World Wildlife Fund

Workers at a salmon farm, Chile
© WWF / Katherine Bostick

WWF's work on aquaculture began in 1994, when the organization supported a research project comparing the impacts of shrimp aquaculture and shrimp trawling. The main recommendation from the study was that WWF identify strategies to reduce the major impacts from shrimp aquaculture and engage shrimp producers and governments in a productive dialogue. Several initiatives followed the study. 

WWF published a shrimp aquaculture position paper in 1997, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) held a technical workshop on sustainable shrimp aquaculture in 1998, and WWF's Dr. Jason Clay and Claude Boyd published an article about shrimp farming in Scientific American in 1998 that highlighted the need for major changes in aquaculture production systems.

In 1999, WWF partnered with FAO, the World Bank and the Network of Aquaculture Centers of Asia Pacific to create the Shrimp Aquaculture and the Environment Consortium - The United Nations Environmental Program has since joined the consortium. In 2006, after the completion of more than 140 meetings with more than 8,000 people and the publication of 40 case studies by 120 researchers, the consortium's International Principles for Responsible Shrimp Farming were adopted by the FAO's Committee on Fisheries.

Since then, five additional Dialogue groups have been created, focusing on the species with the highest value and most demand in high-end consumer markets. In 2004, Dialogues were created for salmon and molluscs (clams, mussels, oysters and abalone ). Work began on catfish and tilapia the following year and Pangasius (mainly basa and tra) in 2007. WWF anticipates the start of the trout Dialogue to begin in April 2008. The initial focus will be the European Union, which is the largest freshwater trout producing region in the world. Depending on the species, it can take one to four years to develop and finalize standards.

Learn more about the history and development of the individual aquaculture Dialogues:

• Shrimp
• Salmon
• Molluscs
• Tilapia 
• Pangasius