Final Report Summary - ASEM-AQUACULTURE09 (ASEM Aquaculture Platform)
Executive Summary:
In its strive for mutually endorsed Asian-European aquaculture research strategies, AqASEM’09 focused on following issues that could benefit from a concerted approach.
Fostering collaboration opportunities between the Asian and European aquaculture industry
AqASEM initiated actions that create structural bonds between the European and Asian aquaculture industry. Through an informal dialogue involving various European and Asian key people, AqASEM identified hurdles and a corresponding roadmap towards a workable collaboration model. For main aquaculture sub-sectors, opportunities for collaboration are described.
Development and validation of commodity-specific better management practices (BMPs) for small holder farmers in the Asia-Pacific region
An innovative solution to the problems that typically Asian small producers face in complying to certification is ‘group certification’, which divides the cost and responsibility among the partners, enabling them to attain accreditation for their production process and remain in the industry. AqASEM’09 set about a process of introducing, assessing and upscaling the concept of clustering of small-holder farms and guiding those clusters through the multiple steps towards certification of their products.
Support the application of Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA)
Integrated aquaculture is considered to as valuable option for sustainable development of marine aquaculture. A series of activities aiming at describing existing knowledge on IMTA in Asia, mostly China, and creating opportunities for the wider application of joint activities on research and promotion of IMTA principles was deployed.
Food safety and certification
AqASEM facilitated the debate on the influence and effectiveness of certification, specifically for small-scale farmers. Activities included:
• Mapping existing certification schemes explaining main characteristics and comparing schemes, both crucial tools to reconcile the objectives of certification with realities at the production level.
• The AqASEM Workshop on Certification to share experiences and understand the realities of aquaculture production and trade, as well as the role of certification programs in promoting responsible aquaculture.
• Recommendations for future aquaculture certification schemes incl. synergies between ongoing research and on new consortia for future research cooperation projects.
Disease & Health management
In order to identify and resolve trans-boundary health problems, AqASEM established a community of practice on aquatic animal health. A working group of aquatic health experts is established including leading researchers that have the expertise and weight to mobilise peers. A series of ‘community-building’ activities and services where launched: discussion forums, an e-newsletter, a dedicated website, the onset for a knowledge database.
Education & Training
The opportunities for valorizing European aquaculture in Asia are valuable and real. The successful establishment of proper conditions for transparency and internal mobility in European education now constitute a unique asset to attract promising Asian students. Benefits are manifold and mostly mutual. The AqASEM consultations on issues relevant to future aquaculture education collaboration yielded recommendations for strategic choices for further collaboration in aquaculture education with reference to Marketing aquaculture and its education; interaction with industry; networking, student exchange & joint education; and language.
Empowering vulnerable stakeholder groups
For aquaculture production to progress, development strategies must take into consideration gender issues. To empower vulnerable stakeholder groups, extension agents, policy formulators and program planner and implementers need to understand gender issues and be able to integrate gender concerns in planning. The AqASEM’09 project contributed to this issue by:
• sharing country experiences and best practices regarding poverty eradication and gender issues in aquaculture
• teaching gender analysis and gender mainstreaming
• identifying strategies to promote greater women participation
• developing action plans towards empowering poor farmers and women
Project Context and Objectives:
ASEM, the Asia-European Meeting
The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an informal process of dialogue and co-operation bringing together the 27 European Union Member States and the European Commission with 19 Asian countries and the ASEAN Secretariat. The ASEM dialogue addresses political, economic and cultural issues, with the objective of strengthening the relationship between our two regions, in a spirit of mutual respect and equal partnership. In the slipstream of the ASEM process, a number of initiatives on dedicated sectors of common interest have been launched (environment, education, climate change, etcetera). On the initiative of the EC DG Research, the ASEM Aquaculture Platform was established in 2003 multi-stakeholder platform for dialogue, networking and continuous coordination with the aim to reconcile Asian and European interests in production & consumption.
Aquaculture, facts & figures
In the last couple of decades, aquaculture has evolved from an artisanal farming sector to a technology-based bio-industry. With an average annual growth rate of 10.8 percent in 1980s coming down to 6.3 percent in 2012, aquaculture still is the fastest growing bio-industry worldwide. With a global production of about 60 million tonnes in 2012, we are by now already consuming slightly more farmed than catched fishery products and this trend is expected to increase.
However, these absolute figures do not reflect the important imbalance in the stage of development and distribution of aquaculture production among regions. The disparity between continents and countries with comparable natural conditions in the same region proves to be huge.
European versus Asian aquaculture
In 2010, Asia accounted for 89 percent of world aquaculture production by volume. However, while European production is gradually consolidated in large companies with a high degree of vertical integration (with the exception of mollusk culture in Southern Europe), Asian aquaculture is predominantly driven by a very large number of small, often family based enterprises. Although the trend for consolidation has definitively made a start in Asia, for instance in Thai shrimp farming.
While current aquaculture technology often originates from European led developments, the principal production is very predominantly in Asia. However, RTD excellence is rapidly growing in Asia, and today’s European technological edge will not last without continued RTD efforts and, arguably, without forging strong alliances with promising Asian partners.
Previous outcomes of the ASEM Aquaculture Platform
In the first fase of the ASEM Aquaculture Platform (2003-2006), mutually agreed recommendations on future directions in research, production and trade were formulated through a series of expert workshops (Disease & Health management, Biodiversity & Ecological impacts, Breeding & Domestication, Education, Food safety & Legislation, Food security).
Main objectives
With this project, an action-oriented agenda on selected themes (Interaction with industry, Best Management Practices for small farmers, Environment (Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture), Food safety & Certification, Disease & Health management, Education & Training, Gender issues) are established and carried out. The common denominator of the actions is the concerted effort to initiate joint EU-Asia processes which have impact on research excellence, contributing realistically and effectively to good production practice, improved governance, fair trade, social equity and sustainability. AqASEM09 will strengthen opportunities for the EU aquaculture sector to derive value from its technological and structural assets, and develop valuable trade partnerships, using the driver of consumer needs and expectations to improve product processes, quality and value in both markets.
Project Results:
AqASEM’09 has focussed on a selection of issues that are considered of common concern for both Asian as European aquaculture development. Some of these issues consist of challenges that both Asian and European aquaculture will be or is facing and that could benefit from a concerted approach, such as health & Disease management, innovative aquaculture education, environmental issues. Other issues are rather a source for friction between both regions due to differences in approach or in ‘playing field’. In both cases, the AqASEM’09 project has facilitated the dialogue between relevant parties and worked towards a mutually endorsed (research) agenda in response challenges that future responsible & sustainable aquaculture is facing.
FOSTERING COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN THE ASIAN AND EUROPEAN AQUACULTURE INDUSTRY
The European Union shows the most intensive trade in seafood in the world, much of which is imported, predominantly from Asia. On the other hand, modern commercial aquaculture is largely indebted to processes and technologies that were developed or perfected in Europe. While Asia is by far the largest aquaculture production region, the rapid growth of aquaculture poses serious challenges to the Asian producing nations in terms of sustainability, social equity and suitable technology. Furthermore, the impact of the increasing demand for seafood for the domestic markets in Asia is already noticeable and is certain to further pressurize exports to Europe.
Given the divergent characteristic of both regions, there are obvious mutual benefits in the cooperation between the Asian and European aquaculture sectors, ranging from formulation of joint research goals, development of common solutions to shared problems, harmonisation of policy and regulations. A first prerequisite for a more successful cooperation is a structural support of a dialogue between the industry with its various sections and stakeholders. The ASEM Aquaculture Platform fostered the dialogue between the Asian and European aquaculture sector by bringing together Asian and European key persons for a constrictive dialogues on common strategies.
The core premise of this work package was to initiate actions that would create structural bonds between the European and Asian aquaculture industry so as to facilitate opportunities for mutually beneficial actions.
Establishing an Asia-desk within the European Aquaculture Technology Platform (EATIP)
A base point on this aspect was that, within EATiP, the Board of Directors preferred to have an International approach that was not based on one specific geographic area. Consequently, this was approved, understanding that special competences were needed to approach Asia, due to differences in cultural and economic approaches. Consequently, an Asia Desk was established within EATiP which worked with other members of the AqASEM partnership so as to identify opportunities and threats associated with Asian-European aquaculture industry links.
Establishing a dialogue between the Asian and European aquaculture sector proved to be more complex than anticipated. To start with, there is a general absence in Asia of federating interlocutors that would be equivalent to EATiP and the affiliate European organisations, such as the FEAP (Federation of European National Fish Farming Associations) and FEFAC (Federation of Compound Feed Manufacturers). All of these organisations have extended networks throughout Europe, are used to dealing with European structures and debates and are experienced in generating common opinions through consensus. Equivalent organisations representing professional interests in aquaculture and related industries do not exist throughout Asia. This difference in approach in the professional sector contributing to sectoral governance constitutes a significant barrier to establishing dialogue. Who to discuss with? Who to communicate with?
Roadmap for Asia-Europe aquaculture industry cooperation
Initially, it was conceived to introduce the concept of the European technology platforms, in this case specifically EATIP, and explore the potential to establish analogue structures in Asia. It became clear that this model of cooperation for EATiP was not (yet) appropriate for actions in Asia; cultural and economic differences are very wide within the region, requiring considerable expertise and experience to be able to formulate proposals for cooperation.
Through an informal dialogue involving various European and Asian key people, AqASEM identified hurdles and a corresponding roadmap towards a workable collaboration model.
Positions on Cooperation
Cooperative engagement with Asia has to be considered in the long term, versus short-term one-shot efforts to promote common targets. For this, strategic decisions are required. Positions prepared by the EATIP Asia Desk include the following:
- Industrial companies should be the first focus for cooperative efforts, networks and associative structures being secondary to these.
- From contacts made within the AqAsem project, the transfer of knowledge regarding the respect of EU rules and regulations appears to have a strong demand by Asian counterparts. On the other hand, the European counterparts want to know what they would gain from such exchanges; more evident for importers than other sectoral components of European aquaculture.
- Fact-finding missions appear to be the most valid approach to achieve a clear focus.
- There is a need to identify appropriate Asian counterparts for such missions to be successful.
How best to cooperate
Discussions were held within EATiP, within FEAP and with a wide range of individuals working in European aquaculture on the potential for cooperation with Asia. These can be separated by sub-sector, notably for consultancy, research, commercial cooperation.
Most of these activities involving European companies and/or research organisations (institutes, universities…), reflect a degree of competition, particularly in the private sector.
Competition
Competition is a key issue for much of the approach of this workpackage. Not only between EU companies that look for cooperative opportunities in Asia, but between Asian companies and organisations. While it is possible to organise meetings between European companies in similar businesses, in Asia this is virtually unheard of.
The sensitivity of EU companies involved in production and processing cannot be underestimated when exposed to situations where their market position or competitive advantage might be threatened, particularly following the financial crisis.
Opportunities for cooperation with Asian industry partners
The provision of Action Plans foreseen has been less successful than planned, generally due to the way in which the different components of the European aquaculture sector work. The following sections describe the different approaches.
European Aquaculture Producers
Potential for devolving production
Throughout the project, one question regularly posed to the European aquaculture sector was whether they would consider investing in production in Asia. This was consideration of the possibilities of the devolution of aquaculture producers away from Europe (because of lack of sites, licenses….) and thus raising the potential production of individual companies by activities in 3rd countries.
Following the financial crisis in Europe, most of the producer SMEs questioned said that such a diversification was not a priority – survival of their company was and that their focus was on the European market. Reasons for this position included lack of finance, lack of human resources, unknown ‘territory’ when dealing with Asia (lack of experience). Fundamentally, one could say that the timing of the project was ‘too soon’ for many of the production SMEs questioned.
On the other hand, the production SMEs were keen to find new markets for their products –if the price is right! While the project stimulated some interest for this, it must be remembered that many of the European SMEs are small companies and with the European market recovering in 2012-2013 after several years of depressed prices, their focus was to consolidate their European market presence as opposed to looking elsewhere.
The interest of European Aquaculture industry to engage in the project was elucidated through a meeting with the FEAP Mediterranean Commission. The response from members of this Commission was positive if not overwhelming.
Asian markets for European SME producers
Following the White Fish Study of AIPCE (2013), China (620,000 t) and Vietnam (500,000 t) are the main suppliers of white fish and pangasius to the EU market.
As the study points out, there is much debate about when (rather than if) China will become a consumer of the same species that are largely consumed in the EU. There is no doubt that the influence of China is being felt for some types of fish, particularly high-end shellfish and whole fish where the head is still attached and at values beyond other markets. This implies that China, in particular, will become a target market for high value species.
For Vietnam, when compared to 2010, it is now estimated that the trade in pangasius has shrunk by 30 % in volume.
Several contributory factors have been identified for this situation:
• production costs have been challenging (rising);
• competitor (fishery) products to pangasius have seen recovery in quotas and scope for reasserting themselves in the market;
• resistance to the ready (consumer) acceptance of the species in some markets, especially in some EU Member States, that have inhibited the ability of pangasius to establish itself.
These changes have been rapid and substantial and evidently affect the attitudes of both European and Asian interests in commercial activities and cooperation.
On the other hand, following the AIPCE study, from 2001-2013 the supplies for EU consumption dropped from 26.6 to 23.6 kg/person while imports rose from 7 Mtons to 9 Mtons. This position is mainly due to drops in EU fisheries supplies and stagnation of EU aquaculture production.
Contact establishment for such inter-continental sales are generally made on a professional basis, participating in trade shows such as the European Seafood Exposition, including product demonstrations.
Since EATiP Is not involved directly in sales, it is unlikely to be able to contribute directly to this activity.
Service Sectors
Those European companies involved in providing key services to the Asian aquaculture sector are more prepared to invest in Asia than the European aquaculture production sector - with the exception of the large(r) companies (e.g. Marine Harvest (fish processing)). Skretting (feeds), Inve (starter feeds) have installed and invested in manufacturing capacity while other major players (e.g. Pharmaq (vaccines), Akvagroup (equipment)) tend to use locally-based agents to promote and further sales.
Evidently, such developments follow the development strategies of individual companies, choosing either to invest (in local manufacture or assembly) or using a local agent for representation and distribution.
EATiP in itself will have little influence or impact on these sectors
Consultancy
There are not many European companies that live solely off consultancy in aquaculture – although there are several specialised in, for example, design and supply of farm design, water recirculation systems, environmental impact assessments and rectification actions (e.g. Akvaplan Niva, Aqua-Bio Tech, ACE Engineering…). Increasingly, such companies also have an active involvement in research so as to continue to develop new and improved services and products, maintaining competitive advantage.
Most direct service consultancy activities appear to be linked to Universities & Research Institutions that are active in this area, providing focused consultancy and development services, using experienced personnel for long-term collaboration and spot missions (e.g. Stirling Aquaculture, Artemia Reference Centre of Ghent University , HAKI (Hungary), Wageningen/IMARES, SINTEF….). Otherwise, consultancy can often be related to experienced individuals providing studies and spot services.
In terms of collaboration with Asia, the early boom in development provided strong markets for consultancy on biological and technical issues which enabled particularly those with expertise in shrimp culture, larvae/juvenile and ongrowing feeds, health management and disease treatment and additional technical knowledge to develop business relationships. Such work has not been restricted to European interests, there being strong competition with North American and Australian firms. More recently, South-South cooperation has been promoted (e.g. between India-Asia, South America-Asia) on a strategic basis.
At present, the major cooperation efforts appear to be based on bilateral programmes between individual States and Asian nations, involving national institutes and organisations rather than commercial companies.
EATiP could, through consolidation of its network, provide some facilitation in this respect – even though it is not directly involved in bilateral programmes. This would require enlargement of its networking events and focus on its priority list of actions.
Processing
The European seafood processing sector is one of the world leaders, having adapted to changing market preferences and increasingly providing convenience products and ready meals for retail sale. Nonetheless, the know-how developed within individual companies is retained since this provides the competitive advantage for European companies. Retailers rarely invest in processing themselves, wishing to be free to choose and change suppliers, decision being based on commercial and marketing opportunities.
