The Road to Sustainable Aquaculture

The report examines the potential of aquaculture to contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while addressing environmental, social, and economic challenges. It analyzes various production systems—from low-capital ponds to high-capital Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS)—and evaluates the role of national regulations and third-party certification schemes in ensuring sustainability. Through 26 case studies, the document highlights successful practices in biosecurity, integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA), and nutrition-sensitive production. It concludes by identifying priority areas for future growth, emphasizing the need for a 'One Health' approach that links human, animal, and environmental health.

• Aquaculture can significantly contribute to multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including poverty alleviation (SDG 1) by providing affordable aquatic foods and empowering women (SDG 5) through value chain employment.
• The 'One Health' approach is proposed as a necessary framework for aquaculture governance, recognizing that human, animal, and environmental health are interlinked.
• There is a critical need to replace fish-derived feed ingredients with alternatives like algae, plants, and insects to avoid diverting nutritious small pelagic fish from human consumption, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Third-party certification schemes (such as ASC and BAP) primarily serve markets in North America and Western Europe and cover only about 3.5% of global production, potentially marginalizing smallholders who cannot afford compliance costs.
• Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA), which combines fed and extractive species, can mitigate environmental impacts by sequestering nutrients, as demonstrated in Sanggou Bay, China.
• The use of 'green-water technology' in the Philippines, involving the co-culture of Nile tilapia and Asian seabass with shrimp, has been shown to improve shrimp health and reduce production costs.
• Genetic improvement programs, such as the Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) developed by WorldFish, have increased production by 8% to 25% in some countries and reduced fish prices by 11% to 18% in the Philippines and Bangladesh.
• Precision aquaculture, utilizing AI, IoT, and cloud computing, can reduce FCRs by 5% to 28%, though these high-cost technologies are currently only accessible to large-scale operations.
• Eyestalk ablation in shrimp breeding is linked to decreased disease immunity in offspring; alternatives such as adjusting stocking density or using domesticated families can improve welfare and resilience.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of peri-urban population density is a primary barrier to the financial sustainability of aquaculture, whereas Egypt and Nigeria have overcome this through higher population densities and government investment.
• The 'social licence to operate' (SLO) is essential for industry growth and is achieved through stakeholder engagement and providing community benefits, as seen with Victory Farms in Kenya.
• National biosecurity monitoring and control programs, such as the one implemented in Saudi Arabia after the 2010 white spot syndrome virus pandemic, are critical for industry recovery and growth.

APA

Bunting, S., Pounds, A., Immink, A., Zacarias, S., Bulcock, P., Murray, F., Auchterlonie, N., Little, D., Bostock, J., Leschen, W., Pettit, R., Cao, L., Papageorgiou, P., Nath, P., Klinger, D., & Newton, R. (2022). The Road to Sustainable Aquaculture. World Economic Forum. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Road_to_Sustainable_Aquaculture.pdf

Chicago

Bunting, Stuart, Alexandra Pounds, Anton Immink, Simao Zacarias, Paul Bulcock, Francis Murray, Neil Auchterlonie, et al. The Road to Sustainable Aquaculture. World Economic Forum, 2022. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Road_to_Sustainable_Aquaculture.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{bunting2022road, author = {Bunting, Stuart and Pounds, Alexandra and Immink, Anton and Zacarias, Simao and Bulcock, Paul and Murray, Francis and Auchterlonie, Neil and Little, David and Bostock, John and Leschen, William and Pettit, Rob and Cao, Ling and Papageorgiou, Philippos and Nath, Pamela and Klinger, Dane and Newton, Richard}, title = {{The Road to Sustainable Aquaculture}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2022}, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Road_to_Sustainable_Aquaculture.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }