Introduction to Aquaculture
Improvement Projects

THIS DOCUMENT introduces Sustainable Fisheries Partnership’s (SFP) concept and modelfor aquaculture improvement projects (AIPs), which we recommend our partners toparticipate in and source from. It is presented along with the AIP Toolkit to support thedevelopment of AIPs. For consistency, our AIP concept is adapted from the Conservation
Alliance for Seafood Solutions guidelines for fishery improvement projects (FIPs), andguided by our Framework for Sustainably Managed Aquaculture and its associated
FishSource aquaculture profiles, which measure the status of zonal aquaculture
management worldwide.
We look forward to working with industry, certification schemes, and NGOs to further
develop models of improvement for aquaculture that will become as widely recognized
by industry as FIPs are in the wild-capture sector.

WHAT IS AN AQUACULTURE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT?
An aquaculture improvement project (AIP) is a multi-stakeholder process to address
the cumulative impacts and shared disease risks affecting aquaculture through a zonal
management approach. AIPs utilize the power of the private sector to encourage positivechanges toward sustainability and ensure that these changes endure through improved
policy and management strategies.

To be successful, an AIP should operate at a scale above the farm level and focus on
the implementation of policies and management practices that drive broad-scale
sustainability practices across whole production areas.

AN AIP SHOULD HAVE THE FOLLOWINGPUBLICLY AVAILABLE COMPONENTS:
A commitment from all AIP participants
An aquaculture improvement project should draw upon market forces. Participants
should include key supply chain actors such as producers, suppliers, importers, retailers,and food services. It is highly desirable for AIPs to include producer organizations asparticipants, or to have establishment of a producer organization as an early AIP goal, ifnone exists. All participants must commit publicly to supporting the AIP, including any
financial support.
A scoping document
A scoping document identifies the industry’s environmental performance within theaquaculture zone, as well as improvement recommendations and AIP stakeholders who
can carry these recommendations forward.

2|Introduction to Aquaculture Improvement Projects

No standard currently exists that covers all elements of zonal management, although Best
Aquaculture Practices certification does include a Biosecurity Area Management standard.
If the focus of the AIP is only disease risk management, a risk assessment against thisstandard could serve as a needs assessment in the scoping document. However, a wider
needs assessment could be based on public industry and NGO reports, such as SFP’s
FishSource Aquaculture profiles, Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch reports, andMarine Conservation Society assessments. Government reports and aquaculture strategies
should also be consulted.
A workplan
The AIP must develop a workplan that contains: 1) time-bound improvement objectives thataddress priority issues highlighted in the scoping document and 2) the supply chain actors
who will lead these improvements.
Progress reports
The AIP must publicly report progress on activities and outcomes against the workplan, atleast every six months. Regular public reporting helps give AIPs credibility throughout theseafood supply chain and shows buyers evidence of genuine progress.

A ZONAL MANAGEMENT APPROACH TO AQUACULTURE
Aquaculture depends on the use of shared resources, primarily water. Farms areinterconnected in many ways (directly through water and indirectly through, e.g., common
seed and feed sources), and a disease outbreak or unsound management practices in one
farm can affect others. To date, markets have focused their attention and improvement ofaquaculture almost exclusively on farm-level practices through third-party certification.
There are recognized benefits of current certifications, namely in addressing on-farmrisks and providing buyers with a measurable target for corporate social responsibility
programs and reporting. However, this approach fails to address shared disease risks andthe cumulative impacts of the industry on receiving water bodies and other resource users.
A broader management approach to aquaculture — i.e., a zonal or landscape approach — iscritical for the industry to address the persistent challenges it currently faces.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) established the ecosystem approachto aquaculture (EAA) in 2008 as a framework for broader, integrated management ofaquaculture. The zonal approach to aquaculture management and our Framework for
Sustainably Managed Aquaculture are rooted in the EAA. At its core, the zonal approachaims to recognize the interconnectedness of farms and ensure that industry growth isIntroduction to Aquaculture Improvement Projects|3based on scientific evidence of carrying capacity and coordinated management actions. Thisapproach includes three fundamental best management practices:
SPATIAL PLANNING AND ZONING the process through which public and private
sectors aim to influence the spatial distribution of people and activities atdiffering geographic scales.
WATERBODY CARRYING CAPACITY LIMITS determining the level of resource use,by all resource users, that can be sustained over the long term without harming
ecosystems or provision of ecosystem services.
AQUACULTURE MANAGEMENT AREAS waterbodies, or parts thereof, wherecertain management practices are coordinated across all aquaculture operators in
the area, to minimize cumulative impacts and risks.

For more information, please contact aquaculture@sustainablefish.org
September 2019