Consequently, imports are made either of ingredients (e.g. frozen fish) or of prepared products (convenience products, ready meals) for use by EU processing companies or for directly in retail.
EATiP has little representation of the professional processing sector within its membership. Such actions would be more appropriate for the Food For Life ETP, where the food processing sector is present and active.
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF COMMODITY-SPECIFIC BETTER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPS) FOR SMALL HOLDER FARMERS IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
For covering the demand for seafood, Europe relies for over 65% on import with Asia as prime supplier. To protect its consumers and guarantee safe and healthy products, various certification procedures are being developed and gradually implemented. On the other hand, aquaculture production in Asia mostly relies on small farmers. For such farmers, obtaining certification as individuals is financially prohibitive and impractical due to its complexity. The expanding incorporation of various certification schemes as a prerequisite for marketing seafood products is first affecting small farmers but will eventually affect the (European) consumers
An innovative solution for this conflict is ‘group certification’, which divides the cost and responsibility among the partners, enabling them to attain accreditation for their production process and remain in the industry.
With support of AqASEM’09, NACA set about a process of introducing, assessing and upscaling the concept of clustering of small-holder farms and guiding those clusters through the multiple steps towards certification of their products. It is important to note that a clear distinction in approach is to be made in between the initiation of the clustering and upscaling into larger operational clusters. Therefore this process was studied and guided on 2 distinct levels: a) the initial implementation of the clustering concept, and b) the upscaling of existing clusters. As suitable case studies for each stage, relevant models where selected: a) implementation of clustering for pangasius farming in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam; and b) upscaling of shrimp farmers clusters in India, Thailand and Aceh (Indonesia).
a) Implementation of BMPs for Mekong catfish
The primary objective of the EU-ASEM project was to set up farmer groups/clusters and promote implementation and adoption of catfish BMPs through cluster management approach and prepare the clusters to participate in future third party cluster certification programs.
Under the NACA-AusAID/CARD supported project, BMPs for Mekong catfish have been developed and refined through an elaborate process involving risk analysis, stakeholder consultations and demonstration trials. BMPs developed under this project, completed in 2010, was used as the basis for the EU-ASEM project, so that there is continuity between projects and the larger development goal of the catfish farming sector is addressed.
A structured scheme between CTU staff and provincial technical officers was developed for provision of technical assistance to 11 clusters (8 grow out clusters and 3 nursery clusters) and for monitoring compliance to BMP adoption and cluster functioning. The technical staff and cluster leaders had been previously trained in operation of clusters and implementation of BMPs. Record keeping books were provided to all the farmers in 11 clusters. Technical staff made regular visits to the clusters, assisted the farmers with implementation of BMPs and functioning of clusters, conduct of cluster meetings and record keeping.
This activity has generated large volume of useful data on crop performance, BMP adoption, usefulness of BMPs, compliance to BMPs, participation in cluster functioning, compliance to SOPs of cluster, problems and lessons learned, etc. The project team has used the data collated by the cluster leaders and technical staff and has produced a technical report on implementation of catfish BMPs through cluster management approach. The study has identified several issues and constraints faced by the farmers in implementation of catfish BMPs, highlighted the BMPs that have the most visible impact and adoption, and has provided suggestions for addressing some of the problems.
Under the project, CTU organized provincial level workshops in each province (4) to share experiences and review the implementation to understand what worked and what did not work. In addition, exchange visits between clusters were organized so that farmers can see and benefit from the best performing clusters.
The project activities contributed significantly to capacity and awareness building of local extension workers, farmers, provincial technical officers and other relevant stakeholders in BMPs, Standards and cluster management. The detailed report is provided as a standalone document entitled “Promoting adoption of BMPs through Cluster management approach in Catfish farming in Mekong Delta, Vietnam”
b) Scaling up shrimp BMP adoption in the Asia Pacific region
Shrimp BMP programs are ongoing in India, Indonesia and Thailand. With support of AqASEM’09, case studies have been undertaken in India, Thailand & Indonesia to assess the impacts of clustering, identify constraints to adoption of BMPs and develop strategies for scaling up at national levels.
Impact Assessments
Following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, various donors and development agencies have provided financial and technical assistance to the rehabilitation and recovery of the aquaculture sector in Aceh. Physical reconstruction of aquaculture infrastructure was largely completed within the first two years, and after 2007 more emphasis was given towards improving skills of farmers, promoting the adoption of better management practices, organizational assistance and improving services, particularly for small scale tiger shrimp and milkfish farmers. Through the AqASEM’09 a report was produced describing a brief history of the various programs that were implemented in Aceh to support aquaculture development through implementation of BMPs through a cluster management approach. It also described the impact of BMP programs and the constraints to its adoption, it further documents lessons learned and come up with recommendations for scaling up BMP and cluster management approach across Aceh and in Indonesia.
Aceh Workshop on Scaling up strategies
During 2011, there has been a significant transition towards self-sustainability through a social enterprise for Aceh aquaculture farmers. The Aceh Aquaculture Enterprise (AAE) was set up to help position Aceh aquaculture for a more sustainable future, improving access to markets and operated and sustained by Acehnese people. The AAE is hosted within a larger Aceh Society Development (ASD), a cooperative for microfinance. Aceh Aquaculture Enterprise (AAE) is an enterprise owned and operated by members and hosted within the ASD microfinance cooperative and aquaculture members will have access to the services of the cooperative.
Considering the huge potential of AAE/ASD in sustaining and scaling up the BMP and cluster model, NACA organised a national workshop AqASEM’09 supported workshop in Aceh, Indonesia from 15-16 October 2012 to further strengthen the scaling up strategies.
The workshop accomplished the main objective of discussing various strategies for scaling up the BMP and cluster work and also ways of using the AAE/ASD business model to sustain the scaling up approach. The workshop also helped to:
• bring together key institutions and stakeholders from Aceh
• perform a thorough assessment of the impact of shrimp BMP and cluster management
• identify factors for success and constraints to adoption
• identify opportunities and challenges for scaling up
• build awareness and capacity of relevant stakeholders on BMPs, Cluster management, cluster/group certification and market access issues
The workshop proceedings including observations and recommendations were published as AqASEM’09 outcome. It is a valuable document that can guide future similar processes in the region.
Key observations and suggested follow up actions for Aceh as a pilot project to custering
- AqASEM09 clearly recognized the critical role of BMPs and cluster management as a way forward for small scale farmers to remain sustainable.
- The workshop acknowledged that BMPs are not standards or a certification process but their adoption can lead to and/or facilitate achieving compliance towards mandatory and voluntary standards and certification schemes
- AqASEM09 recognized the benefits of the cooperative business model and strongly recommended that this model be continued to promote implementation of BMPs among its AAE members.
- AqASEM09 strongly recognized that the members of the cooperative should follow collective crop planning systems, BMPs and cluster management concepts to sustain their operations and operate profitable to payback the loans secured for the cooperative.
- There was consensus that scaling up of a cluster approach will be the most appropriate way to proceed for the overall sustainability and further development of this predominantly small scale producer based sector. A cluster approach was also seen as a path to attaining group certification, thereby relieving small scale farmers of the burden of bearing a high cost for this purpose, individually.
- AqASEM09 recommended that the Cooperative should consider offering technical services to meet the needs of the farmers in addition to providing microfinance
- AqASEM recommended that the cooperative should enter into negotiations with shrimp processors and buyers and attempt to access international markets
- AqASEM recognized the need for credit for other farmers such as milk fish farmers and suggested that the ASD consider providing credit to commodities other than shrimp. It was noted that many existing constraints to scaling up are organizational. Therefore AqASEM09 endorsed the need for a strong networking mechanism in Aceh (AAE/ASD, DKP, BBAP) to facilitate lesson learning/sharing and overall collaboration to further promote the scaling up strategies.
- AqASEM09 strongly recommended further strengthening of ASD/AAE model by provision of trained human resources with special focus on research linkages, market intelligence, certification, socio-economics, communication and networking Initiating activities to link BMP and cluster management programs to markets through cluster certification programs and involvement of processors
- Conduct of annual review workshops with the objective of reviewing progress of BMP implementation, refining/revising BMPs, sharing lessons learned, and strengthening networking and collaboration
- Capacity building of prospective cluster leaders and field level extension officers, on concepts of BMPs and cluster management through dedicated short term training programs, workshops and exposure visits.
Way forward for Aceh as pilot project
Many smallholder shrimp farmers face difficulties in gaining access to market and in maintaining sustainable development of their livelihoods for lack of timely access to finance. The benefits of the cooperative business model in Aceh was apparent in the crop of 2012 and the enthusiasm of its members. We see this business model as a good vehicle to promote the concept of BMPs and cluster management for sustainable shrimp farming in Aceh.
Good progress continues to be made in capacity development of service centers, farmer clusters
and groups, it is clear that further capacity building investments are required to achieve commercial success at scale. Increasing and sustained cooperation with buyers is also necessary to create value for Acehnese farmers. Scaling out, by increasing the number of farmers participating, and scaling up, by improving yields and market connections is recommended as the way forward. Further, our analysis shows the opportunity for a commercially viable business that can sustain, providing values to households, communities, and supported by a locally owned and operated cooperative. The greatest risk envisaged for the proposed development is capacity in key areas and strong governance. Strict management and procedures will need to be implemented and tightly managed to avoid any complications. The proposed cooperative business model can support scaling up of BMP and cluster approach and ensure opportunity to bring significant prosperity to households, create much needed jobs and stability for the pilot region of Aceh as a whole.
SUPPORT THE APPLICATION OF INTEGRATED MULTI-TROPHIC AQUACULTURE (IMTA)
The marine aquaculture sector is searching for sustainable methods, and integrated aquaculture has been proposed as a potential tool assisting sustainable development. Definitions on integrated aquaculture vary widely but in essence all relate to the polyculture of several aquatic species, or linking different productive activities.
Gradually, ’Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture’ (IMTA) became a popular term that refers to a form of integration with the explicit incorporation of species from different trophic positions where the output (wastes) of one species are utilized by other species. Integrated aquaculture has several benefits, including enhanced carrying capacity, bioremediation, product diversification, and disease prevention.
This workpackage deploys a series of activities aiming at describing existing knowledge on IMTA in Asia, mostly China, and creating opportunities for the wider application of joint activities on research and promotion of IMTA principles.
Review on integrated mariculture in China, including case studies on successful polyculture in coastal Chinese waters
Recent reviews on integrated mariculture, such as the FAO Technical Paper “Integrated mariculture: a global review” (Soto, 2009) reviewed the development of open water IMTA systems in several areas, however practically no information from China was included due to information unavailability! Meanwhile, over the past few years Chinese researchers have documented empirical achieved progress in integrated mariculture with sound data and models.
The report reviewed these data by means of specific case studies for the Shandong peninsular and recent advances in IMTA research, with the aim to show the effectiveness of IMTA in comparison to monocultures. This is essential for further development of IMTA in the coastal zones of China and provides at the same time valuable information for European researchers.
Mariculture case studies were divided into coastal pond systems (case studies 1-4) and open water culture (case studies 5-8). Basically all case studies presented are based on trophic relations between the cultured species. Species cultured in these integrated systems included for example shrimp, sea cucumber, kelp, fish or bivalves. The case studies provided technological, economical and scientific information on the use, type and characteristics of each specific IMTA system. Growth and production of several species were provided and optimal co-culture densities for effective bioremediation purposes were determined, showing that IMTA not simply involves the integration of different species but also the proportion between species should be taken into account in order to balance nutrients in the ecosystem.
Carbon budget analysis illustrated that cultivation of shellfish and seaweed in the coastal zones can utilize a significant fraction of oceanic carbon, thereby potentially improving the capacity to absorb atmospheric CO2. Biological tracers have been used to develop waste-dispersal models for fish farms and to quantify assimilation of fish waste by shellfish and other benthic organisms. This showed that shellfish farmed close to a fish cage obtained 32-35% of their food from fish wastes and the other fraction came from ambient organic material. These better understanding of processes related to trophic interactions are also needed in development of carrying capacity models. Recently a multi-species model for integrated culture of finfish, shellfish and kelp has been developed for Sanggou Bay. The model is used the estimate exploitation carrying capacity, harvest potential for different seeding and harvesting scenarios, and for estimating the environmental impact of different management strategies.
Moreover, a comparative evaluation of open-water IMTA case studies and monoculture of kelp or scallops was carried out specifically in terms of the economic revenues on one side, and environmental bioremediation on the other side. For all parameters included, IMTA case study III showed best results, demonstrating the advantages of IMTA over monoculture.
Several reviews on integrated multi-tropic aquaculture have been published to date but this document is probably the first in its kind to give a comprehensive overview including the recent scientific advances by Chinese researchers. It represents a valuable contribution to the elucidation of energetic & trophic pathways, to a better understanding of the environmental impacts and the potential of such concepts in bioremediation processes.
Guidelines for implementation of IMTA on policy, farming and research level
Based on a thorough consultation of published information and discussion with experts at scientific events and workpackage meetings, guidelines for implementation of IMTA were established. These guidelines can be a resource for future policy documents.
Inventory on related ongoing research projects and their funding resources
In order to have an insight on the scientific landscape of research on integrated aquaculture, an overview of relevant ongoing research projects was produced. This overview reveals that most information on public research on IMTA was found on European programmes. Although personal communications indicate that considerable research efforts on IMTA are taking place in China, public channels that would allow us to establish include these in the overview are not in place.
Recommendations on synergies between ongoing research and on new consortia for future research cooperation projects.
The final outcome of this workpackage integrates the information collected and the knowledge gained during this project, adding the necessary interpretation to return a concise set of recommendations. It consists of three sections: a general introduction on the societal need for integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA); a section that summarizes the guidelines for research needs for IMTA development; and a section that summarizes how current research could benefit from integration and how this should be reflected in future research consortia. This document can be a significant asset in the assessment of the European potential for IMTA.
In order to realize the promises of IMTA, further research and development is needed on a number of topics. Those recommendations concern topics for IMTA in general and for sea-based IMTA in particular, and they can be summarized as follows:
Recommendations for general IMTA research:
A. Added value of integration: to what extent does physical integration of the different trophic components lead to changes in productivity and product quality?
B. Reduced waste streams. More effort is needed to design IMTAs that have a nearly neutral nutrient balance, in order to increase its sustainability. Focus on product diversification as a tool to reduce waste streams.
C. Bio-refinery. In order to further reduce waste streams from aquaculture, it is necessary to strive for 100% utilization of the aquaculture products through improved bio-refinery techniques.
D. Demonstration projects. Demonstration-scale IMTA projects are needed to show the economic feasibility and ecological benefits of the concept.
E. Eco-labeling. Criteria for obtaining an eco-label should be matched with guidelines for best practices in IMTA in order to increase the incentive for aquaculture industry to apply IMTA.
F. Disease issue and biosecurity. To secure food safety and environmental health, R&D should target the identification of diseases, development of early warning systems (monitoring tools) and sustainable technologies to prevent and control disease transmission.
Recommendations specifically related to sea-based IMTA:
A. Offshore engineering. Offshore engineering solutions should be applied to secure IMTA from environmental hazards.
B. Added value of integration II: hydrodynamics. The effectiveness of using extractive aquaculture to remove wastes of fed aquaculture strongly depends on hydrodynamics. The Environmental Impact Analysis for IMTA should couple nutrient and biomass balances to a hydrodynamic model, in order to assess more accurately the added value of integration.
C. Added value for the environment. Ecologists should investigate potential positive ecological impacts of IMTA systems on the environment, such as stimulation of biodiversity and mitigation of eutrophication.
D. Integrated Coastal Zone Management. Studies on marine spatial planning, marine law and marine governance must include IMTA.
