September 12, 2006

Countries agree on shrimp farming guidelines in FAO meeting

While shrimp has become the most valuable fish product traded internationally, representing a US$11 billion market a year, the industry has often been criticised for polluting coastal waters, destroying mangrove ecosystems and spreading diseases and invasive alien species.

Thus the non-binding international principles for responsible shrimp farming worked out by the Third meeting of the FAO sub committee on aquaculture thus proved to be very much welcomed by the industry.  

Shrimp is a vital commodity for developing countries, which produce 99 percent of the world's farmed shrimp. The industry is a major source of employment, tax revenues and foreign interest earnings.

Only 13 percent of aquaculture comes from large-scale, export-oriented 'industrial aquaculture' operations which are better regulated. 

Though not slated for formal adoption, there was general consensus among participating countries on the principles as a global point of reference for aquaculture policy and development.

The guidelines include specifications on location of farms and their design, the use of resources like water and feed as well as the social impacts of aquaculture on local communities.

This is the first time that various partner organisations, such as the Network for Aquaculture Centres for the Asia Pacific, WWF, the World Bank and the UN Environmental Programme, are working together to provide a framework for improving the sustainability of shrimp farming.

The FAO hopes that these new principles will help pave the way for a more common vision of how to define responsible shrimp farming globally, said Rohana Subasinghe, a senior aquaculture expert at FAO and Secretary of the Sub-Committee.