Tilapia, a tropical freshwater fish native to Africa, is an increasingly important global food commodity. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), a major environmental nongovernmental organization, has established stakeholder dialogues to formulate farm certification standards that promote “responsible” culture practices. As a preface to its “tilapia aquaculture dialogue,” the WWF for Nature commissioned a review of potential certification issues, later published as a peer-reviewed article. This article contends that both the review and the draft certification standards subsequently developed fail to adequately integrate critical factors governing the relative sustainability of tilapia production and thereby miss more significant issues related to resource-use efficiency and the appropriation of ecosystem space and services. This raises a distinct possibility that subsequent certification will promote intensive systems of tilapia production that are far less ecologically benign than existing widely practiced semiintensive alternatives. Given the likely future significance of this emergent standard, it is contended that a more holistic approach to certification is essential.
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1 February 2010
Passing the Panda Standard: A TAD off the Mark?
Ben Belton,
Francis Murray,
James Young,
Trevor Telfer,
David C. Little
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AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
Vol. 39 • No. 1
February 2010
Vol. 39 • No. 1
February 2010
aquaculture
Eco-certification
environmental impacts
standards
sustainability
tilapia
