Site selection and carrying capacity in Mediterranean ... - FAO Sipam

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Morocco, Tunisia, Greece and Montenegro. On the other hand, Cyprus, France, Slovenia, Turkey,
Spain and Italy use longer time periods for the process 28 .
Figure 11 - Licensing procedure for aquaculture: average period of time required to obtain a license
Of particular significance is that some countries have included in their regulation a provision for the
’legal maximum time frame for the licensing process’, as the foreseen time for the procedure. In
practice, however, there is always a significant deviation between the provision regulated and the real
average time taken for the whole process 29 .
8.3.4 Validity of the aquaculture license
LICENSING PROCEDURE: AVERAGE TIMELINE FOR A LICENSE
1,5 year
22%
2 years
22%
If security and stability in the medium term is a strategic issue for the development of aquaculture, the
validity of the license is a good indicator to assess the scenario within which potential aquaculture
operators have to decide about their investment in this activity. In the Mediterranean, aquaculture
licenses are generally valid for 10 years (in 43% of the countries studied 30 ), and renewable for several
periods up to a maximum of 30 years depending on the country and according to different criteria.
Exceptions to this are Italy 31 and Montenegro, with a validity of 4 years; Israel and Morocco (5 years),
Tunisia (7 years); Croatia (20 years); and finally France (30-35 years 32 ). Frequently, as for instance in
Albania, the validity may vary between licensing marine aquaculture (10 years) and licensing land
based aquaculture (20 years).
Figure 12 - Aquaculture licenses: validity (in years).
1 year
14%
28 There is no available data for Lebanon. According to the information obtained in the survey “Lebanon does not have
legislation concerning aquaculture. There is no mariculture to date, and only one license to occupy maritime surface
29 Regional Governments in Spain constitute a clear example: whereas provisions in regulation point to a maxim period of 6-
10 months, the process delays from 18 to 30 months. In other countries such as France, the theoretical time average for
obtaining an aquaculture license is 6-8 months, whereas in practices it takes an average of one year and half.
30 No data from Slovenia were available.
31 . As a result of the new financial instrument for the Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union, the European
Fisheries Fund (2007-2013), regional governments in Italy have shortened the validity of licenses, in order to adjust them to
the financial period; see figure 4.
32 According to the data collected from the survey, in France the duration for an aquaculture license is 30 years most of the
time. Nevertheless, secondary sources pointed to a validity of 35 years (Van Houtte et al., 1989).
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< 6 months
14%
≥ 6 ≤ 8 months
14%
≥ 8 ≤ 12 months
14%