Brazilian Aquaculture Parks— Fish Farming and Mariculture

João Felipe Nogueira Matias1

ABSTRACT

In Brazil, the waters are owned by the federal government (Union) or by the states. In Union waters domain it is the great differential of the Brazilian aquaculture.

More than 200 reservoirs (used to generate electricity) are available for aquaculture, with a carrying capacity of almost 2.5 million tonnes of fish per year. For over 20 years we attempted to achieve the use of these reservoirs for fish production, but the existing legal framework at that time, does not let us make it possible.
Only in 2003, Decree 4895/2003 enabled the legal certainty necessary for the implementation of aquícola areas and aquícola parks and the first concessions were made in 2009. Currently, there are fish farms in more than 10 reservoirs.
Expensive and time-consuming studies, which take into technical, geographical, social, economic and environmental parameters, are needed for the demarcation of these parks. After these studies, the parks are demarcated and public hearings are held to discuss the implementation and occupation. Actually, there are two crucial issues surrounding this program in Brazil: i) environmental monitoring which allows a simple and faster environmental licensing process; ii) the management of parks that allow an orderly settlement.

Thus, the exchange of experiences with other countries working with aquaculture parks and the support of institutions such as FAO and World Bank will be very useful for Brazil to move forward with this public policy that will put our country as one of the largest aquaculture producers in the world with sustainability.

1 The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO or the World Bank Group.

Matias, J. F. N. 2017. Brazilian aquaculture parks—fish farming and mariculture. In J. Aguilar-Manjarrez, D. Soto & R. Brummett. Aquaculture zoning, site selection and area management under the ecosystem approach to aquaculture. Full document, pp. 148–169. Report ACS113536. Rome, FAO, and World Bank Group, Washington, DC. 395 pp.