NGO Approaches to Minimizing the Impacts of Aquaculture: A Review

The rapid growth of the aquaculture industry and its associated environmental and social impacts have brought aquaculture to the forefront of debates about the long term viability of global food production systems. Environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are involved in aquaculture from the point of view of environmental sustainability at the local farm level, the larger ecosystem level, and the level of international trade. NGOs are driven by their missions, which may be focused on conserving nature and biodiversity, protecting the marine environment, improving the quality of food, or creating a sustainable society. NGO concerns with aquaculture are related to their missions and are often derived from related conservation themes such as agriculture, fisheries, or other marine or freshwater issues or develop out of specific local concerns of their communities. NGO activities range from research, information distribution and training to local organization, lobbying for legislative change, and partnering with industry to minimize impacts. Increasingly, the aquaculture industry is recognizing the diversity of NGOs and that each organization addresses aquaculture's impacts through a unique combination of approaches. This chapter discusses a variety of specific approaches used by NGOs to influence the aquaculture industry including encouraging the use of better management practices, educating consumers, and developing standards, with WWF-US as a specific example.