Is existing legislation supporting socially acceptable aquaculture in the European Union? A transversal analysis of France, Italy and Spain

Abstract

According to the European Commission, aquaculture is among those maritime sectors contributing to the blue economy due to its potential for generating jobs, business opportunities and, most importantly, for ensuring food security in Europe. In 2014, EU member states set new strategies to support sustainable aquaculture and ambitious targets of productions to be met by 2020 in the three segments, marine fish, freshwater fish and shellfish. A recent assessment made by the European Commission concludes that some countries might not be able to attain the established goals and this paper presents an in-depth analysis of such strategies to identify the social constraints hampering aquaculture growth in France, Italy and Spain as well as the measures established to overcome them. Most of the identified issues are related to the social acceptability of local communities, local stakeholders and consumers, suggesting that this still represents an unsolved issue hampering aquaculture development in Europe. In fact, our results show that (a) the sector suffers from a bad image related to its environmental impacts; (b) a lack of integrated spatial planning is leading to increasing conflicts with other activities; and (c) there is predominance of top-down consultation mechanisms. It is concluded that there is not a single solution to enhance social acceptability of aquaculture since this depends on a number of social, economic and environmental factors that may differ from site to site, and countries need to adopt a more integrated approach where concerns of local communities and stakeholders are understood and taken into account.

Exploring Troubles, Attitudes, and Strategies Related to Integrated Aquaculture. A Case of the Andalusia Region (South of Spain)

“…Countries worldwide are facing the growing complexity of ocean management where integrating policy requirements, local planning, and blue economy objectives have become imperative. The marine spatial planning framework offers an opportunity to integrate a wide range of ocean uses instead of being reduced to a zoning instrument, and aquaculture should go beyond the simple spatial allocation of sites [27,29]. The findings of this study confirm the need to move towards a bottom-up approach where decisions are taken at the level at which maritime activities occur, taking into account environmental, economic, and social impacts.…”

Planning and licensing for marine aquaculture

“…44,75 Increasingly, public consultation has a formal role in planning applications, albeit with varying levels of implementation across different agencies and geographic areas. 76 This means that supporting and opposing views should be heard during an application process 77 and considered in the final decision in an attempt to reduce appeals at later stages. In the Irish case (Box 1), even the company applying for the licence submitted an appeal due to clauses in the licence that did not account for future technological developments.…”

“…Appeals are an important part of accountability, ensuring that decision‐makers are answerable for their actions and supporting a transparent process 44,75 . Increasingly, public consultation has a formal role in planning applications, albeit with varying levels of implementation across different agencies and geographic areas 76 . This means that supporting and opposing views should be heard during an application process 77 and considered in the final decision in an attempt to reduce appeals at later stages.…”

Environmental Concerns for Sustainable Mariculture in Coastal Waters of South-Central Vietnam

“…Furthermore, mariculture might cause unwanted socio-economic issues in coastal waters. It might lead to changes in the morphology and land(sea)scape in mariculture and adjacent regions that could impact properties, settlements, transport routes and viewpoints, thereby detracting the value of those places [39][40][41][42]. Using chemicals such as antibiotics, pesticides, genetically modified organisms, antiparasitic and artificial colorings could indirectly impact on consumers' health due their accumulation in cultured fish [43][44][45].…”

“…Using chemicals such as antibiotics, pesticides, genetically modified organisms, antiparasitic and artificial colorings could indirectly impact on consumers' health due their accumulation in cultured fish [43][44][45]. In addition, mariculture development could cause competition over natural resources [42,46,47]. Barnaby and Adams [48] noted fishermen had to face the loss of fishing ground due to aquaculture development, which led to resource conflict [49].…”