Integration of research and suggestions for future research consortia
Aquaculture research targeting IMTA should be combined with research on offshore engineering, bio-refinery, product development, product processing and product quality in order to establish a complete technology platform for a new generation of ocean farms. Technological research and development should be closely linked to with ecological studies to assess impacts of IMTA on the aquatic ecosystem and to socio-economic studies including marine law and governance, marine spatial planning and analyses of economic feasibility.
Future research efforts on IMTA should preferably be large-scale, integrated, multidisciplinary projects, executed by large, multidisciplinary consortia. In this respect, synergy can be obtained by combining complementary expertise from Europe and Asia (in particular China, Japan and Singapore).
Consortia should comprise engineers (offshore engineers, aquaculture engineers, bioprocess engineers), biologists (animal physiologists, aquatic ecologists, pathologists) and teams that asses product quality. The participation of NGOs and eco-labeling organizations is desired to define and secure sustainability criteria for IMTA and to secure acceptance of the concept of ocean farming by the general public. Finally, early adopters from industry as well as governance organizations need to be included in order to translate research findings to practical solutions and to fit it into the legislation framework.
FOOD SAFETY AND CERTIFICATION
The ASEM Aquaculture Platform has actively engaged with the debate on the influence and effectiveness of certification by engaging with a wide range of public and private actors engaged with the development and implementation of aquaculture sustainability certification. In line with the application of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF), the FAO Committee on Fisheries, Sub-Committee on Aquaculture (COFI/SCA) encouraged FAO to play a lead role in facilitating the development of guidelines which could be considered when national and regional aquaculture standards are developed.
After the long-awaited publication of the FAO "Guidelines for Aquaculture Certification", strong concerns were raised for the emerging certification schemes including concerns over free trade to European and USA markets, and the challenges of implementation across a highly diverse, global industry. Preliminary studies in Southeast Asia indicate these challenges include: 1. developing producer the capacities for on-farm compliance, 2. ensuring value chain relations provide suitable contract arrangements to facilitate and incentivize standard compliance, and 3. building an understanding of the form and function of ‘risk-based’ auditing practices. Although relevant across all producers, it is anticipated that small-holder producers require the most assistance in building this areas of knowledge and capacity if they are to maintain their position in global value chains
The efforts of AqASEM’09 on this subject supported the dialogue on the development of aquaculture certification schemes, the incorporation of science-based information from Asian and EU partners into the formulation and implementation of certification, and associated food safety and legislation. Through the harmonisation of the divergent initiatives, this work package implicitly contributed to the following research activities:
- Set-up a Euro-Asian working group on aquaculture certification
- Synthesize current scientific knowledge on aquaculture certification standards, standard setting, farm-level compliance, and auditing practices activities in Europe and Southeast Asia
- Organise a series of workshops on Southeast Asian aquaculture certification experiences and what impact this has had on the sustainability of production practices, and the safety and quality of products
- Formulate recommendations for the formulation, compliance with and implementation of certification schemes that meet the expectations and interests of Southeast Asian (producers) and European (consumers/policy makers’)
Inventory of Asian aquaculture certification initiatives and its contact people
A range of production standards are applicable to Southeast Asia aquaculture. The goals of these standards differ considerably, ranging from responsible to sustainable and organic aquaculture . The ambiguity of these goals and the variety of state, industry and NGO actors involved in the establishment and operation of certification schemes has led to widespread confusion at both the producer and consumer end of the value chain. There are also different levels of accessibility associated with these standards; state-led certification schemes, used to support their own regulatory policy measures, are often supported with subsidies from national authorities, while market oriented schemes are global in scope and compliance often prohibitively expensive for small-holders. Getting an overview on the significant variation between schemes in scope and requirements towards producers provides useful information to better understand constraints to comply with standards from the perspective of the producer.
The AqASEM’09 project has carried out a ‘mapping’ exercise of selected certification schemes explaining the current schemes relevant to aquaculture and Asian and EU markets, and their main characteristics. This summary further offers a classification of different standards and is followed with a description of the analytical framework used as a summary of tables of the mapping exercise and finally some reflections on the first observations that emerged from this mapping exercise. All in all, this baseline document is a powerful tool in any further effort to reconcile the objectives of certification with realities at the production level.
Workshop report on current Asian aquaculture certification experiences
On the 26th of June 2013 an AqASEM workshop on Aquaculture Certification in Asia was organised in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A diversity of stakeholders attended, including business, research, governments and certification bodies.
The main objective of the workshop was to provide key stakeholders from importing (EU) and exporting (Asia) countries to share experiences and understand and appreciate the realities of aquaculture production and trade, as well as the role of certification programs in promoting responsible aquaculture.
In preparation for the workshop, over 50 key stakeholders have been interviewed over a period of six months to identify the most relevant topics. Most interviewees have been interviewed through personal communication, others via email or Skype.
The workshop report features 3 sections: first, the rationale, audience and programme are presented; then, 5 selected topics are discussed, based on the workshop programme and previous fieldwork. These are 1) the surge of National Standards; 2) Producer compliance constraints; 3) Value Chain arrangements; 4) Auditing practices and 5) Benchmarking certification. The report concludes with a summary of the main discussions and conclusions.
Recommendations for future aquaculture certification schemes and recommendations on synergies between ongoing research and on new consortia for future research cooperation projects
Based on the inventory, the interviews and the AqASEM’09 certification workshop analysis of the future of aquaculture certification in Southeast Asia was carried out. The results show that certification plays an increasingly prevalent role in governing food safety, and environmental and social performance in Southeast Asian aquaculture.
The core challenge faced by certification schemes remains balancing continuous improvement, access for small holders and maintaining credibility. Maintaining accessibility for small holders is an issue explicitly recognised by nearly all the certification schemes. International schemes maintain credibility through rigorous standards but have put in place new certification models for increasing participation. Other schemes, particularly national standards, attempt to maintain low (or no) costs for certification as a strategy for including small holders. However, these various approaches are yet to enrol large numbers of small holders – instead there has been industry capture of international schemes and weak market incentives for small holder engagement in national schemes.
Against this background, and in support of a continued dialogue on the development of aquaculture certification schemes, the AqASEM’09 projects formulated recommendations for future aquaculture certification schemes and synergies between ongoing research and on new consortia for future research cooperation projects.
Recommendations for future aquaculture certification schemes.
a) Public and private certification need to be better integrated with in the wider context of aquaculture governance.
Certification will contribute to upgrading aquaculture production in Southeast Asia if a clearer strategy for partnership between public and private standards is created. This is particularly important given the need for greater penetration into domestic markets. Such a partnership may be weaker or stronger on different issues. Standard content may continue to differ, recognising the demands of different market segments, but verification may be more closely coordinated. Any plans for partnership should be based around balancing credibility, cost and access of a wide range of producers.
b) Stimulate food safety through retailers.
The largest potential for expanding sustainability certification in domestic markets is currently through the retail sector. Although currently focused on food safety issues, the introduction of sustainability issues and the development of a market for sustainable products appears most likely through retailers. It is not clear what the long-term effect of current ‘first party’ certification by retailers will be in terms of credibility and effectiveness. If and when the market for sustainably certified product increased, other certification models including but not limited to third party verification should be explored.
c) The ongoing credibility and effectiveness of certification schemes remains a balance between access and impact.
The short to medium term effectiveness of certification in Southeast Asia will be determined by the capacity of different schemes to balance access and impact. Current access models assume a continued intensification and consolidation of aquaculture production into a small number of industrial-scale producers. However, these production systems most commonly feed into export markets which remain relatively limited in size and scope for creating wider sustainability gains through certification. For increased impact of certification as a tool for upgrading aquaculture production a wider range of producers need to included, in particular those selling to domestic markets. The lessons learnt in other major natural resource sectors are instructive and should be incorporated into the design of the aquaculture certification models.
d) Spatial coordination of (group) certification.
The potential of clustering and group certification to increase the participation of small-holders remains high. Current models have focused largely on the functional (technical) and relational (group formation and contractual) aspects of clustering. However, the sustainability benefits of these activities remain unknown. To ensure greater impact of clusters more attention should be given to the spatial coordination of certification and area-based management by the state. The environmental and social benefits from individual farm-level certification will also benefit from spatial coordination.
e) Attention to the legal dimensions of farmer clustering.
State support to the technical aspects of clustering need to be supplemented by legal support to mitigate the liability of individual farmers involved. The benefits of non-legal entity models of certification over legal-entity are demonstrated by the strength and effectiveness of clusters, but this remains problematic because of the liability farmers face by non-compliance by members. Ways of fostering greater producer ownership while mitigating their liability for collective non-compliance (e.g. forms of insurance) should be explored by governments in the region.
f) Greater oversight on the role of conformity assessment bodies.
Certification models in Southeast Asia currently vary from private and public third-party certification to first party certification. Attention needs to be given to the relative success of these models in balancing independence, credibility, and issues of cost and access for a wide range of producers. In addition, as the role of conformity assessment bodies increases in number (and variety under these different models), regional oversight is needed to provide governance parameters for cross checking the characteristics and claims made by different verification models.
g) Greater oversight over supporting organisations involved in aquaculture improvement.
The emergence of aquaculture improvement projects (AIPs) has diverted the traditional role of state extension services to private actors. These private actors, including NGOs and consultancies, are often better placed to create market linkages and align farm-level improvement with the requirements of certification standards. However, these private actors do not have the same level of accountability for their activities, nor is there any measure of the quality of their services. As the role of these supporting NGOs and consultancies increases a degree of oversight is needed to assure quality and create an adequate level of accountability. Lessons may be sought from the fishery improvement project benchmarking tool recently developed by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
h) Anticipate the influence of public and private benchmarking activities.
The emergence of both public and private forms of benchmarking standards and certification schemes has led to both harmonization and equivalence. While identifying higher quality standards, private benchmarking holds consequences for public systems that appear to be more accessible to a wider range of Southeast Asian producers. Should governments in the region want to gain recognition for their standards in export markets, greater attention should be given to the development of regional level GAPs and BMPs under the ASEAN and the ASEAN economic community to be launched in 2015.
Recommendations on synergies between ongoing research and on new consortia for future research cooperation projects.
a) Investment in further research collaboration between Europe and Asia.
The above themes identified by the consortium of European and Asian researchers involved in the ASEM Aquaculture Platform remain under researched. The above recommendations are preliminary in that they offer possible courses of action in steering certification in Southeast Asia towards a more effective and equitable future. However, to determine the specific policy and governance design that these recommendations imply will require further input based on grounded research in both Europe and Southeast Asia. It is therefore recommended that a consortium of European and Asian researchers be funded to work on all or a selection of the recommendations outlined above. The benefit of such a consortium for Asia will be ongoing quality research partnerships. For Europe the benefit will be a continued presence in the development of knowledge in the fastest growing global regions for aquaculture production.
b) Ongoing policy partnerships between FP7 funded projects.
The results of the FP7 funded ASEM Aquaculture Platform and the FP7 funded Sustainable Ethical Aquaculture Trade (SEAT) projects are related and complimentary. The results of projects demonstrate the growing importance and effect of market-based governance, its effect on Asian producers and the ongoing role of the state in mitigation and facilitating sustainable and ethical aquaculture production and trade. Further investment should be made to integrate the findings of both projects into a coherent strategy for further research and policy implementation.
c) Support to next generation governance arrangements.
Particular attention should be given to what might be termed next generation governance of aquaculture production in Southeast Asia. The two most innovative processes currently jointly funded by public-private partnerships is the GSSI (funded by GIZ and industry partners) and the reorganization of value chains through, amongst others, IDH. In both cases there is minimal involvement of state actors from regions such as Southeast Asia. The potential outcome of these programmes is the predominance of private sector interests. As such future partnerships should be funded that involve public interests including but not limited to governments and their agencies. In Southeast Asia, Thailand and Vietnam should be considered as primary targets for such partnerships given their importance of regional production and their export orientation. NACA should also be considered a key partner given their existing role in development and coordinating state-based standards.
DISEASE & HEALTH MANAGEMENT
Both the production of aquatic organisms as the trade of aquaculture products are very vulnerable for trans-national health risks. There is a distinct difference between both, though. Health issues with aquaculture products predominantly refer to risk for human health incurred by consumption of aquatic products. Consequently, such issues are a concern addressed through quality control, certification and regulations regarding Best Management Practice and so forth. Health issues in aquaculture production, on the other hand, affect the plants & animals before they reach commercialisation and are a concern for the farmers and distributors rather than for consumers. Trans-boundary animal diseases (much less is known on aquatic plant diseases) are defined as epidemic diseases that are highly contagious or transmissible, with the potential for very rapid spread irrespective of national borders and which cause significant socio-economic and possibly public health consequences. Careful examination of the history and spread of trans-boundary diseases indicate how irresponsible or ill-considered movements of live aquatic animals and their products can impact aquaculture and wild fisheries resources. In many cases, these impacts are a direct result of absence of national and regional disease management strategies or non-compliance by stakeholders to such strategies.
Eventually, containment of trans-boundary aquatic animal diseases can only effectively be reached through the establishment and enforcement of trans-boundary regulation which is mostly a (geo)political issue and hence beyond the scope of research projects in general. Therefore, the targeted contribution of the AqASEM09 project to aquatic health issues is situated at the level of the research community. It aims at identifying and monitoring trans-boundary health problems, and facilitating joint efforts towards solutions to common health problems. The AqASEM09 activities of the Workpackage on Disease & Health management focus on the volatile but pertinent objective of creating a sense of community among international aquatic disease experts. This sense of community is leading to increased transfer of information & expertise, the establishment of a knowledge database, and to the maintenance of a forum for peer-to-peer collaboration.
There are strong reasons for encouraging the two-way transfer of research and collaboration between Europe and Asia (and indeed other continents) as there are often great similarities with respect to disease problems and management challenges. These include:
• Potential for more rapid and lower cost testing and evaluation of pharmaceuticals in Asia
• Increasing readiness for inevitable disease transfer between territories
• Improving diagnostic tools relevant to a wider range of pathogenic organisms
• Identification of best-practice management and biosecurity approaches against common disease agents
• Enhancing critical research mass on major aquatic animal diseases
The AqASEM09 project worked towards the community of practice on aquatic animal health through a set of interacting initiatives. First, a working group of aquatic health experts is established. This working group includes leading researchers that have the expertise and weight to mobilise peers. Next, a series of ‘community-building’ activities and services where launched: discussion forums, an e-newsletter, a dedicated website, the onset for a knowledge database.
The workpackage culminated in an international workshop on aquatic disease management with special emphasis on epidemiology in Can Tho University, Vietnam from 9-10th December 2012. The workshop convened experts from Asia and Europe. It aimed at identifying topics for concrete and realistic collaboration. The potential projects identified at the workshop were:
1) Epidemiological investigations of bacillary necrosis of pangasius: This can be a devastating disease causing more than 70% fish losses on a farm. Although a new vaccine has been developed and is now being marketed by Pharmaq, a range of other health management methods are needed to properly control the disease including biosecurity and proper use of chemotherapeutants. The developed proposal recommends both cross sectional and longitudinal field studies combined with laboratory studies on the infective agent. Potential partners are identified in UK, Norway, Thailand and Vietnam.
2) Disease surveillance and control – chains and networks: Proposal for a project to examine costs and benefits of different strategies and levels of investment in disease surveillance in the aquaculture sector, particularly the use of epidemiological network models involving contact mapping and biosecurity risk assessment.
3) Epidemiological investigations of Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS): This is the most important disease challenge currently facing shrimp producers in South East Asia. At the time of the workshop the infective agent was unidentified, but an epidemiological study was proposed to help identify effective management strategies based on comprehensive study of farms within identified areas (Thailand and Vietnam).
