Planning and licensing for marine aquaculture
Date
2023-01-11
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Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
Marine aquaculture has the potential to increase its contribution to the global food
system and provide valuable ecosystem services, but appropriate planning, licensing
and regulation systems must be in place to enable sustainable development. At present,
approaches vary considerably throughout the world, and several national and
regional investigations have highlighted the need for reforms if marine aquaculture is
to fulfil its potential. This article aims to map and evaluate the challenges of planning
and licensing for growth of sustainable marine aquaculture. Despite the range of species,
production systems and circumstances, this study found a number of common
themes in the literature; complicated and fragmented approaches to planning and
licensing, property rights and the licence to operate, competition for space and
marine spatial planning, emerging species and diversifying marine aquaculture production
(seaweed production, Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture [IMTA], nutrient
and carbon offsetting with aquaculture, offshore aquaculture and co-location and
multiuse platforms), and the need to address knowledge gaps and use of decisionsupport
tools. Planning and licensing can be highly complicated, so the UK is used as
a case study to show more detailed examples that highlight the range of challenges
and uncertainty that industry, regulators and policymakers face across interacting
jurisdictions. There are many complexities, but this study shows that many countries
have undergone, or are undergoing, similar challenges, suggesting that lessons can be
learned by sharing knowledge and experiences, even across different species and
production systems, rather than having a more insular focus.
Description
Publication history: Accepted - 22 December 2022; Published online - 11 January 2023.
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Keywords
aquaculture planning, environmental management, licensing, regulation, sustainable development
Citation
Falconer, L., Cutajar, K., Krupandan, A., Capuzzo, E., Corner, R.A., Ellis, T., Jeffery, K., Mikkelsen, E., Moore, H., O’Beirn, F.X., O’Donohoe, P., Ruane, N.M., Shilland, R., Tett, P. and Telfer, T.C. (2023) ‘Planning and licensing for marine aquaculture’, Reviews in Aquaculture. Wiley. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/raq.12783.