Aquaculture system diversity and sustainable development: fish farms and their representation

Abstract

-Initiatives for the sustainable development of aquaculture have so far focused on the production of codes of conduct, of best management practices, of standards etc., most of which have been developed by international organisations, the industrial sector and non governmental organisations. They were, to a large extent, produced using a "top down" process and inspired by models from intensive industrial shrimp and sea fish farming (mainly salmon). However, most of global aquaculture production comes from small-and medium-sized farms, essentially in Asia which contributes 92% of the total world aquaculture production volume. The objective of this article is to define the contours of systemic typologies that are able to express the sustainability conditions of aquaculture systems. The proposed approach builds on surveys of aquaculture systems which differ in terms of their biogeographical nature (temperate/tropical and north/south countries) or their farming techniques and their governance systems. This work is a prerequisite to any attempt at an individualised and comparative evaluation of specific aquaculture systems from either global or territorial viewpoints. In order to go beyond the cleavage of a typology based on the differentiation between developed and developing countries, three typologies were produced. These typologies allow for discriminatory variables to be identified such as for example the marketing methods or the pace of innovation: a structural typology, a functional typology and a systemic typology. Finally, the representations of aquaculture activity and of its sustainability that producers have of the 4 different types that emerge from the systemic typology were recorded and analyzed. 187-198 (2010) ont largement été produits selon un processus de type « top down » et principalement inspirés par les modèles issus de l'aquaculture industrielle intensive de crevettes et de poissons marins (saumon principalement). Cependant, l'essentiel de la production de l'aquaculture mondiale provient d'exploitations de petite et moyenne taille, en Asie principalement qui contribue pour 92 % au volume total de la production aquacole mondiale. Cette étude vise précisément à définir les contours de typologies globales aptes à rendre compte des conditions de durabilité des systèmes piscicoles. La démarche proposée s'appuie sur des enquêtes réalisées sur des systèmes de production différenciés tant sur les plans de la biogéographie (pays tempérés et tropicaux, du nord et du sud) que des techniques d'élevage mises en oeuvre et des modes de gouvernance de ces systèmes. Ce travail constitue le préalable à toute tentative d'évaluation à la fois individualisée et comparative de la durabilité de systèmes aquacoles spécifiques tant sur les plans systémique que territorial. Afin de dépasser le clivage d'une typologie basée sur la différenciation entre pays développés et en développement, trois typologies ont été produites. Elles permettent l'identification de variables discriminantes telles que par exemple l...

Environmental performance of brackish water polyculture system from a life cycle perspective: A Filipino case study

“…Therefore, it reflects the activity's importance to the economy and community of a territory. For instance, one tonne of fish from Pampanga polyculture requires onsite human labour of 74 man.day (52% of total human labour), compared to on-site labour of 13 man.day for trout farming in France (unpublished data), an intensive system poorly integrated with the community of the territory it occupies (Lazard et al, 2010). To better understand the direct and indirect influence of the activity on the value chain, it is necessary to complement attributional LCA with other methods, such as the Porter Value Chain or Life Cycle Costing .…”

RESILIENCY OF SMALL-SCALE COMMON CARP (Cyprinus carpio) FARMERS IN WEST PAGADEN RURAL AREA OF SUBANG - WEST JAVA (Daya Lenting Pembudidaya Ikan Mas (Cyprinus carpio) Skala Kecil di Perdesaan Kecamatan Pagaden Barat Subang – Jawa Barat)

“…However, in this study, we define "small scale" for ponds area ranges from 1000 to 2800 m 2 . Those fall in this category could be considered vulnerable, referred to the fact that they are characterized by limited capital, limited access to technology and limited access to the market, and these characters are found in small scale aquaculture activities in many countries (Lazard et al, 2010;Anonymous, 2013).…”

“…3,199 trillion worth of products work out their own difficulties? Aquaculture community's important role in attaining food security is acknowledged, not only locally but also globally, and the fact that most of the contributors are small medium sized farms (Lazard et al, 2010), focus towards establishing resilient fish farming community is imperative.…”

“…Their important role to food security alone should be the rationale to promote the system to become a sustainable economic activity providing prosperity for the people engaged in. Being small in scale, their existence is often disregarded even though in global picture, contribution of small and medium sized farms is majority (Lazard et al, 2010) thus neglecting specificity of various characters embedded on how they manage own resources is inconsiderable. Richness of characters in technology implemented, management strategy and environmental situation should be appropriately appreciated (Ratner andAllison, 2012, Kittinger et al, 2013) in order to avoid misconception that could lead to generation of incompatible strategy on aquaculture development.…”

Assessing aquaculture sustainability: a comparative methodology

“…Typologies carried out by area (Lazard et al 2009(Lazard et al , 2010 revealed quite a large diversity in production and regulatory systems. Leaving aside the Tangkit site (Indonesia) where aquaculture systems are very homogeneous, three or four different farm types were identified in each area, regardless of whether or not there was a large number of farms.…”