Sustainability Compliance for the Abalone Aquaculture Industry

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Sustainability Compliance for the Abalone
Aquaculture Industry

• WWF Abalone Aquaculture Dialogue
• April 29, 2008
• Judi Marshall
• Phycotec Environmental Management
• Phycotec_at_trump.net.au

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ESD ComplianceObjective To develop an EMS
Framework with template documents based on the
National ESD FrameworkFor Aquaculture
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Outcomes from the Project

• Strategically assessed risks of the Tasmanian
  Industry to the environment.
• Strategically assessed risks to the Tasmanian
  Industry from natural, social and economic
  environment.
• Prioritised actions to mitigate moderate and high
  risks
• Implementation of Environmental Management
  Systems (EMS) into 80 of the Tasmanian Industry

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Abalone Industry Risk Assessment (x75)

• gtModerate Risks
• Climate change
• Disease
• Markets
• LUPAA on Water Quality

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Tasmanian EMS Framework

• ESD Requirements validation must include
• Definitive terms
• Relevant, scientifically robust, and peer
  reviewed information
• Balanced arguments
• Be acceptable to industry and regulators

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Whole of State Issues (Environmental)
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Regional Issues (Environmental)
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Social Economic Issues

• All assessed as low on available information
• Very little data to do assessments
• National Aquaculture Council currently addressing
  the identification of relevant social and
  economic indicators for the aquaculture sector.
  AAGA is a pilot group in this FRDC funded project.

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External Impacts of the Environment
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External Impacts - Disease
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Facility Issues

• Hydrocarbon storage
• Chemical storage
• Lack of SOP
• Biosecurity SOPs
• Energy efficiencies
• EMS provides useful bench marks

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External Perceptions

• Visual
• Water quality
• Odour
• Noise
• Public amenity
• Need for benchmarking

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Reflections on the Tasmanian project An extract
from the final report

• Learnings
• Needs to be credible
• Have buy-on from majority
• Robust for scrutiny
• The picture is bigger than the individual
  facility
• Value
• Reporting mechanism
• A tool to meet compliance regulations
• Allows industry to implement EMS easily
  effectively
• Concerns
• Not adopted by all failure of penetration
• Risk assessments sometimes subjective ie
  divergence of views
• Need for independent audits for legitimacy

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Nationally - Australian Abalone Growers
Association (AAGA)

• Agreement from all state regulators on risks for
  each aspects
• Streamline state industry requirements into a
  national framework
• Self management tool at national level
• A commercial tool to implement EMS as well as
  tool to use to counteract the regulators /NGOs
  when issues arise.

Objectives Have farm managers recognise their
regulatory requirements
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Alignment of ESD reporting to FAO Guidelines for
Aquaculture Certification

• 7. Minimum substantive requirements and criteria
• 7.3 Social issues
• Achievable but requires verified data
• 7.4 Environmental issues
• All aspects covered by ESD Framework
• Needs improvement on carbon footprint reporting
• Requires industry baselines

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Alignment of ESD reporting to FAO Guidelines for
Aquaculture Certification

• 7. Minimum substantive requirements and criteria
• 7.5 Food Safety and Quality
• More detail would need to be provided in ESD
  reporting in relation to
• Traceability
• Food hygiene practices
• 7.4 Animal Health and Welfare
• Requires more comprehensive reporting

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Document structure
Australian Abalone Growers
National
State (Regional)
Facility
Environmental
Environmental
Environmental
Socio Economic
Socio Economic
Indigenous
Governance
Governance
External
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Processes

• Listen to your stakeholders
• Create a culture of dialogue based on fact from
  verified data
• Demonstrate transparency
• Ensure responses are based on fact not conjecture

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• Judi Marshall
• Developing Sustainable Industries
• Phycotec Environmental Management
• Phycotec_at_trump.net.au
• Ph 0438 589 955