These research concept notes were formulated to involve the organisations involved in the workshop, but can easily be broadened and adapted to involve other organisations. They are available to AqASEM project members as a basis for future research proposals and are offered to funding agencies as an indication of priorities, interest and capacity.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
The opportunities for European aquaculture education beyond Europe, especially with Asia, are valuable and real. The successful establishment of proper conditions for transparency and internal mobility in European education now constitute a unique asset to attract promising Asian students. Benefits are manifold and mostly mutual:
- Asian students acquire skills and knowledge that is not available in Asia
- student exchanges strengthens networks between the (European) hosting and the (Asian) home institute
- students undergoing European research based education will disseminate European technology
- training Asian students can lead to recruitment of excellent research candidates
Through the AqASEM consultations a number of issues relevant to future aquaculture education collaboration were identified. Some issues related to specific European or Asian aspects, other issues relate to common problems or even divergences between both parties. These discussions yielded recommendations for strategic choices for further collaboration in aquaculture education:
a) Marketing aquaculture and its education
Although aquaculture industry is still growing, the demand for highly skilled personnel is stagnating at best. Moreover, employment in aquaculture industry suffers an unappealing imago and is often less well paid than other sectors. In order to attract sufficient numbers of excellent students, the industry and education providers need to invest in marketing, highlighting aquaculture as a modern bio-industry with and versatile career opportunities.
b) Interaction with industry
Given the Asian aquaculture industry is expected to show the most significant growth, a large potential for training skilled workforce for the Asian industry remains unexploited. Both European as Asian students may benefit from top-quality training in Europe geared at challenging careers in Asia. These employment prospects can also benefit to European companies provided they seize the opportunities by tapping into the growing Asian industry.
c) Networking, Student exchange & Joint education
Aquaculture education is becoming too complex to address adequately in isolation. Complementary curricula and joint Asian-European degrees can provide workable answer. Unlimited student mobility and transnational recognition are the key to harmonising the joint delivery of high quality education. This calls in the first place to proper Asian accreditation & quality insurance. This process can be enhanced by formal regional networking.
d) Language
A first but often crucial limitation to student mobility is language. Asian institutes or governments that decide to prioritise internationalisation will need to acknowledge the prerequisite of a generally accepted language of instruction and/or invest in appropriate language training prior to the advanced studies.
EMPOWERING VULNERABLE STAKEHOLDER GROUPS
For aquaculture production to progress, development strategies must take into consideration gender issues particularly women’s role, and women must be involved in the development process. Appropriate intervention accompanied by a paradigm shift will undoubtedly enhance the status of communities based around aquatic food production, including the status of the women in those communities. More such efforts are needed to ensure strategies for policy makers to ensure implementation of the recommendations. To empower the vulnerable stakeholder groups, the extension agents as well as the policy formulator and program planner and implementers need to understand gender issues and be able to integrate gender concerns in planning.
The AqASEM’09 project contributed to this issue by:
• sharing country experiences and best practices regarding poverty eradication and gender issues in aquatic food production
• increasing knowledge and skills in gender analysis and gender mainstreaming in aquatic food production
• identifying strategies to promote appropriate technologies and greater women participation for vulnerable groups in aquatic food production
• developing action plans towards empowering poor farmers and women in aquatic food production
AqASEM’09 has documented the above contributions in a series of public reports.
In implementing this project, there were several challenges faced by the team: a) late or no response from the relevant agencies contacted; b) inability of the agency contacted to identify and nominate the appropriate participants to attend the workshop, probably due to the lack of awareness on gender issues; c) lack of additional funding for follow up on the implementation of the country action plan and was subsequently done by email; an d) lack of foresight on the importance of integrating gender issues in aquaculture in the different work packages in this AqASEM09 programme and thus WP7 had to implement project activities on its own. Despite these constraints, the WP7 team managed to accomplish all its objectives.
Conclusions from this workpackage are:
• Awareness on gender issues is still limited at all levels of governance and policy makers and the workshop conducted by WP7 team was an eye opener for many participants. This may also be the possible reason for the lack of response from the regional countries to participate in the workshop.
• In general there is a lack of awareness and limited political will and commitment to integrate gender issues in the development of aquaculture. However, there is already some progress in the regional countries like in India, and the Philippines where gender issues have been addressed in their national plan of action particularly in aquaculture.
• In order to integrate gender issues at national level there is a need for someone to champion at the policy formulation and decision making level.
• To see a meaningful impact of gender integration in aquaculture, there is a need to have continuous and reinforcement of knowledge. Further training to enhance the gender analysis skills among different stakeholders is crucial. Aquaculture development policy should be reoriented to be people-centered which will address the gender issues.
• Gender issues within the region are relatively similar; hence regional strategies (long term and short term) may be developed together and be implemented as a platform through the ASEAN network.
• To improve the well-being of the vulnerable group in the aquaculture sector, an integrated approach in research and programmes that consist of multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary team members working together to achieve a common goal, is essential.
Potential Impact:
FOSTERING COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN THE ASIAN AND EUROPEAN AQUACULTURE INDUSTRY
Potential impact
In this domain, the project has not realised the full extent of the envisaged impact. Initially, the installation of an operational Asia-Desk within EATIP was projected but beyond the effective establishment of the Desk, little satisfactory dynamism can be reported. Main obstacles to the successful operation of the AsiaDesk are:
- The severe economic difficulties in Europe during the course of the project have hit very hard on aquaculture, especially producers. Under such conditions, exploring new markets or other adventurous initiatives are welcomed wholeheartedly
- The European aquaculture sector, and thereby the EATIP constituency, is very diverse. Hence the marketing and business strategies of the individual sectors are very hard to align into a single collaboration strategy with a counterpart - the Asian aquaculture industry - that is probably yet even more divers
- While at the European side there is a formal representative organism - EATIP - there is (yet) no equivalent at the Asian side making it ambiguous who to approach
Yet, the potential impacts of a more pro-active participation of European companies in the rapidly growing Asian aquaculture industry are evident. Besides, several European companies are already successfully active in Asia. Furthermore, the collective interest of the industry, as represented by EATIP, seems to be growing, judging by some vivid discussions that arose late in and after the termination of the project. The AqASEM project can take credit for patiently but relentlessly putting the issue on the agenda and there are clear signs that in the end internationalisation will make up an integral part of EATIP’s commitments.
Dissemination & exploitation
In an attempt to convince European aquaculture business people of the opportunities in the Asian aquaculture sector, the AqASEM objectives and activities related to this workpackage were presented at every possible EATIP meeting plus some FEAP meetings.
Furthermore, a series of meetings between Asian and European stakeholders were organised or facilitated under the common denominator of “ASEM Aquaculture Dialogues”. These Dialogues mostly consisted of seminar and round table discussion around selected themes such as “Bust and boom of the Pangasius farming”, “Progress of the food quality & safety regulations in the Thai seafood sector”, “Status of large commercial polyculture exploitation in China”, etcetera.
Finally, two fact-finding trips for European business people were planned: one to the large commercial marine polyculture in China and one to the exponentially growing Pangasius farming in Vietnam. However, the trip to Vietnam did not materialise due to a lack of interest from the European side. The successful trip to China
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF COMMODITY-SPECIFIC BETTER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPS) FOR SMALL HOLDER FARMERS IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
Potential impact
The impact of the workpackage is twofold: there is a direct effect for the target group, namely the small farms, and an indirect effect for stakeholders further up the value chain to whom the small holder farmers are supplying.
Within both pilot groups that participated in the project for the introduction resp. up-scaling of the clustering concept for small holder farms, the impact was explicitly monitored and demonstrated. Participating farmers witnessed improved farming success through the collective introduction of better farming practices, an improved financial management with among others better access to loans, stronger bargaining position towards processors or middle men, the possibility for group certification of the farmed product.
The impact of clustering definitively goes beyond the participating small holder farms. In the first place because farming practices, hence product quality, are improved. Furthermore, clustering enables collective interaction with other interlocutors in the value chain. This is important even from the European perspective. A frequently noted concern throughout AqASEM’s various consultations with European industry representatives is the lack of a distinct interlocutor at the Asian side when it comes down to monitoring product quality or assessing aspects of sustainability and social equity in the production process. The predominance of small scale farmers typical for Asian aquaculture does complicate or even prevent the degree of control or at least insight European importers expect in how product is produced, where exactly it comes from, etcetera. The clustering of farmers proves to be a promising concept in this regard. The AqASEM project has introduced, up-scaled, assessed and documented this progress thus enabling its further successful introduction in Asia.
Dissemination & exploitation
In relation to the clustering of Pangasius farmers in Vietnam, 4 provincial level workshops in the Mekong Delta to share experiences and review the implementation to understand what worked and what did not work. In addition, exchange visits between clusters were organized so that farmers can see and benefit from the best performing clusters. Furthermore, regarding the shrimp BMP programs, case studies have been undertaken in India, Thailand & Indonesia to assess the impacts of clustering and to identify constraints to adoption of BMPs and develop strategies for scaling up at national levels.
Each of these processes has been duly documented, either in a public report or published as a manual:
- A review of BMPs in selected cases of Asian shrimp aquaculture: lessons learned and strategies for scaling up
- BMPs and cluster management for empowering small scale farmers: scaling up strategies
- Self-use manual on group formation and group certification of small scale aqua farmers
- Striped catfish BMP cluster workshop
- Training program on catfish BMPs and cluster management
- Impact of BMPs and cluster management approaches in Aceh: Opportunities for scaling up 2005-2012
- BMPs and cluster management approaches in Aceh: opportunities for scaling up
- Inventory of BMPs projects in Asia Pacific
- Promoting adoption of BMPs through Cluster management approach in Catfish farming in Mekong Delta, Vietnam
These publications are available via the project website and the NACA website. They are also printed and distributed by NACA in their continuous efforts to involve other groups in the clustering exercise.
To support wider dissemination of BMPs and cluster management concept, an inventory of BMP projects in Asia Pacific has been produced. The inventory provides project title, objectives, source of funds, countries involved and year of implementation. In addition, project personnel have made presentations on BMPs and Cluster management at several meetings and workshops including the Aquaculture Certification workshop organized in Vietnam, under the AqASEM’09 project in June 2013.
SUPPORT THE APPLICATION OF INTEGRATED MULTI-TROPHIC AQUACULTURE (IMTA)
Potential impact, Dissemination & exploitation
The interest for IMTA is not new. Several projects by Canadian, European and American research groups have demonstrated its potential. However, there seems to be a surprising lack of information on the very extensive integrated polyculture that is very common in China. The AqASEM project has significantly contributed to the disclosure of previously unused Chinese knowledge and expertise. Information on successful Chinese case studies was collated and a comprehensive review on the current state-of-the-art was produced. The tradition for polyculture in China is reasonably renowned worldwide but these publications convincingly demonstrate the extent of the operations but foremost the scientific approach accompanying these large commercial exploitations. In the process, this has spotlighted the various Chinese research groups active in this discipline which fosters matchmaking with European counterparts interested in research collaboration.
All publications are available through the website.
Furthermore, an oral presentation on the development of freshwater integrated multi-trophic aquaculture systems in China and Hungary was given at AQUA2012 in Prague, September 2012. This presentation was particularly well attended and raised a lot of interest during and after the event.
Another successful initiative to introduce the Chinese IMTA expertise was the organisation of a fact finding business trip for European aquaculture business representatives. The trip highlighted a number of large scale commercial polyculture operations and enabled discussion with research teams active in this discipline. The impact of this trip with the participants was significant; participants were impressed by the scale and the professionalism of the exploitation. Also, the scientific level and in-depth knowledge on the underlying processes has positively surprised the group.
The outcomes of this trip were disseminated via ‘Fish Farming International’ (FFI), arguably the leading business information channel nowadays with a monthly online and hardcopy newspaper with over 5000 regular subscribers. Based on the unique experience of the European participants a first-hand testimony was produced and featured in the July 2013 issue of FFI.
FOOD SAFETY AND CERTIFICATION
Potential impact
The merit of certification as a tool to guarantee sustainable and healthy seafood cannot be denied. However, the current uncontrolled proliferation of various certification schemes and the unilateral and sometimes inappropriate implementation has left many small scale producers in Asia frustrated.
The AqASEM project has completed a series of activities that contribute to the alignment of the interests of both ends in the certification process: small holder famers and buyers/consumers. First an overview and analysis of the wide variety of certification schemes was produced. This baseline document is a powerful tool in any further effort to reconcile the objectives of certification with realities at the production level. As such, this analytic review of existing certification schemes is a benchmark to any discussion on the badly needed adjustment of these schemes.
With the AqASEM workshop on certification (June, 2013), conflicting issues between Asian and European stakeholders were discussed in a constructive way. The workshop outcomes were captured and converted into recommendations. These recommendations give tangible advice on possible adjustments in the ongoing certification processes, adjustments that are necessary to enable the important contingent of small holder farmers to understand and implement certification.
The workshop has also contributed to a direct dialogue between both parties involved. The participants are in that respect now ambassadors for the AqASEM model of dialogue towards mutually accepted strategies for the future certification schemes.
DISEASE & HEALTH MANAGEMENT
Potential impact, dissemination & exploitation
The AqASEM steering group on aquatic animal health, created under this project, reunites a selection of the foremost experts in the field. However, establishing a dynamic community of practice for joint Asian & European aquatic health experts proved to be tougher than expected. An assortment of community-building initiatives were deployed such as e-newsletters, discussion lists, wiki’s, dedicated interactive homepage, survey’s, etcetera. Responses to these initiatives where reasonably satisfying and confirms the need and benefit of interregional collaboration but a sustained effort will be necessary to maintain and preferentially improve the momentum of this community.
The AqASEM workshop on aquatic disease in Can Tho, December 2012, has largely fulfilled its objectives. A fairly representative group of European and Asian experts have attended the event. The workshop hosted a series of discussions that yielded pertinent recommendations on the most precarious disease topics in current aquaculture practice. These recommendations may be seen as explicit suggestions for relevant research supportive actions.
Furthermore, through the workshop, formal collaborations were established as witnessed by a concrete number of collaborative project proposals that were developed in the margin or in the aftermath of the workshop.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
Potential impact, dissemination & exploitation
The onset for the inventory of Asian aquaculture education in English is the groundwork for any further exchange or joint education initiative between Asia and Europe. The perspective of integrating this inventory into the existing AquaTNET inventory on European aquaculture education will further encourage any quest for matching partnerships. Furthermore, the integration into the AquaTNET portal guarantees maximal and sustainable dissemination among European stakeholders. Indeed, AquaTNET services an established and comprehensive network with a lifespan that goes beyond the AqASEM project.
The inventory will also reveal strengths and weaknesses in the collective supply of training in Asia and will encourage the dialogue with the industry in its task to provide consistent training. It will also document the wide diversity in Asian education systems and initiate an onset to harmonisation.
Just as in Europe, the early establishment of a regional network of education providers proved to be challenging. Therefore, the recent creation of the ASEAN Fisheries Education Network as an initial nucleus of 8 leading Asian institutes is a very promising development. By establishing an early affiliation between that network and the ASEM Aquaculture Platform, favourable conditions for effective joint education initiatives are secured.
EMPOWERING VULNERABLE STAKEHOLDER GROUPS
Potential impact, dissemination & exploitation
Through The AqASEM workshop on gender issues in aquaculture, delegations from Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, India and the Philippine’s were assisted in drafting a gender country plans. These country plans are a valuable contribution to ongoing national developments of gender supportive policy. Furthermore, the workshop participants, an interesting mix of aquaculture related and (gender) policy related responsibles, worked together towards this common objective under guidance of an expert team. This way, they acquired skills and knowledge to implement and disseminate the learnt concepts.
The workshop also generated a protocol that provides guidance for similar exercises or furthering the current process. The whole process from developing the workshop concept, the preparation, and the organisation proper, up to collecting and processing feedback has been documented and is currently the subject of at least 2 and probably 3 peer reviewed scientific papers.
List of Websites:
www.asemaquaculture.org
Patrick Sorgeloos, Project coordinator (Patrick.Sorgeloos@UGent.be)
Jean Dhont, Project secretary (Jean.Dhont@UGent.be)
Laboratory of Aquaculture & Artemia Reference Center
Ghent University
Rozier 44, 9000 Gent, Belgium
t: +32 9 264.37.54
f: +32 9 264.41.93
In its strive for mutually endorsed Asian-European aquaculture research strategies, AqASEM’09 focused on following issues that could benefit from a concerted approach.
