HOLMENKOLLEN GUIDELINES FOR SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE
(adopted 1998)

 

PREAMBLE

Aquaculture has the potential to make a significant contribution to the world's aquatic food supply, and to become an important provider of food for the world's growing population. Aquaculture also has a social dimension providing a potential for an alternative livelihood, and thus has an important role in the alleviation of poverty. The future development of the sector should be guided by a spirit of sustainability benefiting humanity. Hence the guidelines are based on the following principles:

The Principle of Sustainable Development as it was endorsed in the Rio-Declaration of 1992, interpreted as comprising the inter-relation of natural and technological aspects on the one hand, with socio-economic and value-based considerations on the other.

The Precautionary Principle, which reflects concern for human interaction with the environment: in the light of uncertain or inconclusive scientific knowledge, strategies are called for which effectively reduce the possibility of future harm to the environment.

The Principle of Human Equity as a goal for economic and technological development: that satisfactory development presupposes that both the global and local distribution of benefits should create real improvements for poor and under- privileged people and satisfy their needs before other needs are met.

The first international Symposium on Sustainable Fish Farming, held in Holmenkollen, Oslo, in 1994, produced a set of guidelines for sustainable industrial fish farming. These were taken into account in the development of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, which was adopted in 1995 by 168 countries. The Second International Symposium on Sustainable Aquaculture, Oslo 1997, reviewed the potentials and constraints for aquaculture development and  issues of sustainability as well as Article 9 on Aquaculture Development in the FAO Code of Conduct (see appendix). The Symposium endorsed this article but recommends that specific sectors place particular emphasis on the following issues.