Participation and Activities

The workshop took place in Izmir in Turkey on 6–8 July 2015. It was organized by FAO and the World Bank and hosted by Dokuz Eylul University’s Institute of Marine Sciences and Technology.
Participants included the authors who prepared the case studies. Experts hailed from Brazil, Chile, China, Indonesia, Oman, Mexico, Philippines, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The workshop included additional experts from other countries to ensure wider representation.

Participants also included authors who have contributed to the drafting of the thematic chapters as well as staff members from the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department and a few key experts from other Departments at FAO.
On the first day of the workshop, the participants visited sea bream (Sparus aurata) and sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) floating cage farms in Izmir. The system consisted of circular cages measuring 12 to 50 m in diameter. A site with large 50–75 m diameter cages used for Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) fattening was also visited. The visits revealed that the development opportunities for coastal aquaculture in Turkey are limited because of the many constraints and hurdles to obtaining access to suitable sites. Its expansion in coastal waters has added pressure to marine and coastal ecosystems and created conflicts among users of the coastal resource. Recently, marine farms have been ordered to relocate to more exposed areas or secondary bays.

 

 

This prompted some changes on types and sizes of the cage systems used.
Consequently, there was a need for more space to accommodate the industry’s growth, which has led to the issuance of new planning and management policies by the Turkish government.
At the opening session, Thomas MothPoulsen, Senior Fisheries and Aquaculture Officer (FAOSEC) informed attendees that through the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme, the countries in Central Asia have benefitted from intensive capacity building on aquaculture through joint workshops and projects.
This was followed by FAO and the World Bank representatives describing the processes and steps of spatial planning for aquaculture growth according to the EAA and how these can be implemented. FAO staff and consultants gave presentations on the tools that can be used to support the process. Consultants presented the thematic aspects of zoning, siting and area management (i.e., biosecurity, social, certification and legal aspects). The case study authors presented their studies.
Group sessions discussed the processes and steps on spatial planning for aquaculture and drafted recommendations.
The participants evaluated the current status, processes and practices for aquaculture zoning, site selection and area management for each of the ten case studies together with one presentation from each working group to share the lessons learned. The workshop participants were divided in two groups: one group discussed the recommended contents for a “policy brief” for policy makers and regulators, the other group focused on the contents for a document for the private sector. Results of these discussions were presented in plenary.