Fostering collaboration opportunities between the Asian and European aquaculture industry
AqASEM initiated actions that create structural bonds between the European and Asian aquaculture industry. Through an informal dialogue involving various European and Asian key people, AqASEM identified hurdles and a corresponding roadmap towards a workable collaboration model. For main aquaculture sub-sectors, opportunities for collaboration are described.
Development and validation of commodity-specific better management practices (BMPs) for small holder farmers in the Asia-Pacific region
An innovative solution to the problems that typically Asian small producers face in complying to certification is ‘group certification’, which divides the cost and responsibility among the partners, enabling them to attain accreditation for their production process and remain in the industry. AqASEM’09 set about a process of introducing, assessing and upscaling the concept of clustering of small-holder farms and guiding those clusters through the multiple steps towards certification of their products.
Support the application of Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA)
Integrated aquaculture is considered to as valuable option for sustainable development of marine aquaculture. A series of activities aiming at describing existing knowledge on IMTA in Asia, mostly China, and creating opportunities for the wider application of joint activities on research and promotion of IMTA principles was deployed.
Food safety and certification
AqASEM facilitated the debate on the influence and effectiveness of certification, specifically for small-scale farmers. Activities included:
• Mapping existing certification schemes explaining main characteristics and comparing schemes, both crucial tools to reconcile the objectives of certification with realities at the production level.
• The AqASEM Workshop on Certification to share experiences and understand the realities of aquaculture production and trade, as well as the role of certification programs in promoting responsible aquaculture.
• Recommendations for future aquaculture certification schemes incl. synergies between ongoing research and on new consortia for future research cooperation projects.
Disease & Health management
In order to identify and resolve trans-boundary health problems, AqASEM established a community of practice on aquatic animal health. A working group of aquatic health experts is established including leading researchers that have the expertise and weight to mobilise peers. A series of ‘community-building’ activities and services where launched: discussion forums, an e-newsletter, a dedicated website, the onset for a knowledge database.
Education & Training
The opportunities for valorizing European aquaculture in Asia are valuable and real. The successful establishment of proper conditions for transparency and internal mobility in European education now constitute a unique asset to attract promising Asian students. Benefits are manifold and mostly mutual. The AqASEM consultations on issues relevant to future aquaculture education collaboration yielded recommendations for strategic choices for further collaboration in aquaculture education with reference to Marketing aquaculture and its education; interaction with industry; networking, student exchange & joint education; and language.
Empowering vulnerable stakeholder groups
For aquaculture production to progress, development strategies must take into consideration gender issues. To empower vulnerable stakeholder groups, extension agents, policy formulators and program planner and implementers need to understand gender issues and be able to integrate gender concerns in planning. The AqASEM’09 project contributed to this issue by:
• sharing country experiences and best practices regarding poverty eradication and gender issues in aquaculture
• teaching gender analysis and gender mainstreaming
• identifying strategies to promote greater women participation
• developing action plans towards empowering poor farmers and women
Project Context and Objectives:
ASEM, the Asia-European Meeting
The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is an informal process of dialogue and co-operation bringing together the 27 European Union Member States and the European Commission with 19 Asian countries and the ASEAN Secretariat. The ASEM dialogue addresses political, economic and cultural issues, with the objective of strengthening the relationship between our two regions, in a spirit of mutual respect and equal partnership. In the slipstream of the ASEM process, a number of initiatives on dedicated sectors of common interest have been launched (environment, education, climate change, etcetera). On the initiative of the EC DG Research, the ASEM Aquaculture Platform was established in 2003 multi-stakeholder platform for dialogue, networking and continuous coordination with the aim to reconcile Asian and European interests in production & consumption.
Aquaculture, facts & figures
In the last couple of decades, aquaculture has evolved from an artisanal farming sector to a technology-based bio-industry. With an average annual growth rate of 10.8 percent in 1980s coming down to 6.3 percent in 2012, aquaculture still is the fastest growing bio-industry worldwide. With a global production of about 60 million tonnes in 2012, we are by now already consuming slightly more farmed than catched fishery products and this trend is expected to increase.
However, these absolute figures do not reflect the important imbalance in the stage of development and distribution of aquaculture production among regions. The disparity between continents and countries with comparable natural conditions in the same region proves to be huge.
European versus Asian aquaculture
In 2010, Asia accounted for 89 percent of world aquaculture production by volume. However, while European production is gradually consolidated in large companies with a high degree of vertical integration (with the exception of mollusk culture in Southern Europe), Asian aquaculture is predominantly driven by a very large number of small, often family based enterprises. Although the trend for consolidation has definitively made a start in Asia, for instance in Thai shrimp farming.
While current aquaculture technology often originates from European led developments, the principal production is very predominantly in Asia. However, RTD excellence is rapidly growing in Asia, and today’s European technological edge will not last without continued RTD efforts and, arguably, without forging strong alliances with promising Asian partners.
Previous outcomes of the ASEM Aquaculture Platform
In the first fase of the ASEM Aquaculture Platform (2003-2006), mutually agreed recommendations on future directions in research, production and trade were formulated through a series of expert workshops (Disease & Health management, Biodiversity & Ecological impacts, Breeding & Domestication, Education, Food safety & Legislation, Food security).
Main objectives
With this project, an action-oriented agenda on selected themes (Interaction with industry, Best Management Practices for small farmers, Environment (Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture), Food safety & Certification, Disease & Health management, Education & Training, Gender issues) are established and carried out. The common denominator of the actions is the concerted effort to initiate joint EU-Asia processes which have impact on research excellence, contributing realistically and effectively to good production practice, improved governance, fair trade, social equity and sustainability. AqASEM09 will strengthen opportunities for the EU aquaculture sector to derive value from its technological and structural assets, and develop valuable trade partnerships, using the driver of consumer needs and expectations to improve product processes, quality and value in both markets.
Project Results:
AqASEM’09 has focussed on a selection of issues that are considered of common concern for both Asian as European aquaculture development. Some of these issues consist of challenges that both Asian and European aquaculture will be or is facing and that could benefit from a concerted approach, such as health & Disease management, innovative aquaculture education, environmental issues. Other issues are rather a source for friction between both regions due to differences in approach or in ‘playing field’. In both cases, the AqASEM’09 project has facilitated the dialogue between relevant parties and worked towards a mutually endorsed (research) agenda in response challenges that future responsible & sustainable aquaculture is facing.
FOSTERING COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN THE ASIAN AND EUROPEAN AQUACULTURE INDUSTRY
The European Union shows the most intensive trade in seafood in the world, much of which is imported, predominantly from Asia. On the other hand, modern commercial aquaculture is largely indebted to processes and technologies that were developed or perfected in Europe. While Asia is by far the largest aquaculture production region, the rapid growth of aquaculture poses serious challenges to the Asian producing nations in terms of sustainability, social equity and suitable technology. Furthermore, the impact of the increasing demand for seafood for the domestic markets in Asia is already noticeable and is certain to further pressurize exports to Europe.
Given the divergent characteristic of both regions, there are obvious mutual benefits in the cooperation between the Asian and European aquaculture sectors, ranging from formulation of joint research goals, development of common solutions to shared problems, harmonisation of policy and regulations. A first prerequisite for a more successful cooperation is a structural support of a dialogue between the industry with its various sections and stakeholders. The ASEM Aquaculture Platform fostered the dialogue between the Asian and European aquaculture sector by bringing together Asian and European key persons for a constrictive dialogues on common strategies.
The core premise of this work package was to initiate actions that would create structural bonds between the European and Asian aquaculture industry so as to facilitate opportunities for mutually beneficial actions.
Establishing an Asia-desk within the European Aquaculture Technology Platform (EATIP)
A base point on this aspect was that, within EATiP, the Board of Directors preferred to have an International approach that was not based on one specific geographic area. Consequently, this was approved, understanding that special competences were needed to approach Asia, due to differences in cultural and economic approaches. Consequently, an Asia Desk was established within EATiP which worked with other members of the AqASEM partnership so as to identify opportunities and threats associated with Asian-European aquaculture industry links.
Establishing a dialogue between the Asian and European aquaculture sector proved to be more complex than anticipated. To start with, there is a general absence in Asia of federating interlocutors that would be equivalent to EATiP and the affiliate European organisations, such as the FEAP (Federation of European National Fish Farming Associations) and FEFAC (Federation of Compound Feed Manufacturers). All of these organisations have extended networks throughout Europe, are used to dealing with European structures and debates and are experienced in generating common opinions through consensus. Equivalent organisations representing professional interests in aquaculture and related industries do not exist throughout Asia. This difference in approach in the professional sector contributing to sectoral governance constitutes a significant barrier to establishing dialogue. Who to discuss with? Who to communicate with?
Roadmap for Asia-Europe aquaculture industry cooperation
Initially, it was conceived to introduce the concept of the European technology platforms, in this case specifically EATIP, and explore the potential to establish analogue structures in Asia. It became clear that this model of cooperation for EATiP was not (yet) appropriate for actions in Asia; cultural and economic differences are very wide within the region, requiring considerable expertise and experience to be able to formulate proposals for cooperation.
Through an informal dialogue involving various European and Asian key people, AqASEM identified hurdles and a corresponding roadmap towards a workable collaboration model.
Positions on Cooperation
Cooperative engagement with Asia has to be considered in the long term, versus short-term one-shot efforts to promote common targets. For this, strategic decisions are required. Positions prepared by the EATIP Asia Desk include the following:
- Industrial companies should be the first focus for cooperative efforts, networks and associative structures being secondary to these.
- From contacts made within the AqAsem project, the transfer of knowledge regarding the respect of EU rules and regulations appears to have a strong demand by Asian counterparts. On the other hand, the European counterparts want to know what they would gain from such exchanges; more evident for importers than other sectoral components of European aquaculture.
- Fact-finding missions appear to be the most valid approach to achieve a clear focus.
- There is a need to identify appropriate Asian counterparts for such missions to be successful.
How best to cooperate
Discussions were held within EATiP, within FEAP and with a wide range of individuals working in European aquaculture on the potential for cooperation with Asia. These can be separated by sub-sector, notably for consultancy, research, commercial cooperation.
Most of these activities involving European companies and/or research organisations (institutes, universities…), reflect a degree of competition, particularly in the private sector.
Competition
Competition is a key issue for much of the approach of this workpackage. Not only between EU companies that look for cooperative opportunities in Asia, but between Asian companies and organisations. While it is possible to organise meetings between European companies in similar businesses, in Asia this is virtually unheard of.
The sensitivity of EU companies involved in production and processing cannot be underestimated when exposed to situations where their market position or competitive advantage might be threatened, particularly following the financial crisis.
Opportunities for cooperation with Asian industry partners
The provision of Action Plans foreseen has been less successful than planned, generally due to the way in which the different components of the European aquaculture sector work. The following sections describe the different approaches.
European Aquaculture Producers
Potential for devolving production
Throughout the project, one question regularly posed to the European aquaculture sector was whether they would consider investing in production in Asia. This was consideration of the possibilities of the devolution of aquaculture producers away from Europe (because of lack of sites, licenses….) and thus raising the potential production of individual companies by activities in 3rd countries.
Following the financial crisis in Europe, most of the producer SMEs questioned said that such a diversification was not a priority – survival of their company was and that their focus was on the European market. Reasons for this position included lack of finance, lack of human resources, unknown ‘territory’ when dealing with Asia (lack of experience). Fundamentally, one could say that the timing of the project was ‘too soon’ for many of the production SMEs questioned.
On the other hand, the production SMEs were keen to find new markets for their products –if the price is right! While the project stimulated some interest for this, it must be remembered that many of the European SMEs are small companies and with the European market recovering in 2012-2013 after several years of depressed prices, their focus was to consolidate their European market presence as opposed to looking elsewhere.
The interest of European Aquaculture industry to engage in the project was elucidated through a meeting with the FEAP Mediterranean Commission. The response from members of this Commission was positive if not overwhelming.
Asian markets for European SME producers
Following the White Fish Study of AIPCE (2013), China (620,000 t) and Vietnam (500,000 t) are the main suppliers of white fish and pangasius to the EU market.
As the study points out, there is much debate about when (rather than if) China will become a consumer of the same species that are largely consumed in the EU. There is no doubt that the influence of China is being felt for some types of fish, particularly high-end shellfish and whole fish where the head is still attached and at values beyond other markets. This implies that China, in particular, will become a target market for high value species.
For Vietnam, when compared to 2010, it is now estimated that the trade in pangasius has shrunk by 30 % in volume.
Several contributory factors have been identified for this situation:
• production costs have been challenging (rising);
• competitor (fishery) products to pangasius have seen recovery in quotas and scope for reasserting themselves in the market;
• resistance to the ready (consumer) acceptance of the species in some markets, especially in some EU Member States, that have inhibited the ability of pangasius to establish itself.
These changes have been rapid and substantial and evidently affect the attitudes of both European and Asian interests in commercial activities and cooperation.
On the other hand, following the AIPCE study, from 2001-2013 the supplies for EU consumption dropped from 26.6 to 23.6 kg/person while imports rose from 7 Mtons to 9 Mtons. This position is mainly due to drops in EU fisheries supplies and stagnation of EU aquaculture production.
Contact establishment for such inter-continental sales are generally made on a professional basis, participating in trade shows such as the European Seafood Exposition, including product demonstrations.
Since EATiP Is not involved directly in sales, it is unlikely to be able to contribute directly to this activity.
Service Sectors
Those European companies involved in providing key services to the Asian aquaculture sector are more prepared to invest in Asia than the European aquaculture production sector - with the exception of the large(r) companies (e.g. Marine Harvest (fish processing)). Skretting (feeds), Inve (starter feeds) have installed and invested in manufacturing capacity while other major players (e.g. Pharmaq (vaccines), Akvagroup (equipment)) tend to use locally-based agents to promote and further sales.
Evidently, such developments follow the development strategies of individual companies, choosing either to invest (in local manufacture or assembly) or using a local agent for representation and distribution.
EATiP in itself will have little influence or impact on these sectors
Consultancy
There are not many European companies that live solely off consultancy in aquaculture – although there are several specialised in, for example, design and supply of farm design, water recirculation systems, environmental impact assessments and rectification actions (e.g. Akvaplan Niva, Aqua-Bio Tech, ACE Engineering…). Increasingly, such companies also have an active involvement in research so as to continue to develop new and improved services and products, maintaining competitive advantage.
Most direct service consultancy activities appear to be linked to Universities & Research Institutions that are active in this area, providing focused consultancy and development services, using experienced personnel for long-term collaboration and spot missions (e.g. Stirling Aquaculture, Artemia Reference Centre of Ghent University , HAKI (Hungary), Wageningen/IMARES, SINTEF….). Otherwise, consultancy can often be related to experienced individuals providing studies and spot services.
In terms of collaboration with Asia, the early boom in development provided strong markets for consultancy on biological and technical issues which enabled particularly those with expertise in shrimp culture, larvae/juvenile and ongrowing feeds, health management and disease treatment and additional technical knowledge to develop business relationships. Such work has not been restricted to European interests, there being strong competition with North American and Australian firms. More recently, South-South cooperation has been promoted (e.g. between India-Asia, South America-Asia) on a strategic basis.
At present, the major cooperation efforts appear to be based on bilateral programmes between individual States and Asian nations, involving national institutes and organisations rather than commercial companies.
EATiP could, through consolidation of its network, provide some facilitation in this respect – even though it is not directly involved in bilateral programmes. This would require enlargement of its networking events and focus on its priority list of actions.
Processing
The European seafood processing sector is one of the world leaders, having adapted to changing market preferences and increasingly providing convenience products and ready meals for retail sale. Nonetheless, the know-how developed within individual companies is retained since this provides the competitive advantage for European companies. Retailers rarely invest in processing themselves, wishing to be free to choose and change suppliers, decision being based on commercial and marketing opportunities.
