What are the keys to success for radical transformation of aquaculture to become a major food source? How do we learn from our failures, evolve, plan better, and invest smarter? Development of aquaculture in common property resources of oceans and lakes in aquaculture’s “new geographies” (almost everywhere outside of Asia) involves assessments not only of technological advances to the sector as aquaculture enters a complex social-ecological milieu of existing resource uses, and less-than-fully informed users. Successful aquaculture developments consider not only appropriate technologies, economic viabilities and environmental impacts but ways to advance societies, both rural and urban.
The FAO (2010) Ecosystem Approach to Aquaculture (EAA) is a valuable framework for use by societies worldwide who are questioning aquaculture development in its new geographies. The EAA stands above all aquaculture certification schemes as it is not a binary approval system. Rather, it is a strategy for the integration of aquaculture developments within the wider ecosystem for equity and resilience of interlinked social-ecological systems. The EAA accounts for the complete range of stakeholders, spheres of in?uences, community and education development, and interlinked processes. Three principles of the EAA are: (1) Aquaculture development and management should take account of the full range of ecosystem functions and services and should not threaten the sustained delivery of these to society, plus advance methods to enhance them, (2) aquaculture should improve human well-being and equity for all relevant stakeholders, and (3) aquaculture should be developed in the context of other sectors, policies, and goals. The tool kit for implementation of an EAA include assessments of: (1) appropriate bioengineering technologies, (2) spatial planning and zoning, (2) carrying capacity, (3) social-ecological capabilities, and (4) governance. The EAA is an especially important planning framework for new aquaculture operations being considered in crowded, common property resources of coastal oceans and lakes in the Large Ocean and Lake Nations of East Africa, the Pacific, and Macaronesia (Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, Cape Verde). Examples of successful freshwater and marine aquaculture ecosystems developed using an EAA framework and tool kit in both developed and developing economies are discussed for salmonids, carps, tilapias, seaweeds and shellfish. Wider use and adoption of the EAA will advance the growth of sustainable aquaculture developments worldwide and contribute more to the urgent needs for global transformation as contained in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).