Coastal marine ecosystems are areas vulnerable to pollution, habitat destruction and resource depletion. Multiple human activities, including aquaculture, can further jeopardize important and often fragile ecosystem services as well as have a negative impact on biodiversity. In recent years, coastal aquaculture has become a promising economic sector in terms of its potential contribution to food security, economic development, employment and livelihood opportunities. However, the expansion of the sector needs to tackle issues concerning environmental sustainability, spatial conflicts and regulatory concerns. To address these multiple challenges and to foster the sustainable development of the sector, there is an ever increasing need to adopt integrated and forward-looking spatial planning strategies that are key for the development and management of human activities.
In recent years, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and several Regional Fisheries Management Organizations have spearheaded activities aimed at integrating aquaculture into spatial planning frameworks and how best to achieve this. While there is a wide consent in the role of the sector in contributing to global food security challenges, countries recognize the importance of adopting an ecosystem approach to the development of aquaculture so to minimize negative interactions concerning aquaculture activities, the environment and the social context. In October 2024, FAO and the Italian Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA) organized an expert workshop to stimulate discussion and share lessons learnt on how spatial planning has been successfully implemented and difficulties faced in the process. The workshop resulted the development of strategic objectives and concrete actions that countries should take to advance spatial planning in offshore and coastal aquaculture for 5 key priority areas: 1) Streamlining governance and institutional frameworks; 2) knowledge support for spatial planning in aquaculture; 3) criteria and guiding elements for allocation of space, co-use of marine space, land and sea interactions and adaptation to climate change; 4) capacity building, awareness and capacity extension; and 5) marine conservation and restoration. This is now being developed into a roadmap for implementing marine spatial planning for aquaculture development as a complement to the new FAO Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture. This presentation will summarize this road map and FAO’s resulting work to improve spatial planning for aquaculture development.