Consequently, imports are made either of ingredients (e.g. frozen fish) or of prepared products (convenience products, ready meals) for use by EU processing companies or for directly in retail.
EATiP has little representation of the professional processing sector within its membership. Such actions would be more appropriate for the Food For Life ETP, where the food processing sector is present and active.
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF COMMODITY-SPECIFIC BETTER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPS) FOR SMALL HOLDER FARMERS IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
For covering the demand for seafood, Europe relies for over 65% on import with Asia as prime supplier. To protect its consumers and guarantee safe and healthy products, various certification procedures are being developed and gradually implemented. On the other hand, aquaculture production in Asia mostly relies on small farmers. For such farmers, obtaining certification as individuals is financially prohibitive and impractical due to its complexity. The expanding incorporation of various certification schemes as a prerequisite for marketing seafood products is first affecting small farmers but will eventually affect the (European) consumers
An innovative solution for this conflict is ‘group certification’, which divides the cost and responsibility among the partners, enabling them to attain accreditation for their production process and remain in the industry.
With support of AqASEM’09, NACA set about a process of introducing, assessing and upscaling the concept of clustering of small-holder farms and guiding those clusters through the multiple steps towards certification of their products. It is important to note that a clear distinction in approach is to be made in between the initiation of the clustering and upscaling into larger operational clusters. Therefore this process was studied and guided on 2 distinct levels: a) the initial implementation of the clustering concept, and b) the upscaling of existing clusters. As suitable case studies for each stage, relevant models where selected: a) implementation of clustering for pangasius farming in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam; and b) upscaling of shrimp farmers clusters in India, Thailand and Aceh (Indonesia).
a) Implementation of BMPs for Mekong catfish
The primary objective of the EU-ASEM project was to set up farmer groups/clusters and promote implementation and adoption of catfish BMPs through cluster management approach and prepare the clusters to participate in future third party cluster certification programs.
Under the NACA-AusAID/CARD supported project, BMPs for Mekong catfish have been developed and refined through an elaborate process involving risk analysis, stakeholder consultations and demonstration trials. BMPs developed under this project, completed in 2010, was used as the basis for the EU-ASEM project, so that there is continuity between projects and the larger development goal of the catfish farming sector is addressed.
A structured scheme between CTU staff and provincial technical officers was developed for provision of technical assistance to 11 clusters (8 grow out clusters and 3 nursery clusters) and for monitoring compliance to BMP adoption and cluster functioning. The technical staff and cluster leaders had been previously trained in operation of clusters and implementation of BMPs. Record keeping books were provided to all the farmers in 11 clusters. Technical staff made regular visits to the clusters, assisted the farmers with implementation of BMPs and functioning of clusters, conduct of cluster meetings and record keeping.
This activity has generated large volume of useful data on crop performance, BMP adoption, usefulness of BMPs, compliance to BMPs, participation in cluster functioning, compliance to SOPs of cluster, problems and lessons learned, etc. The project team has used the data collated by the cluster leaders and technical staff and has produced a technical report on implementation of catfish BMPs through cluster management approach. The study has identified several issues and constraints faced by the farmers in implementation of catfish BMPs, highlighted the BMPs that have the most visible impact and adoption, and has provided suggestions for addressing some of the problems.
Under the project, CTU organized provincial level workshops in each province (4) to share experiences and review the implementation to understand what worked and what did not work. In addition, exchange visits between clusters were organized so that farmers can see and benefit from the best performing clusters.
The project activities contributed significantly to capacity and awareness building of local extension workers, farmers, provincial technical officers and other relevant stakeholders in BMPs, Standards and cluster management. The detailed report is provided as a standalone document entitled “Promoting adoption of BMPs through Cluster management approach in Catfish farming in Mekong Delta, Vietnam”
b) Scaling up shrimp BMP adoption in the Asia Pacific region
Shrimp BMP programs are ongoing in India, Indonesia and Thailand. With support of AqASEM’09, case studies have been undertaken in India, Thailand & Indonesia to assess the impacts of clustering, identify constraints to adoption of BMPs and develop strategies for scaling up at national levels.
Impact Assessments
Following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, various donors and development agencies have provided financial and technical assistance to the rehabilitation and recovery of the aquaculture sector in Aceh. Physical reconstruction of aquaculture infrastructure was largely completed within the first two years, and after 2007 more emphasis was given towards improving skills of farmers, promoting the adoption of better management practices, organizational assistance and improving services, particularly for small scale tiger shrimp and milkfish farmers. Through the AqASEM’09 a report was produced describing a brief history of the various programs that were implemented in Aceh to support aquaculture development through implementation of BMPs through a cluster management approach. It also described the impact of BMP programs and the constraints to its adoption, it further documents lessons learned and come up with recommendations for scaling up BMP and cluster management approach across Aceh and in Indonesia.
Aceh Workshop on Scaling up strategies
During 2011, there has been a significant transition towards self-sustainability through a social enterprise for Aceh aquaculture farmers. The Aceh Aquaculture Enterprise (AAE) was set up to help position Aceh aquaculture for a more sustainable future, improving access to markets and operated and sustained by Acehnese people. The AAE is hosted within a larger Aceh Society Development (ASD), a cooperative for microfinance. Aceh Aquaculture Enterprise (AAE) is an enterprise owned and operated by members and hosted within the ASD microfinance cooperative and aquaculture members will have access to the services of the cooperative.
Considering the huge potential of AAE/ASD in sustaining and scaling up the BMP and cluster model, NACA organised a national workshop AqASEM’09 supported workshop in Aceh, Indonesia from 15-16 October 2012 to further strengthen the scaling up strategies.
The workshop accomplished the main objective of discussing various strategies for scaling up the BMP and cluster work and also ways of using the AAE/ASD business model to sustain the scaling up approach. The workshop also helped to:
• bring together key institutions and stakeholders from Aceh
• perform a thorough assessment of the impact of shrimp BMP and cluster management
• identify factors for success and constraints to adoption
• identify opportunities and challenges for scaling up
• build awareness and capacity of relevant stakeholders on BMPs, Cluster management, cluster/group certification and market access issues
The workshop proceedings including observations and recommendations were published as AqASEM’09 outcome. It is a valuable document that can guide future similar processes in the region.
Key observations and suggested follow up actions for Aceh as a pilot project to custering
- AqASEM09 clearly recognized the critical role of BMPs and cluster management as a way forward for small scale farmers to remain sustainable.
- The workshop acknowledged that BMPs are not standards or a certification process but their adoption can lead to and/or facilitate achieving compliance towards mandatory and voluntary standards and certification schemes
- AqASEM09 recognized the benefits of the cooperative business model and strongly recommended that this model be continued to promote implementation of BMPs among its AAE members.
- AqASEM09 strongly recognized that the members of the cooperative should follow collective crop planning systems, BMPs and cluster management concepts to sustain their operations and operate profitable to payback the loans secured for the cooperative.
- There was consensus that scaling up of a cluster approach will be the most appropriate way to proceed for the overall sustainability and further development of this predominantly small scale producer based sector. A cluster approach was also seen as a path to attaining group certification, thereby relieving small scale farmers of the burden of bearing a high cost for this purpose, individually.
- AqASEM09 recommended that the Cooperative should consider offering technical services to meet the needs of the farmers in addition to providing microfinance
- AqASEM recommended that the cooperative should enter into negotiations with shrimp processors and buyers and attempt to access international markets
- AqASEM recognized the need for credit for other farmers such as milk fish farmers and suggested that the ASD consider providing credit to commodities other than shrimp. It was noted that many existing constraints to scaling up are organizational. Therefore AqASEM09 endorsed the need for a strong networking mechanism in Aceh (AAE/ASD, DKP, BBAP) to facilitate lesson learning/sharing and overall collaboration to further promote the scaling up strategies.
- AqASEM09 strongly recommended further strengthening of ASD/AAE model by provision of trained human resources with special focus on research linkages, market intelligence, certification, socio-economics, communication and networking Initiating activities to link BMP and cluster management programs to markets through cluster certification programs and involvement of processors
- Conduct of annual review workshops with the objective of reviewing progress of BMP implementation, refining/revising BMPs, sharing lessons learned, and strengthening networking and collaboration
- Capacity building of prospective cluster leaders and field level extension officers, on concepts of BMPs and cluster management through dedicated short term training programs, workshops and exposure visits.
Way forward for Aceh as pilot project
Many smallholder shrimp farmers face difficulties in gaining access to market and in maintaining sustainable development of their livelihoods for lack of timely access to finance. The benefits of the cooperative business model in Aceh was apparent in the crop of 2012 and the enthusiasm of its members. We see this business model as a good vehicle to promote the concept of BMPs and cluster management for sustainable shrimp farming in Aceh.
Good progress continues to be made in capacity development of service centers, farmer clusters
and groups, it is clear that further capacity building investments are required to achieve commercial success at scale. Increasing and sustained cooperation with buyers is also necessary to create value for Acehnese farmers. Scaling out, by increasing the number of farmers participating, and scaling up, by improving yields and market connections is recommended as the way forward. Further, our analysis shows the opportunity for a commercially viable business that can sustain, providing values to households, communities, and supported by a locally owned and operated cooperative. The greatest risk envisaged for the proposed development is capacity in key areas and strong governance. Strict management and procedures will need to be implemented and tightly managed to avoid any complications. The proposed cooperative business model can support scaling up of BMP and cluster approach and ensure opportunity to bring significant prosperity to households, create much needed jobs and stability for the pilot region of Aceh as a whole.
SUPPORT THE APPLICATION OF INTEGRATED MULTI-TROPHIC AQUACULTURE (IMTA)
The marine aquaculture sector is searching for sustainable methods, and integrated aquaculture has been proposed as a potential tool assisting sustainable development. Definitions on integrated aquaculture vary widely but in essence all relate to the polyculture of several aquatic species, or linking different productive activities.
Gradually, ’Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture’ (IMTA) became a popular term that refers to a form of integration with the explicit incorporation of species from different trophic positions where the output (wastes) of one species are utilized by other species. Integrated aquaculture has several benefits, including enhanced carrying capacity, bioremediation, product diversification, and disease prevention.
This workpackage deploys a series of activities aiming at describing existing knowledge on IMTA in Asia, mostly China, and creating opportunities for the wider application of joint activities on research and promotion of IMTA principles.
Review on integrated mariculture in China, including case studies on successful polyculture in coastal Chinese waters
Recent reviews on integrated mariculture, such as the FAO Technical Paper “Integrated mariculture: a global review” (Soto, 2009) reviewed the development of open water IMTA systems in several areas, however practically no information from China was included due to information unavailability! Meanwhile, over the past few years Chinese researchers have documented empirical achieved progress in integrated mariculture with sound data and models.
The report reviewed these data by means of specific case studies for the Shandong peninsular and recent advances in IMTA research, with the aim to show the effectiveness of IMTA in comparison to monocultures. This is essential for further development of IMTA in the coastal zones of China and provides at the same time valuable information for European researchers.
Mariculture case studies were divided into coastal pond systems (case studies 1-4) and open water culture (case studies 5-8). Basically all case studies presented are based on trophic relations between the cultured species. Species cultured in these integrated systems included for example shrimp, sea cucumber, kelp, fish or bivalves. The case studies provided technological, economical and scientific information on the use, type and characteristics of each specific IMTA system. Growth and production of several species were provided and optimal co-culture densities for effective bioremediation purposes were determined, showing that IMTA not simply involves the integration of different species but also the proportion between species should be taken into account in order to balance nutrients in the ecosystem.
Carbon budget analysis illustrated that cultivation of shellfish and seaweed in the coastal zones can utilize a significant fraction of oceanic carbon, thereby potentially improving the capacity to absorb atmospheric CO2. Biological tracers have been used to develop waste-dispersal models for fish farms and to quantify assimilation of fish waste by shellfish and other benthic organisms. This showed that shellfish farmed close to a fish cage obtained 32-35% of their food from fish wastes and the other fraction came from ambient organic material. These better understanding of processes related to trophic interactions are also needed in development of carrying capacity models. Recently a multi-species model for integrated culture of finfish, shellfish and kelp has been developed for Sanggou Bay. The model is used the estimate exploitation carrying capacity, harvest potential for different seeding and harvesting scenarios, and for estimating the environmental impact of different management strategies.
Moreover, a comparative evaluation of open-water IMTA case studies and monoculture of kelp or scallops was carried out specifically in terms of the economic revenues on one side, and environmental bioremediation on the other side. For all parameters included, IMTA case study III showed best results, demonstrating the advantages of IMTA over monoculture.
Several reviews on integrated multi-tropic aquaculture have been published to date but this document is probably the first in its kind to give a comprehensive overview including the recent scientific advances by Chinese researchers. It represents a valuable contribution to the elucidation of energetic & trophic pathways, to a better understanding of the environmental impacts and the potential of such concepts in bioremediation processes.
Guidelines for implementation of IMTA on policy, farming and research level
Based on a thorough consultation of published information and discussion with experts at scientific events and workpackage meetings, guidelines for implementation of IMTA were established. These guidelines can be a resource for future policy documents.
Inventory on related ongoing research projects and their funding resources
In order to have an insight on the scientific landscape of research on integrated aquaculture, an overview of relevant ongoing research projects was produced. This overview reveals that most information on public research on IMTA was found on European programmes. Although personal communications indicate that considerable research efforts on IMTA are taking place in China, public channels that would allow us to establish include these in the overview are not in place.
Recommendations on synergies between ongoing research and on new consortia for future research cooperation projects.
The final outcome of this workpackage integrates the information collected and the knowledge gained during this project, adding the necessary interpretation to return a concise set of recommendations. It consists of three sections: a general introduction on the societal need for integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA); a section that summarizes the guidelines for research needs for IMTA development; and a section that summarizes how current research could benefit from integration and how this should be reflected in future research consortia. This document can be a significant asset in the assessment of the European potential for IMTA.
In order to realize the promises of IMTA, further research and development is needed on a number of topics. Those recommendations concern topics for IMTA in general and for sea-based IMTA in particular, and they can be summarized as follows:
Recommendations for general IMTA research:
A. Added value of integration: to what extent does physical integration of the different trophic components lead to changes in productivity and product quality?
B. Reduced waste streams. More effort is needed to design IMTAs that have a nearly neutral nutrient balance, in order to increase its sustainability. Focus on product diversification as a tool to reduce waste streams.
C. Bio-refinery. In order to further reduce waste streams from aquaculture, it is necessary to strive for 100% utilization of the aquaculture products through improved bio-refinery techniques.
D. Demonstration projects. Demonstration-scale IMTA projects are needed to show the economic feasibility and ecological benefits of the concept.
E. Eco-labeling. Criteria for obtaining an eco-label should be matched with guidelines for best practices in IMTA in order to increase the incentive for aquaculture industry to apply IMTA.
F. Disease issue and biosecurity. To secure food safety and environmental health, R&D should target the identification of diseases, development of early warning systems (monitoring tools) and sustainable technologies to prevent and control disease transmission.
Recommendations specifically related to sea-based IMTA:
A. Offshore engineering. Offshore engineering solutions should be applied to secure IMTA from environmental hazards.
B. Added value of integration II: hydrodynamics. The effectiveness of using extractive aquaculture to remove wastes of fed aquaculture strongly depends on hydrodynamics. The Environmental Impact Analysis for IMTA should couple nutrient and biomass balances to a hydrodynamic model, in order to assess more accurately the added value of integration.
C. Added value for the environment. Ecologists should investigate potential positive ecological impacts of IMTA systems on the environment, such as stimulation of biodiversity and mitigation of eutrophication.
D. Integrated Coastal Zone Management. Studies on marine spatial planning, marine law and marine governance must include IMTA.
