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

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Lack of continuity of political and economic processes is the main problem which challenges
countries and generates instability. This issue puts off aquaculture investors because many projects
are slow-progressing businesses.
Van Houtte (1994) pointed out several aspects that affect the complexity and diversity of the legal
frameworks among countries: the legal status of water area used (public or privately owned); the
nature of water used (marine/brackish water versus fresh water); the legal status and the nature of the
land used (coastal area versus inland; private versus public); the need for a government to regulate
aquaculture in general or a specific aquaculture activity and other questions it is called to deal with
(use of natural/chemical feed, wild/hatched seed, fish health management, effluents, restoration, etc).
Additionally, new legal and institutional issues reinforce the complexity of the legal frameworks, such
as coordination between competent authorities and public agencies, financial issues, the EIA process,
planning procedures, etc.
8.2.2 The legal framework for aquaculture
Despite that the information on the Mediterranean legal framework for siting marine aquaculture is
still limited to some countries and somewhat fragmented, some specific issues emerge; for example,
the complex and time-consuming permitting process, the long and confusing procedures for granting
licences, etc. The number of laws, regulations, directives, rules and procedures that the aquaculture
promoter must comply with is extensive, as is the involvement of many different authorities at several
levels. As shown in this report, the differences between countries are also clear. Similar problems are
encountered on EIA procedures, where differences exist among countries in terms of studies and
documents required.
Many countries have not yet elaborated a specific legal framework for aquaculture development. At
the moment, only countries with a developed aquaculture sector have specific rules and regulations
for aquaculture. This is the case in Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Others have some specific
regulations for a certain types of aquaculture (i.e. shrimp, as in Ecuador or shellfish aquaculture). It is
even remarkable that there is only one country - Lebanon - with no legislation at all for aquaculture
activities, or with a minor regulation included in the Fisheries Act (Figure 5).
Regulation procedures for the use of water or land area vary from country to country. Procedures for
aquaculture activities are also different and diverse. So, it is crucial to design an aquaculture policy
framework to discriminate between different types of aquaculture systems (inland/off-shore
aquaculture) and ownership systems.
Besides the strict legal framework, the overarching concept of aquaculture’s public policies depends
strongly on the political will; therefore, not infrequently, they are subject to the vagaries of the
political struggle. There are situations in which aquaculture plans already approved are reviewed by a
new government that will abandon the legislation already in place in favour of a new one. Without
denying the definition of plans as tools to implement governmental action, it is advisable to design
legal tools oriented to ensure legal certainty in aquaculture activities in the medium-term.
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