AQUASPACE - ECOSYSTEM APPROACH TO MAKING SPACE FOR SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE  

Despite expansionary targets at EU, and member state levels and a growing industry globally, aquaculture production in the EU is stagnant.  Neighbouring countries such as Norway and Turkey, which have used zoning methodologies for licencing fish farms, have shown rapid production growth over the last decade. The difficulties faced by EU farmers in obtaining new sites have led to concerns that there are inadequacies in the licencing process.

The central goal of the EU H2020 AquaSpace project (€3M, 21 partners, 2015-18, www.aquaspace-h2020.eu) is to provide increased space of high water quality for aquaculture by adopting the Ecosystem Approach to Aquaculture (EAA), in both marine and freshwater environments, and Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) - and other tools - to deliver food security and increased employment opportunities through economic growth.

We are working with local stakeholders to identify planning-related issues in aquaculture development in a wide range of case studies and then work with them and others to determine the tools that are available that may be able to help solve these problems - tools are meant in the broadest sense and could be anything from models to public engagement. We will then apply the agreed tools in the case studies, assess their performance and improve them where necessary as a consequence of the lessons learned. The improved tools will be presented to stakeholders on the web and otherwise in order for the benefits of the project to be accessible globally.

The intended users of the outputs of AquaSpace are industry, planners, regulators and policy-makers, and all other actors who have interests that interact with the development of aquaculture in terms of its use of space, including environmental NGOs and the general public.

We propose innovative applications, processes and tools that will help aquaculture companies (and their regulators, including planners) to optimise the identification and development of new sites, including achieving a Social Licence to Operate from local stakeholders.

Innovations generated within AquaSpace will have a global reach and will improve the environmental and social sustainability of production, much of which is imported to the EU. Thus, AquaSpace will not only provide innovations which allow the growth of the EU industry by "making space for aquaculture" it will also help to improve the social and environmental sustainability of imported aquaculture products and contribute to social justice in developing countries.