Integration of research and suggestions for future research consortia
Aquaculture research targeting IMTA should be combined with research on offshore engineering, bio-refinery, product development, product processing and product quality in order to establish a complete technology platform for a new generation of ocean farms. Technological research and development should be closely linked to with ecological studies to assess impacts of IMTA on the aquatic ecosystem and to socio-economic studies including marine law and governance, marine spatial planning and analyses of economic feasibility.
Future research efforts on IMTA should preferably be large-scale, integrated, multidisciplinary projects, executed by large, multidisciplinary consortia. In this respect, synergy can be obtained by combining complementary expertise from Europe and Asia (in particular China, Japan and Singapore).
Consortia should comprise engineers (offshore engineers, aquaculture engineers, bioprocess engineers), biologists (animal physiologists, aquatic ecologists, pathologists) and teams that asses product quality. The participation of NGOs and eco-labeling organizations is desired to define and secure sustainability criteria for IMTA and to secure acceptance of the concept of ocean farming by the general public. Finally, early adopters from industry as well as governance organizations need to be included in order to translate research findings to practical solutions and to fit it into the legislation framework.
FOOD SAFETY AND CERTIFICATION
The ASEM Aquaculture Platform has actively engaged with the debate on the influence and effectiveness of certification by engaging with a wide range of public and private actors engaged with the development and implementation of aquaculture sustainability certification. In line with the application of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF), the FAO Committee on Fisheries, Sub-Committee on Aquaculture (COFI/SCA) encouraged FAO to play a lead role in facilitating the development of guidelines which could be considered when national and regional aquaculture standards are developed.
After the long-awaited publication of the FAO "Guidelines for Aquaculture Certification", strong concerns were raised for the emerging certification schemes including concerns over free trade to European and USA markets, and the challenges of implementation across a highly diverse, global industry. Preliminary studies in Southeast Asia indicate these challenges include: 1. developing producer the capacities for on-farm compliance, 2. ensuring value chain relations provide suitable contract arrangements to facilitate and incentivize standard compliance, and 3. building an understanding of the form and function of ‘risk-based’ auditing practices. Although relevant across all producers, it is anticipated that small-holder producers require the most assistance in building this areas of knowledge and capacity if they are to maintain their position in global value chains
The efforts of AqASEM’09 on this subject supported the dialogue on the development of aquaculture certification schemes, the incorporation of science-based information from Asian and EU partners into the formulation and implementation of certification, and associated food safety and legislation. Through the harmonisation of the divergent initiatives, this work package implicitly contributed to the following research activities:
- Set-up a Euro-Asian working group on aquaculture certification
- Synthesize current scientific knowledge on aquaculture certification standards, standard setting, farm-level compliance, and auditing practices activities in Europe and Southeast Asia
- Organise a series of workshops on Southeast Asian aquaculture certification experiences and what impact this has had on the sustainability of production practices, and the safety and quality of products
- Formulate recommendations for the formulation, compliance with and implementation of certification schemes that meet the expectations and interests of Southeast Asian (producers) and European (consumers/policy makers’)
Inventory of Asian aquaculture certification initiatives and its contact people
A range of production standards are applicable to Southeast Asia aquaculture. The goals of these standards differ considerably, ranging from responsible to sustainable and organic aquaculture . The ambiguity of these goals and the variety of state, industry and NGO actors involved in the establishment and operation of certification schemes has led to widespread confusion at both the producer and consumer end of the value chain. There are also different levels of accessibility associated with these standards; state-led certification schemes, used to support their own regulatory policy measures, are often supported with subsidies from national authorities, while market oriented schemes are global in scope and compliance often prohibitively expensive for small-holders. Getting an overview on the significant variation between schemes in scope and requirements towards producers provides useful information to better understand constraints to comply with standards from the perspective of the producer.
The AqASEM’09 project has carried out a ‘mapping’ exercise of selected certification schemes explaining the current schemes relevant to aquaculture and Asian and EU markets, and their main characteristics. This summary further offers a classification of different standards and is followed with a description of the analytical framework used as a summary of tables of the mapping exercise and finally some reflections on the first observations that emerged from this mapping exercise. All in all, this baseline document is a powerful tool in any further effort to reconcile the objectives of certification with realities at the production level.
Workshop report on current Asian aquaculture certification experiences
On the 26th of June 2013 an AqASEM workshop on Aquaculture Certification in Asia was organised in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A diversity of stakeholders attended, including business, research, governments and certification bodies.
The main objective of the workshop was to provide key stakeholders from importing (EU) and exporting (Asia) countries to share experiences and understand and appreciate the realities of aquaculture production and trade, as well as the role of certification programs in promoting responsible aquaculture.
In preparation for the workshop, over 50 key stakeholders have been interviewed over a period of six months to identify the most relevant topics. Most interviewees have been interviewed through personal communication, others via email or Skype.
The workshop report features 3 sections: first, the rationale, audience and programme are presented; then, 5 selected topics are discussed, based on the workshop programme and previous fieldwork. These are 1) the surge of National Standards; 2) Producer compliance constraints; 3) Value Chain arrangements; 4) Auditing practices and 5) Benchmarking certification. The report concludes with a summary of the main discussions and conclusions.
Recommendations for future aquaculture certification schemes and recommendations on synergies between ongoing research and on new consortia for future research cooperation projects
Based on the inventory, the interviews and the AqASEM’09 certification workshop analysis of the future of aquaculture certification in Southeast Asia was carried out. The results show that certification plays an increasingly prevalent role in governing food safety, and environmental and social performance in Southeast Asian aquaculture.
The core challenge faced by certification schemes remains balancing continuous improvement, access for small holders and maintaining credibility. Maintaining accessibility for small holders is an issue explicitly recognised by nearly all the certification schemes. International schemes maintain credibility through rigorous standards but have put in place new certification models for increasing participation. Other schemes, particularly national standards, attempt to maintain low (or no) costs for certification as a strategy for including small holders. However, these various approaches are yet to enrol large numbers of small holders – instead there has been industry capture of international schemes and weak market incentives for small holder engagement in national schemes.
Against this background, and in support of a continued dialogue on the development of aquaculture certification schemes, the AqASEM’09 projects formulated recommendations for future aquaculture certification schemes and synergies between ongoing research and on new consortia for future research cooperation projects.
Recommendations for future aquaculture certification schemes.
a) Public and private certification need to be better integrated with in the wider context of aquaculture governance.
Certification will contribute to upgrading aquaculture production in Southeast Asia if a clearer strategy for partnership between public and private standards is created. This is particularly important given the need for greater penetration into domestic markets. Such a partnership may be weaker or stronger on different issues. Standard content may continue to differ, recognising the demands of different market segments, but verification may be more closely coordinated. Any plans for partnership should be based around balancing credibility, cost and access of a wide range of producers.
b) Stimulate food safety through retailers.
The largest potential for expanding sustainability certification in domestic markets is currently through the retail sector. Although currently focused on food safety issues, the introduction of sustainability issues and the development of a market for sustainable products appears most likely through retailers. It is not clear what the long-term effect of current ‘first party’ certification by retailers will be in terms of credibility and effectiveness. If and when the market for sustainably certified product increased, other certification models including but not limited to third party verification should be explored.
c) The ongoing credibility and effectiveness of certification schemes remains a balance between access and impact.
The short to medium term effectiveness of certification in Southeast Asia will be determined by the capacity of different schemes to balance access and impact. Current access models assume a continued intensification and consolidation of aquaculture production into a small number of industrial-scale producers. However, these production systems most commonly feed into export markets which remain relatively limited in size and scope for creating wider sustainability gains through certification. For increased impact of certification as a tool for upgrading aquaculture production a wider range of producers need to included, in particular those selling to domestic markets. The lessons learnt in other major natural resource sectors are instructive and should be incorporated into the design of the aquaculture certification models.
d) Spatial coordination of (group) certification.
The potential of clustering and group certification to increase the participation of small-holders remains high. Current models have focused largely on the functional (technical) and relational (group formation and contractual) aspects of clustering. However, the sustainability benefits of these activities remain unknown. To ensure greater impact of clusters more attention should be given to the spatial coordination of certification and area-based management by the state. The environmental and social benefits from individual farm-level certification will also benefit from spatial coordination.
e) Attention to the legal dimensions of farmer clustering.
State support to the technical aspects of clustering need to be supplemented by legal support to mitigate the liability of individual farmers involved. The benefits of non-legal entity models of certification over legal-entity are demonstrated by the strength and effectiveness of clusters, but this remains problematic because of the liability farmers face by non-compliance by members. Ways of fostering greater producer ownership while mitigating their liability for collective non-compliance (e.g. forms of insurance) should be explored by governments in the region.
f) Greater oversight on the role of conformity assessment bodies.
Certification models in Southeast Asia currently vary from private and public third-party certification to first party certification. Attention needs to be given to the relative success of these models in balancing independence, credibility, and issues of cost and access for a wide range of producers. In addition, as the role of conformity assessment bodies increases in number (and variety under these different models), regional oversight is needed to provide governance parameters for cross checking the characteristics and claims made by different verification models.
g) Greater oversight over supporting organisations involved in aquaculture improvement.
The emergence of aquaculture improvement projects (AIPs) has diverted the traditional role of state extension services to private actors. These private actors, including NGOs and consultancies, are often better placed to create market linkages and align farm-level improvement with the requirements of certification standards. However, these private actors do not have the same level of accountability for their activities, nor is there any measure of the quality of their services. As the role of these supporting NGOs and consultancies increases a degree of oversight is needed to assure quality and create an adequate level of accountability. Lessons may be sought from the fishery improvement project benchmarking tool recently developed by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
h) Anticipate the influence of public and private benchmarking activities.
The emergence of both public and private forms of benchmarking standards and certification schemes has led to both harmonization and equivalence. While identifying higher quality standards, private benchmarking holds consequences for public systems that appear to be more accessible to a wider range of Southeast Asian producers. Should governments in the region want to gain recognition for their standards in export markets, greater attention should be given to the development of regional level GAPs and BMPs under the ASEAN and the ASEAN economic community to be launched in 2015.
Recommendations on synergies between ongoing research and on new consortia for future research cooperation projects.
a) Investment in further research collaboration between Europe and Asia.
The above themes identified by the consortium of European and Asian researchers involved in the ASEM Aquaculture Platform remain under researched. The above recommendations are preliminary in that they offer possible courses of action in steering certification in Southeast Asia towards a more effective and equitable future. However, to determine the specific policy and governance design that these recommendations imply will require further input based on grounded research in both Europe and Southeast Asia. It is therefore recommended that a consortium of European and Asian researchers be funded to work on all or a selection of the recommendations outlined above. The benefit of such a consortium for Asia will be ongoing quality research partnerships. For Europe the benefit will be a continued presence in the development of knowledge in the fastest growing global regions for aquaculture production.
b) Ongoing policy partnerships between FP7 funded projects.
The results of the FP7 funded ASEM Aquaculture Platform and the FP7 funded Sustainable Ethical Aquaculture Trade (SEAT) projects are related and complimentary. The results of projects demonstrate the growing importance and effect of market-based governance, its effect on Asian producers and the ongoing role of the state in mitigation and facilitating sustainable and ethical aquaculture production and trade. Further investment should be made to integrate the findings of both projects into a coherent strategy for further research and policy implementation.
c) Support to next generation governance arrangements.
Particular attention should be given to what might be termed next generation governance of aquaculture production in Southeast Asia. The two most innovative processes currently jointly funded by public-private partnerships is the GSSI (funded by GIZ and industry partners) and the reorganization of value chains through, amongst others, IDH. In both cases there is minimal involvement of state actors from regions such as Southeast Asia. The potential outcome of these programmes is the predominance of private sector interests. As such future partnerships should be funded that involve public interests including but not limited to governments and their agencies. In Southeast Asia, Thailand and Vietnam should be considered as primary targets for such partnerships given their importance of regional production and their export orientation. NACA should also be considered a key partner given their existing role in development and coordinating state-based standards.
DISEASE & HEALTH MANAGEMENT
Both the production of aquatic organisms as the trade of aquaculture products are very vulnerable for trans-national health risks. There is a distinct difference between both, though. Health issues with aquaculture products predominantly refer to risk for human health incurred by consumption of aquatic products. Consequently, such issues are a concern addressed through quality control, certification and regulations regarding Best Management Practice and so forth. Health issues in aquaculture production, on the other hand, affect the plants & animals before they reach commercialisation and are a concern for the farmers and distributors rather than for consumers. Trans-boundary animal diseases (much less is known on aquatic plant diseases) are defined as epidemic diseases that are highly contagious or transmissible, with the potential for very rapid spread irrespective of national borders and which cause significant socio-economic and possibly public health consequences. Careful examination of the history and spread of trans-boundary diseases indicate how irresponsible or ill-considered movements of live aquatic animals and their products can impact aquaculture and wild fisheries resources. In many cases, these impacts are a direct result of absence of national and regional disease management strategies or non-compliance by stakeholders to such strategies.
Eventually, containment of trans-boundary aquatic animal diseases can only effectively be reached through the establishment and enforcement of trans-boundary regulation which is mostly a (geo)political issue and hence beyond the scope of research projects in general. Therefore, the targeted contribution of the AqASEM09 project to aquatic health issues is situated at the level of the research community. It aims at identifying and monitoring trans-boundary health problems, and facilitating joint efforts towards solutions to common health problems. The AqASEM09 activities of the Workpackage on Disease & Health management focus on the volatile but pertinent objective of creating a sense of community among international aquatic disease experts. This sense of community is leading to increased transfer of information & expertise, the establishment of a knowledge database, and to the maintenance of a forum for peer-to-peer collaboration.
There are strong reasons for encouraging the two-way transfer of research and collaboration between Europe and Asia (and indeed other continents) as there are often great similarities with respect to disease problems and management challenges. These include:
• Potential for more rapid and lower cost testing and evaluation of pharmaceuticals in Asia
• Increasing readiness for inevitable disease transfer between territories
• Improving diagnostic tools relevant to a wider range of pathogenic organisms
• Identification of best-practice management and biosecurity approaches against common disease agents
• Enhancing critical research mass on major aquatic animal diseases
The AqASEM09 project worked towards the community of practice on aquatic animal health through a set of interacting initiatives. First, a working group of aquatic health experts is established. This working group includes leading researchers that have the expertise and weight to mobilise peers. Next, a series of ‘community-building’ activities and services where launched: discussion forums, an e-newsletter, a dedicated website, the onset for a knowledge database.
The workpackage culminated in an international workshop on aquatic disease management with special emphasis on epidemiology in Can Tho University, Vietnam from 9-10th December 2012. The workshop convened experts from Asia and Europe. It aimed at identifying topics for concrete and realistic collaboration. The potential projects identified at the workshop were:
1) Epidemiological investigations of bacillary necrosis of pangasius: This can be a devastating disease causing more than 70% fish losses on a farm. Although a new vaccine has been developed and is now being marketed by Pharmaq, a range of other health management methods are needed to properly control the disease including biosecurity and proper use of chemotherapeutants. The developed proposal recommends both cross sectional and longitudinal field studies combined with laboratory studies on the infective agent. Potential partners are identified in UK, Norway, Thailand and Vietnam.
2) Disease surveillance and control – chains and networks: Proposal for a project to examine costs and benefits of different strategies and levels of investment in disease surveillance in the aquaculture sector, particularly the use of epidemiological network models involving contact mapping and biosecurity risk assessment.
3) Epidemiological investigations of Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS): This is the most important disease challenge currently facing shrimp producers in South East Asia. At the time of the workshop the infective agent was unidentified, but an epidemiological study was proposed to help identify effective management strategies based on comprehensive study of farms within identified areas (Thailand and Vietnam).
