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WWF collaborates with a range of stakeholders to develop credible, voluntary standards geared toward minimizing or eliminating the main environmental and social impacts caused by aquaculture. Why create standards? So that governments, banks and the market reward better performance; there is a level playing field for aquaculture globally; and there is the ability to trace the origin of products, which will minimize concerns about food safety and hold producers responsible for their products.
Since the early 1990s, WWF has spearheaded the creation of certification programs for forestry (the Forestry Stewardship Council), fisheries (the Marine Stewardship Council), agriculture (Protected Harvest) and climate (the Climate Savers Program). All of the programs are:
- Built on a consensus about the key impacts
- Identify and support the adoption or adaptation of better management practices that significantly reduce or eliminate those impacts
- Determine globally acceptable performance levels
- Contribute to global shifts in performance within an industry
A similar approach is used for the Aquaculture Dialogues, which began in 1999, and our featured projects in geographic regions. WWF is the catalyst for these initiatives. The dialogues are species- or species-group specific gatherings of a wide range of stakeholders, including producers and other members of the market chain, researchers, nonprofit organizations, government officials and investors. The goal of each dialogue is to develop and implement standards that measurably reduce the key impacts that create 70 to 80 percent of the problems. The standards must be strategically targeted and measurable rather than prescriptive. No eco-label or organic standard exists that focuses on measurable standards.
For more information about the impacts from aquaculture read our Aquaculture Dialogues Overview.
For more information, please contact us at Aquacultureinfo@wwfus.org.
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