

The first seafood buyers to become involved are The Kroger Company, Sysco Corporation, Edeka, METRO Group, Anova, the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative, GTZ, Birds Eye Iglo and Royal Ahold.

 

Today, Villalon and his team are partnering with producers, buyers and retailers throughout the world to create standards for certifying aquaculture products, standards which will help minimize or eliminate the negative social and environmental impacts of fish farming.

 

 

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in the United States and Canada.

 

 

It is the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 90 countries, supporting around 1300 conservation and environmental projects around the world. It is a charity, with approximately 60 percent of its funding coming from voluntary donations by private individuals. 45 percent of the fund's income comes from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

 

The group says its mission is "to halt and reverse the destruction of our environment".Currently, much of its work focuses on the conservation of three biomes that contain most of the world's biodiversity: forests, freshwater ecosystems, and oceans and coasts. Among other issues, it is also concerned with endangered species, pollution and climate change.

 

View Larger Map