These research concept notes were formulated to involve the organisations involved in the workshop, but can easily be broadened and adapted to involve other organisations. They are available to AqASEM project members as a basis for future research proposals and are offered to funding agencies as an indication of priorities, interest and capacity.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
The opportunities for European aquaculture education beyond Europe, especially with Asia, are valuable and real. The successful establishment of proper conditions for transparency and internal mobility in European education now constitute a unique asset to attract promising Asian students. Benefits are manifold and mostly mutual:
- Asian students acquire skills and knowledge that is not available in Asia
- student exchanges strengthens networks between the (European) hosting and the (Asian) home institute
- students undergoing European research based education will disseminate European technology
- training Asian students can lead to recruitment of excellent research candidates
Through the AqASEM consultations a number of issues relevant to future aquaculture education collaboration were identified. Some issues related to specific European or Asian aspects, other issues relate to common problems or even divergences between both parties. These discussions yielded recommendations for strategic choices for further collaboration in aquaculture education:
a) Marketing aquaculture and its education
Although aquaculture industry is still growing, the demand for highly skilled personnel is stagnating at best. Moreover, employment in aquaculture industry suffers an unappealing imago and is often less well paid than other sectors. In order to attract sufficient numbers of excellent students, the industry and education providers need to invest in marketing, highlighting aquaculture as a modern bio-industry with and versatile career opportunities.
b) Interaction with industry
Given the Asian aquaculture industry is expected to show the most significant growth, a large potential for training skilled workforce for the Asian industry remains unexploited. Both European as Asian students may benefit from top-quality training in Europe geared at challenging careers in Asia. These employment prospects can also benefit to European companies provided they seize the opportunities by tapping into the growing Asian industry.
c) Networking, Student exchange & Joint education
Aquaculture education is becoming too complex to address adequately in isolation. Complementary curricula and joint Asian-European degrees can provide workable answer. Unlimited student mobility and transnational recognition are the key to harmonising the joint delivery of high quality education. This calls in the first place to proper Asian accreditation & quality insurance. This process can be enhanced by formal regional networking.
d) Language
A first but often crucial limitation to student mobility is language. Asian institutes or governments that decide to prioritise internationalisation will need to acknowledge the prerequisite of a generally accepted language of instruction and/or invest in appropriate language training prior to the advanced studies.
EMPOWERING VULNERABLE STAKEHOLDER GROUPS
For aquaculture production to progress, development strategies must take into consideration gender issues particularly women’s role, and women must be involved in the development process. Appropriate intervention accompanied by a paradigm shift will undoubtedly enhance the status of communities based around aquatic food production, including the status of the women in those communities. More such efforts are needed to ensure strategies for policy makers to ensure implementation of the recommendations. To empower the vulnerable stakeholder groups, the extension agents as well as the policy formulator and program planner and implementers need to understand gender issues and be able to integrate gender concerns in planning.
The AqASEM’09 project contributed to this issue by:
• sharing country experiences and best practices regarding poverty eradication and gender issues in aquatic food production
• increasing knowledge and skills in gender analysis and gender mainstreaming in aquatic food production
• identifying strategies to promote appropriate technologies and greater women participation for vulnerable groups in aquatic food production
• developing action plans towards empowering poor farmers and women in aquatic food production
AqASEM’09 has documented the above contributions in a series of public reports.
In implementing this project, there were several challenges faced by the team: a) late or no response from the relevant agencies contacted; b) inability of the agency contacted to identify and nominate the appropriate participants to attend the workshop, probably due to the lack of awareness on gender issues; c) lack of additional funding for follow up on the implementation of the country action plan and was subsequently done by email; an d) lack of foresight on the importance of integrating gender issues in aquaculture in the different work packages in this AqASEM09 programme and thus WP7 had to implement project activities on its own. Despite these constraints, the WP7 team managed to accomplish all its objectives.
Conclusions from this workpackage are:
• Awareness on gender issues is still limited at all levels of governance and policy makers and the workshop conducted by WP7 team was an eye opener for many participants. This may also be the possible reason for the lack of response from the regional countries to participate in the workshop.
• In general there is a lack of awareness and limited political will and commitment to integrate gender issues in the development of aquaculture. However, there is already some progress in the regional countries like in India, and the Philippines where gender issues have been addressed in their national plan of action particularly in aquaculture.
• In order to integrate gender issues at national level there is a need for someone to champion at the policy formulation and decision making level.
• To see a meaningful impact of gender integration in aquaculture, there is a need to have continuous and reinforcement of knowledge. Further training to enhance the gender analysis skills among different stakeholders is crucial. Aquaculture development policy should be reoriented to be people-centered which will address the gender issues.
• Gender issues within the region are relatively similar; hence regional strategies (long term and short term) may be developed together and be implemented as a platform through the ASEAN network.
• To improve the well-being of the vulnerable group in the aquaculture sector, an integrated approach in research and programmes that consist of multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary team members working together to achieve a common goal, is essential.
Potential Impact:
FOSTERING COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITIES BETWEEN THE ASIAN AND EUROPEAN AQUACULTURE INDUSTRY
Potential impact
In this domain, the project has not realised the full extent of the envisaged impact. Initially, the installation of an operational Asia-Desk within EATIP was projected but beyond the effective establishment of the Desk, little satisfactory dynamism can be reported. Main obstacles to the successful operation of the AsiaDesk are:
- The severe economic difficulties in Europe during the course of the project have hit very hard on aquaculture, especially producers. Under such conditions, exploring new markets or other adventurous initiatives are welcomed wholeheartedly
- The European aquaculture sector, and thereby the EATIP constituency, is very diverse. Hence the marketing and business strategies of the individual sectors are very hard to align into a single collaboration strategy with a counterpart - the Asian aquaculture industry - that is probably yet even more divers
- While at the European side there is a formal representative organism - EATIP - there is (yet) no equivalent at the Asian side making it ambiguous who to approach
Yet, the potential impacts of a more pro-active participation of European companies in the rapidly growing Asian aquaculture industry are evident. Besides, several European companies are already successfully active in Asia. Furthermore, the collective interest of the industry, as represented by EATIP, seems to be growing, judging by some vivid discussions that arose late in and after the termination of the project. The AqASEM project can take credit for patiently but relentlessly putting the issue on the agenda and there are clear signs that in the end internationalisation will make up an integral part of EATIP’s commitments.
Dissemination & exploitation
In an attempt to convince European aquaculture business people of the opportunities in the Asian aquaculture sector, the AqASEM objectives and activities related to this workpackage were presented at every possible EATIP meeting plus some FEAP meetings.
Furthermore, a series of meetings between Asian and European stakeholders were organised or facilitated under the common denominator of “ASEM Aquaculture Dialogues”. These Dialogues mostly consisted of seminar and round table discussion around selected themes such as “Bust and boom of the Pangasius farming”, “Progress of the food quality & safety regulations in the Thai seafood sector”, “Status of large commercial polyculture exploitation in China”, etcetera.
Finally, two fact-finding trips for European business people were planned: one to the large commercial marine polyculture in China and one to the exponentially growing Pangasius farming in Vietnam. However, the trip to Vietnam did not materialise due to a lack of interest from the European side. The successful trip to China
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF COMMODITY-SPECIFIC BETTER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPS) FOR SMALL HOLDER FARMERS IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
Potential impact
The impact of the workpackage is twofold: there is a direct effect for the target group, namely the small farms, and an indirect effect for stakeholders further up the value chain to whom the small holder farmers are supplying.
Within both pilot groups that participated in the project for the introduction resp. up-scaling of the clustering concept for small holder farms, the impact was explicitly monitored and demonstrated. Participating farmers witnessed improved farming success through the collective introduction of better farming practices, an improved financial management with among others better access to loans, stronger bargaining position towards processors or middle men, the possibility for group certification of the farmed product.
The impact of clustering definitively goes beyond the participating small holder farms. In the first place because farming practices, hence product quality, are improved. Furthermore, clustering enables collective interaction with other interlocutors in the value chain. This is important even from the European perspective. A frequently noted concern throughout AqASEM’s various consultations with European industry representatives is the lack of a distinct interlocutor at the Asian side when it comes down to monitoring product quality or assessing aspects of sustainability and social equity in the production process. The predominance of small scale farmers typical for Asian aquaculture does complicate or even prevent the degree of control or at least insight European importers expect in how product is produced, where exactly it comes from, etcetera. The clustering of farmers proves to be a promising concept in this regard. The AqASEM project has introduced, up-scaled, assessed and documented this progress thus enabling its further successful introduction in Asia.
Dissemination & exploitation
In relation to the clustering of Pangasius farmers in Vietnam, 4 provincial level workshops in the Mekong Delta to share experiences and review the implementation to understand what worked and what did not work. In addition, exchange visits between clusters were organized so that farmers can see and benefit from the best performing clusters. Furthermore, regarding the shrimp BMP programs, case studies have been undertaken in India, Thailand & Indonesia to assess the impacts of clustering and to identify constraints to adoption of BMPs and develop strategies for scaling up at national levels.
Each of these processes has been duly documented, either in a public report or published as a manual:
- A review of BMPs in selected cases of Asian shrimp aquaculture: lessons learned and strategies for scaling up
- BMPs and cluster management for empowering small scale farmers: scaling up strategies
- Self-use manual on group formation and group certification of small scale aqua farmers
- Striped catfish BMP cluster workshop
- Training program on catfish BMPs and cluster management
- Impact of BMPs and cluster management approaches in Aceh: Opportunities for scaling up 2005-2012
- BMPs and cluster management approaches in Aceh: opportunities for scaling up
- Inventory of BMPs projects in Asia Pacific
- Promoting adoption of BMPs through Cluster management approach in Catfish farming in Mekong Delta, Vietnam
These publications are available via the project website and the NACA website. They are also printed and distributed by NACA in their continuous efforts to involve other groups in the clustering exercise.
To support wider dissemination of BMPs and cluster management concept, an inventory of BMP projects in Asia Pacific has been produced. The inventory provides project title, objectives, source of funds, countries involved and year of implementation. In addition, project personnel have made presentations on BMPs and Cluster management at several meetings and workshops including the Aquaculture Certification workshop organized in Vietnam, under the AqASEM’09 project in June 2013.
SUPPORT THE APPLICATION OF INTEGRATED MULTI-TROPHIC AQUACULTURE (IMTA)
Potential impact, Dissemination & exploitation
The interest for IMTA is not new. Several projects by Canadian, European and American research groups have demonstrated its potential. However, there seems to be a surprising lack of information on the very extensive integrated polyculture that is very common in China. The AqASEM project has significantly contributed to the disclosure of previously unused Chinese knowledge and expertise. Information on successful Chinese case studies was collated and a comprehensive review on the current state-of-the-art was produced. The tradition for polyculture in China is reasonably renowned worldwide but these publications convincingly demonstrate the extent of the operations but foremost the scientific approach accompanying these large commercial exploitations. In the process, this has spotlighted the various Chinese research groups active in this discipline which fosters matchmaking with European counterparts interested in research collaboration.
All publications are available through the website.
Furthermore, an oral presentation on the development of freshwater integrated multi-trophic aquaculture systems in China and Hungary was given at AQUA2012 in Prague, September 2012. This presentation was particularly well attended and raised a lot of interest during and after the event.
Another successful initiative to introduce the Chinese IMTA expertise was the organisation of a fact finding business trip for European aquaculture business representatives. The trip highlighted a number of large scale commercial polyculture operations and enabled discussion with research teams active in this discipline. The impact of this trip with the participants was significant; participants were impressed by the scale and the professionalism of the exploitation. Also, the scientific level and in-depth knowledge on the underlying processes has positively surprised the group.
The outcomes of this trip were disseminated via ‘Fish Farming International’ (FFI), arguably the leading business information channel nowadays with a monthly online and hardcopy newspaper with over 5000 regular subscribers. Based on the unique experience of the European participants a first-hand testimony was produced and featured in the July 2013 issue of FFI.
FOOD SAFETY AND CERTIFICATION
Potential impact
The merit of certification as a tool to guarantee sustainable and healthy seafood cannot be denied. However, the current uncontrolled proliferation of various certification schemes and the unilateral and sometimes inappropriate implementation has left many small scale producers in Asia frustrated.
The AqASEM project has completed a series of activities that contribute to the alignment of the interests of both ends in the certification process: small holder famers and buyers/consumers. First an overview and analysis of the wide variety of certification schemes was produced. This baseline document is a powerful tool in any further effort to reconcile the objectives of certification with realities at the production level. As such, this analytic review of existing certification schemes is a benchmark to any discussion on the badly needed adjustment of these schemes.
With the AqASEM workshop on certification (June, 2013), conflicting issues between Asian and European stakeholders were discussed in a constructive way. The workshop outcomes were captured and converted into recommendations. These recommendations give tangible advice on possible adjustments in the ongoing certification processes, adjustments that are necessary to enable the important contingent of small holder farmers to understand and implement certification.
The workshop has also contributed to a direct dialogue between both parties involved. The participants are in that respect now ambassadors for the AqASEM model of dialogue towards mutually accepted strategies for the future certification schemes.
DISEASE & HEALTH MANAGEMENT
Potential impact, dissemination & exploitation
The AqASEM steering group on aquatic animal health, created under this project, reunites a selection of the foremost experts in the field. However, establishing a dynamic community of practice for joint Asian & European aquatic health experts proved to be tougher than expected. An assortment of community-building initiatives were deployed such as e-newsletters, discussion lists, wiki’s, dedicated interactive homepage, survey’s, etcetera. Responses to these initiatives where reasonably satisfying and confirms the need and benefit of interregional collaboration but a sustained effort will be necessary to maintain and preferentially improve the momentum of this community.
The AqASEM workshop on aquatic disease in Can Tho, December 2012, has largely fulfilled its objectives. A fairly representative group of European and Asian experts have attended the event. The workshop hosted a series of discussions that yielded pertinent recommendations on the most precarious disease topics in current aquaculture practice. These recommendations may be seen as explicit suggestions for relevant research supportive actions.
Furthermore, through the workshop, formal collaborations were established as witnessed by a concrete number of collaborative project proposals that were developed in the margin or in the aftermath of the workshop.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
Potential impact, dissemination & exploitation
The onset for the inventory of Asian aquaculture education in English is the groundwork for any further exchange or joint education initiative between Asia and Europe. The perspective of integrating this inventory into the existing AquaTNET inventory on European aquaculture education will further encourage any quest for matching partnerships. Furthermore, the integration into the AquaTNET portal guarantees maximal and sustainable dissemination among European stakeholders. Indeed, AquaTNET services an established and comprehensive network with a lifespan that goes beyond the AqASEM project.
The inventory will also reveal strengths and weaknesses in the collective supply of training in Asia and will encourage the dialogue with the industry in its task to provide consistent training. It will also document the wide diversity in Asian education systems and initiate an onset to harmonisation.
Just as in Europe, the early establishment of a regional network of education providers proved to be challenging. Therefore, the recent creation of the ASEAN Fisheries Education Network as an initial nucleus of 8 leading Asian institutes is a very promising development. By establishing an early affiliation between that network and the ASEM Aquaculture Platform, favourable conditions for effective joint education initiatives are secured.
EMPOWERING VULNERABLE STAKEHOLDER GROUPS
Potential impact, dissemination & exploitation
Through The AqASEM workshop on gender issues in aquaculture, delegations from Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, India and the Philippine’s were assisted in drafting a gender country plans. These country plans are a valuable contribution to ongoing national developments of gender supportive policy. Furthermore, the workshop participants, an interesting mix of aquaculture related and (gender) policy related responsibles, worked together towards this common objective under guidance of an expert team. This way, they acquired skills and knowledge to implement and disseminate the learnt concepts.
The workshop also generated a protocol that provides guidance for similar exercises or furthering the current process. The whole process from developing the workshop concept, the preparation, and the organisation proper, up to collecting and processing feedback has been documented and is currently the subject of at least 2 and probably 3 peer reviewed scientific papers.
List of Websites:
www.asemaquaculture.org
Patrick Sorgeloos, Project coordinator (Patrick.Sorgeloos@UGent.be)
Jean Dhont, Project secretary (Jean.Dhont@UGent.be)
Laboratory of Aquaculture & Artemia Reference Center
Ghent University
Rozier 44, 9000 Gent, Belgium
t: +32 9 264.37.54
f: +32 9 264.41.93