With the support of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, WWF is working to develop an aquaculture certification program and entity to house it. The work aims to identify which aquaculture species are most suitable for certification, determine better management practices (BMPs) for each of the species, and use these BMPs as the basis for a certification program. This will be accomplished through extensive consultation with a broad range of individuals, organizations, corporations, and institutions in order to facilitate the elaboration of a widely accepted strategy for the establishment of a credible international aquaculture certification body.

The groups being consulted and involved in this process include producers as well as those businesses that buy and sell aquaculture products throughout the market chain (e.g. distributors, retailers, restaurant chains, and chefs). In addition, academics, researchers, and science-based research entities will be consulted to gain a more complete understanding of the main issues that need to be addressed for certification of any aquaculture products. NGOs, community groups, consumers, governments, and other public interest groups will be consulted individually and collectively to insure that important issues raised by aquaculture that are of concern to the public, more broadly defined, are adequately addressed by the certification body and any overall strategy it adopts.

The development of a viable, third-party aquaculture certification program is timely, urgent, and important. The aquaculture industry is growing rapidly, and there has been strong market penetration of aquaculture products. Although this production can and has in some instances had severe environmental and social impacts, the industry has great potential to improve in these areas. Research by the Shrimp Farming and the Environment Consortium has indicated that the shrimp aquaculture industry had only 8-10 major impacts that accounted for 80-90 percent of all problems and that any individual operation probably had only five or fewer activities that were responsible for the bulk of its impacts. Better management practices can effectively address these impacts, and, in many cases, better practices actually paid for themselves within two to three years. A BMP-based certification program will effectively minimize the environmental impacts of aquaculture.

A number of principles, criteria, standards, certification schemes, and codes of conduct already exist or are in draft for aquaculture. These criteria and standards vary greatly--some have been developed by the industry and others by environmental groups, many are region or species specific, some focus on conventional production while others are specific to organic, and some lead to certification while others do not. Many existing aquaculture principles, criteria, standards, and codes are available on the Shrimp Farming and the Environment Consortium's Web site (www.enaca.org/certification), along with WWF's and others' comments on their strengths and weaknesses. None of the existing schemes have met WWF's goal of creating concise, measurable standards that will lead to effective reduction of the most important environmental and social impacts of aquaculture.

There is strong interest in a certified aquaculture product from a wide range of stakeholders. Aquaculture producers throughout the world who produce a variety of products recognize that certification programs will help them gain a market advantage. Belize, Colombia, and Madagascar are considering using certification as a requirement for local producers so that production from the entire country or state could be differentiated in the global marketplace. Governments have expressed interest in using aquaculture certification systems as a basis for permitting and licensing producers. A number of large retailers and distributors would like to sell a certified product. Finally, investors are interested in a third-party certification system which they can use as the basis for screening their investments.

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