Perspectives on aquaculture's contribution to theSustainable Development Goalsfor improved human and planetary health

Abstract

The diverse aquaculture sector makes important contributions toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)/Agenda 2030, and can increasingly do so in the future. Its important role for food security, nutrition, livelihoods, economies, and cultures is not clearly visible in the Agenda 21 declaration. This may partly reflect the state of development of policies for aquaculture compared with its terrestrial counterpart, agriculture, and possibly also because aquaculture production has historically originated from a few key hotspot regions/countries. This review highlights the need for better integration of aquaculture in global food system dialogues. Unpacking aquaculture's diverse functions and generation of values at multiple spatiotemporal scales enables better understanding of aquaculture's present and future potential contribution to the SDGs. Aquaculture is a unique sector that encompasses all aquatic ecosystems (freshwater, brackish/estuarine, and marine) and is also tightly interconnected with terrestrial ecosystems through, for example, feed resources and other dependencies. Understanding environmental, social, and economic characteristics of the multifaceted nature of aquaculture provides for more context‐specific solutions for addressing both opportunities and challenges for its future development. This review includes a rapid literature survey based on how aquaculture links to the specific SDG indicators. A conceptual framework is developed for communicating the importance of context specificity related to SDG outcomes from different types of aquaculture. The uniqueness of aquaculture's contributions compared with other food production systems are discussed, including understanding of species/systems diversity, the role of emerging aquaculture, and its interconnectedness with supporting systems. A selection of case studies is presented to illustrate: (1) the diversity of the aquaculture sector and what role this diversity can play for contributions to the SDGs, (2) examples of methodologies for identification of aquaculture's contribution to the SDGs, and (3) trade‐offs between farming systems’ contribution to meeting the SDGs. It becomes clear that decision‐making around resource allocation and trade‐offs between aquaculture and other aquatic resource users needs review of a wide range of established and emergent systems. The review ends by highlighting knowledge gaps and pathways for transformation that will allow further strengthening of aquaculture's role for contributing to the SDGs. This includes identification and building on already existing monitoring that can enable capturing SDG‐relevant aquaculture statistics at a national level and discussion of how a cohesive and comprehensive aquaculture strategy, framed to meet the SDGs, may help countries to prioritize actions for improving well‐being.

A decadal outlook for global aquaculture

“…As emphasized by Troell et al (2023), a more in-depth understanding by policymakers and investors of the "extraordinary diversity of aquaculture, both species and systems, becomes crucial for development of the sector's present and future contributions to the different SDGs". Aquaculture touches every one of the SDGs; and its scaling involves every socio-political dimension.…”

“…Recent, in-depth, global reviews of the rapid progress of aquaculture over the past decade toward increased environmental responsibilities and resource conservation (Boyd et al, 2020;Naylor et al, 2021) lay a new foundation for aquaculture's future contributions to the SDGs (Troell et al, 2023). The potential of aquaculture development throughout the world at all scales is now included in the assessments of the future of aquatic food or "blue foods", or in a "blue transformation", by international agencies, university centers, governments, nongovernmental and philanthropic organizations (CEA Consulting, 2020;Crona et al, 2023;Costello et al, 2019;FAO, 2022c;HLPE, 2014;Hoegh-Guldberg et al, 2019;O'Shea et al, 2019;SAPEA, 2017;Stuchtey et al, 2020).…”

“…Outstanding examples of aquaculture's benefits to rural communities and health food system economies exist when such engagement and planned integrations have been developed (Hernandez et al, 2017). Troell et al (2023) emphasizes this point, stating, "Having a broader value-chain perspective will be imperative for gaining deeper insights about aquaculture's overall contribution to the SDGs, for understanding outcomes from investments and transformation efforts especially in diversifying supply chains and livelihoods". The IPCC Sixth Synthesis Report (AR6) released in March 2023 (Lee et al, 2023) documents that during the last decade (2010-2019), GHG emissions continued to increase "from unsustainable energy use, land use and land-use change, lifestyles and patterns of consumption and production across regions, causing many weather and climate extremes…and led to widespread adverse impacts on food and water security, human health and on economies and society, related losses and damages to nature and people".…”

The Current Challenges of Sustainable Aquaculture in the Asia-Pacific Region and the Measures Recommended

“…'Aquaculture has great potential to positively contribute to human and planetary well-being when its products are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals' (Troell et al, 2023). According to them, the various sectors of the aquaculture industry significantly contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)/Agenda 2030, which can be increased in the future.…”

“…Aquaculture is central to billions of people's food security, nutrition, and livelihoods, constituting a significant share of the global gross domestic product and economic activities. Aquaculture is a unique sector that encompasses all aquatic ecosystems (freshwater, brackish/estuarine, and marine) and is tightly interconnected with terrestrial ecosystems (Troell et al, 2023). Aquaculture provides more context-specific solutions for addressing opportunities and challenges for its future development.…”