5 Operati on and Management

Aquaculture Park Demarcation Studies

Studies indicate which areas are technically best suited for the demarcation of aquaculture parks. Furthermore, each study provides details of socioeconomic regions, allowing an analysis of how the town is organized. With the completion of studies and the identification of areas of higher suitableness already demarcated, begins the process of defining areas to be granted.

The Definition of Areas to Be Conceded

The data collected and the parks already demarcated by studies should set the guiding light of the process of defining priority areas for bidding, which still goes through an extensive process of meetings with agencies and local entities in order to collect the demands of communities and disseminate the results of the studies.

Disclosure and Publicizing

As in most cases local communities are the main beneficiaries of aquaculture parks, it is fundamental to develop an efficient publicizing plan in order to foment an efficient occupation. Usually the period between studies for demarcation of parks and their actual tender is long (over 3 years) making local communities reticent about the possibility of occupying the parks, and without such publicizing, communities may even not occupy the parks. In this scenario, contact must be made with the community shortly before the public tender dates. Visiting these places is intentional to clarify where the parks will be installed, how the tendering process takes place and what are the prerequisites to participate. The publicizing must be conducted by local bodies that already have familiarity with these communities, in order to facilitate contact and accelerate the process, while also considering the credibility that these institutions already have in the region.

Public Tender

After the completion of the disclosure and publicizing stage, the bidding process begins and may be made in the paid and/or the unpaid forms, depending on the target audience.

Mobilizing for the Occupation

The occupation has been one of the hot spots around the park management process. This is because many people who win an area are not producers or develop the activity in the informal sector and need to transfer their cultivation to the new demarcated area. Thus, a suitable occupation can facilitate management of the park and all following steps.
Once the winners of each area are known, the mobilization for occupation of these areas begins. To make this process quick, local extension entities, municipalities and associations must participate, taking the results of the bidding process to the communities, and initiating contact with the winners so that they can occupy their respective areas. This methodology seeks an occupation with fewer conflicts, more quickly and with standard equipment. While this step is conducted in the area of aquaculture park by local authorities, the MFA should start the nautical signaling process. Thus, it is expected that by the end of the occupation phase, the signalling process will have started and will finish as soon as possible.

The Occupation of Aquícola Parks

The occupation phase can take place between the definition of which parks will be tendered and the effective occupation of aquaculture parks (beginning with the installation of the equipment for cultivation).
Thus, this step has three phases: disclosure, tendering and mobilization. However, for the beginning of the occupation it is essential that the region presents an installed support infrastructure. The construction of a scenario that offers minimum conditions so that the producer can develop his work should be a priority for the occupation of the park. Investments in infrastructure and specific projects can be a way to begin the installation and operation of parks; however, the creation of a long-term investment program is crucial for the sustainability of these projects.

Aquaculture Parks Management

The first step of this process is the creation of a managing committee (MC) in the region. In this case, the Committee aims to: “Act as an advisor and propositional body and advisory decisions in the administration of the Aquaculture Parks, acting as a participatory management tool to assist in the development of rules, criteria and standards for the management and planning of sustainable use of Aquaculture Parks.”
Once the MC is established it is responsible for systematizing the process, describing what each institution can and should do, and establishing a description of the production process performed in the parks that are part of that Committee. Thus, all processes related to parks should be described and recorded in the MC, from bureaucratic aspects to the actual concession, even those related to health monitoring and the market of suspension. To define the occupants members of the parks, the participation of the producers is essential. Thus, each park should have a representative to the Committee, being chosen among the occupants of aquaculture areas in the park. In case the assignees of the park already have an organization constituted as an association, cooperative, etc., the President of that institution must indicate the MC member.

Supervision

Supervision and monitoring are under the responsibility of the MFA or a delegated authority for it. Thus, aspects related to the implantation of structures, effectively occupied areas of origin of the young form, destination and volume production will be monitored in an indirect and direct way by the MFA.
Indirect supervision will occur through annual completion of an Aquaculture Production Report in Union waters—Aquaculture Model Navy, which will have its system linked to the Registrar General of Fishing Activity—RGP. With this you obtain information, and so direct the direct enforcement actions.
Already the direct supervision should be delegated to local authorities since the MFA does not have enough staff to supervise all Aquaculture Parks. However, these actions can be directed according to recommendations of CGs and the results of the indirect supervision.
Another relevant point is the monitoring of the environmental licensing conditions. This point should also follow the methodology cited above; however the Steering Committee plays an important role in collecting the occupants of the parks following these recommendations, since everyone will be harmed if the rules are not followed. Already the supervision regarding the installation of nautical sign is the responsibility of the Navy of Brazil.
The supervision of aquatic animal health aspects involves several institutions (state and municipal health surveillance and ministry of agriculture, livestock and supply—MAPA) and it must follow the recommendations of federal, state and local legislation.

Monitoring

Monitoring is the stage of the management model designed to ensure the efficiency of all stages of process management of aquaculture parks. This model proposes that monitoring is carried out through indicators, and these should be designed for each specific stage. Thus, according to the results obtained, the process management may be revised to solve the identified problems.