Research area 2: Managing legal and societal conflicts
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Researcher in charge (Research Area leader)
Professor David Langlet, Department of Law
Challenges
Aquaculture is affected by a multitude of regulatory and administrative structures and procedures designed to protect or promote various interests. In many cases, these have not been developed specifically for aquaculture or in any case have not been adapted to technical and other developments in the aquaculture field and lack in efficiency and effectiveness. This often creates a situation where legal structures run the risk of having an inhibiting rather than a driving effect for sustainable aquaculture production.
Achieving expanding and sustainable aquaculture requires good methods for identifying suitable locations for aquaculture facilities, based on ecological as well as social factors, and for designing such facilities in ways that minimize disturbances and maximize preconditions for social acceptance.
Goals
- To compile relevant legal acts and frameworks affecting mariculture and to analyze any identified overlaps, conflicts, lacunae and uncertainties pertaining to these frameworks and their application to representative model cases.
- To develop recommendations for commercial, scientific and regulatory actors on how identified conflicts and uncertainties may be constructively managed or even rectified.
- To develop methods for site-selection based on spatially explicit modeling, best available scientific information and stakeholder involvement, thus optimizing all aspects of carrying capacity.
- To use a transdisciplinary approach to develop methods for participatory design, co-creating knowledge among stakeholders and design criteria for physical planning in mariculture development.
Results
The results so far include:
- a report on legal and administrative barriers to sustainable aquaculture in Sweden, which has e.g. been presented in the Parliament and used as a starting point for an ongoing review and streamlining of Swedish aquaculture regulation;
- design and tests of ethical methods to prevent bird predation and economic loss in mussel farms;
- collaboration on the development of sustainable aquaculture in Kenya.
Participating researchers
Prof. David Langlet, Dep. of Law
Prof. Mats Lindegarth, Dep. of Marine sciences
Prof. Maria Nyström Reuterswärd, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers
Research engineer Bengt Liljebladh, Dept. Earth Sciences
SWEMARC PhD-candidate Jonas Kyrönviita (previously Nilsson), Dep. of Law
Research engineer Per Bergström, Dept. of Marine Sciences
Research assistant Anothai Ekelund, Dep. Marine Sciences.
Post doc Evan Durland, Dept. of Marine Sciences
