Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Unveils New Aquaculture Improvement Toolkit

The Sustainable Fisheries Project (SFP) announced on 25\r\nSeptember that a new aquaculture improvement project (AIP) Toolkit has been\r\ncreated to foster improvements in the aquaculture industries. 

The toolkit, which is an online resource, provides a\r\nstep-by-step guide on how to initiate an AIP, from the initial identification\r\nof the need for one to scoping what the project could be. An AIP is similar to\r\na fisheries improvement project (FIP); a multi-stakeholder process between\r\nindustry and other entities to reduce the environmental impacts and risks\r\nassociated with aquaculture. 

“Compared to FIPs, the concept of an AIP is relatively new,\r\nless familiar, and far less established within the seafood industry,” Dave\r\nMartin, deputy division director of programs at SFP, said in a release.\r\n“However, they are an equally important mechanism for the supply chain to\r\nsupport industries along the journey toward sustainability.”

The SFP has adapted the AIP toolkit from existing guidelines\r\nfor FIPs –  created by the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions –\r\nmirroring the style of current guidelines from SFP. 

The toolkit also suggests that the Food and Agriculture\r\nOrganization’s Ecosystem Approach to Aquaculture should be taken into account,\r\nand that AIPs should operate on a “scale beyond the farm level and focus on\r\nimproved management at the resource, watershed, or landscape level.”

“We aren’t reinventing the wheel here. We’ve taken a model\r\nthat is well-known to industry – the FIP model – and adapted it to the unique\r\nchallenges of aquaculture,” SFP CEO Jim Cannon said. “Many of the steps in an\r\nAIP mirror the core attributes of a FIP: public supply chain commitments,\r\npublished needs assessments, workplans with time-bound objectives, and regular\r\npublic reporting of progress.”

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The entire toolkit is available online, as well as supplemental reports co-published by the SFP,\r\nConservation International, and the University of California Santa Barbara’s\r\nSustainable Fisheries Group. 

Source : Seafood Source