International regulations

Introduction

The environmental management of aquaculture is based on many pieces of European legislation, as well as national legislation pertinent to each member state, and by international agreements, including Conventions, signed by member states. Many of the earlier European Commission (EC) Directives may be regarded as having a sectoral basis in that they were focussed on a single use of the environment. More recently, however, there has been a move towards adopting a more holistic approach and providing integrated legislation aimed at protecting all legitimate uses and users, as well as the integrity of the ecosystem.

Depending on the specific activities associated with the practice of aquaculture, it may be subject to one or more relevant pieces of EU legislation governing that activity. In this context, several pieces of primary EU legislation (Table 1) have controls over aquaculture (in some cases these have been over-ridden by the implementation of the Water Framework Directive) and there are also other secondary regulations, decisions and communications.

Details

Further details are given in a document 'THE IMPLICATIONS OF KEY INTERNATIONAL REGULATIONS TO THE MANAGEMENT OF AQUACULTURE'. Click here to download pdf.