PART 1 MEDITERRANEAN COASTAL LAGOONS: A SYNTHESIS REPORT

 
1. GENERAL CONTEXT

1.1 Coastal lagoons within the framework of the GFCM

Within the GFCM framework, lagoon management and interactions between aquaculture and capture fisheries have been raising considerable interest over the past years. Already back in 1960 and 1973, two reports on brackish water aquaculture in the Mediterranean region were published (De Angelis, 1960; GFCM, 1973) and in 1983, a FAO/GFCM Expert Consultation on the Management of Coastal Lagoon Fisheries was held in Rome, Italy, to compile experiences on coastal lagoon fisheries management (Kapetsky and Lasserre, 1984). This compilation had been recommended in connection with the GFCM Symposium on the Management of Living Resources in the Mediterranean Area (Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 1980), held in conjunction with the fifteenth session of the GFCM. A FAO Fisheries Technical Paper, Management of coastal lagoon fisheries and aquaculture in Italy was then prepared by Ardizzone et al. (1988).

Later on, during the GFCM Consultation on the application of Article 9 of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF) in the Mediterranean region (Rome, July 1999), interactions and potential conflicts between resource users in the Mediterranean were highlighted. On this occasion, the role played by coastal lagoons as important elements for Mediterranean aquaculture in its extensive practices was recognized.
It became clear that within a sustainable use of natural aquatic resources, ecosystem interactions between aquaculture and capture fisheries had to be taken into consideration more thoroughly. In fact several commitments to a wider approach to fisheries and aquaculture management have been made in recent years, such as the implementation of the CCRF, the integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) approach and the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) and to aquaculture (EAA) (FAO, 1995; 2004; 2005; FAO Fisheries Department, 2003; Cury and Christensen, 2005; Rice and Connolly, 2007; Soto et al., 2008). Broad principles and

approaches for effective and responsible fisheries and aquaculture management are contained in the CCRF, many of which relate to ICZM. The ICZM approach aims at establishing sustainable economic and social activities in coastal areas while protecting the coastal environment, by bringing together all the stakeholders involved in the development, management and use of coastal zones and factoring in their interests and responsibilities.
A preliminary commented inventory of the relationships between aquaculture and capture fisheries in the Mediterranean region was presented and discussed during the AdriaMed1 technical consultation on “Interactions between aquaculture and capture fisheries”, held in Rome (Italy), in November 2003 (Cataudella et al., 2005). The discussion held stressed that interactions between aquaculture and capture fisheries had to be considered within their ecological, economic, social and governance dimensions in order to be correctly understood. It was also highlighted that a correct assessment of such interactions and the establishment of local and regional targets for conservation and management represented the basic steps towards the implementation of the ICZM approach and of the EAF/EAA.
Coastal lagoon areas are considered as some of the main environments where a sound knowledge of the interactions between aquaculture and capture fisheries is essential to assist the decision-making process towards the sustainable management of natural resources. Furthermore, the historical participation of the main actors of both capture fisheries and aquaculture in this process represents a key element for the physical conservation and the best utilization of natural resources in lagoon areas.
As a follow-up to the technical consultation, a review of selected issues related to the ecological dimension of interactions between aquaculture and capture fisheries was prepared (Cataudella

1 AdriaMed project: Scientific cooperation to support responsible fisheries in the Adriatic Sea (FAO regional project GCP/RER/010/ITA). 2
et al., 2005) and a pilot study on interactions between capture fisheries and aquaculture was carried out in the Lezha lagoon complex, one of the most important coastal wetlands of Albania (Tancioni et al., 2007), in order to provide an example of practical EAF/EAA application.
In 2005, an expert meeting on the “Re-establishment of the Network on Environment and Aquaculture in the Mediterranean (EAM)” (FAO, 2006) highlighted some crucial issues that should be addressed when dealing with interactions between aquaculture and capture fisheries, such as a better integration of aquaculture within coastal zone management and the need for an improved public image of aquaculture.
During the sixth session of the GFCM CAQ held in 2008 in Tirana (Albania), delegates acknowledged that the environmental degradation was underway in many coastal lagoons, most likely due to shortcomings in current management approaches. They also recognized that it was essential to revitalize the work carried out to date on lagoon management. On this occasion, and during the thirty-fourth session of the GFCM (Tunisia, 2009), the CAQ was asked to reconsider coastal lagoons and their management as a priority issue within its activities.