The stakeholder consultation is open on the Aquaculture Stewardship Council website until 9 April.
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The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has launched a 30-day public consultation on how aquaculture operations can function responsibly within or close to protected areas, as part of its work addressing biodiversity and habitat risks associated with fish farming.
The consultation, running from 9 March to 9 April, is intended to gather views from industry, conservation groups, researchers and other stakeholders. ASC says the feedback will inform new guidance aimed at addressing environmental risks to biodiversity, habitats and ecosystem processes in protected areas.
“As aquaculture becomes central to feeding a growing global population and protected areas continue to expand, there is a clear opportunity to better align food production with conservation goals,” said ASC environmental standards coordinator Dan Auwkit.
“By bringing greater clarity to how aquaculture can operate responsibly within or near protected areas, we can support biodiversity protection while enabling responsible aquaculture for the future,” Auwkit added.
The ASC said the consultation will involve producers, NGOs, academics, retailers, suppliers, certification bodies and other industry participants, with the aim of developing guidance that is practical while remaining consistent with international conservation goals.
As part of the project, ASC will review its current requirements and guidance and compare them with protected area categories defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as well as national legislation. The organisation says this work is intended to identify any gaps or inconsistencies in how aquaculture is currently assessed in protected areas.
One of the main outcomes will be the development of a risk-based assessment to help establish whether aquaculture activities are compatible with the objectives of a protected area.
Rather than setting strict limits, ASC said the assessment will use broader criteria to help farms understand whether their operations can be aligned with conservation goals, while giving auditors a clearer and more consistent way to evaluate compliance.
The project is expected to run until 2028, and the planned outputs include updated requirements in a future version of the ASC Farm Standard, revised guidance in the Interpretation Manual and a joint white paper developed with the IUCN.
ASC said the proposed framework will also be tested in selected regions to assess whether it works across different regulatory and environmental contexts.
The organisation added that the work is intended to clarify how aquaculture can operate in protected areas while aligning ASC certification with recognised conservation frameworks, including IUCN and the Global Biodiversity Framework. It will also take into account socio-economic factors and existing conservation and impact assessment frameworks such as Natura 2000, the Ramsar Convention and the World Heritage Convention, the ASC said.
The full details of the consultation can be accessed via the ASC website.
