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This report summarises the current situation in fisheries and aquaculture, observing that in many parts of the world these sectors are at risk and do not reach their full potential. However, the prospects for sustained growth are good if reforms along the lines suggested by the OECD Green Growth Strategy are undertaken. The report emphasises the need for a strong, science-based approach to stock management for resource sustainability, combined with a transparent and reactive policy development cycle to ensure that fisheries deliver maximum possible benefits. The report shows that improved regulation to deal with environmental externalities and space competition is key to unlocking future growth potential of aquaculture.

This chapter will follow the steps of the OECD Green Growth Strategy (GGS), taking each in turn and applying it in the context of fisheries. It shows how fisheries can contribute to the overall GGS for a country, and how the GGS as a strategy can be applied to fisheries itself. It emphasises the need for a strong, science-based approach to stock management as the foundation of resource sustainability, combined with a transparent and reactive policy development cycle to ensure that fisheries deliver maximum possible benefits.

Fisheries and aquaculture depend directly on the natural environment for their productive capacity. The challenges for fisheries and aquaculture policy makers are to deliver on economic and social goals while respecting the natural biological limits of the resource. How to succeed in this has been a central subject of work by the OECD’s Committee for Fisheries.

Green growth means fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets continue to provide the resources and environmental services on which our well-being relies. The OECD green growth strategy sets out a five-step roadmap to establish sustainable pro-growth reforms. This begins with preparing the way for change, removing barriers to reform, establishing a new policy set and finally by measuring results and taking stock. Following this roadmap means that policies for the fisheries and aquaculture sectors must be more systematic in identifying risk, using market-based instruments and building accountable institutions. It also calls for a more expansive process, involving a broad reach of communities dependent on the fisheries and aquaculture sectors. This will, inter alia, require investing in better data and science to support managing a more complex system while building networks to ensure policy coherence and inclusiveness.

This chapter describes the fisheries and aquaculture sectors in broad terms, identifying some of their important interactions and shared challenges for the future. It shows that the prospects for sustained growth are good if reforms along the lines suggested by the OECD Green Growth Strategy are undertaken. Well-managed fisheries can deliver billions more in value and millions of tonnes more fish each year, while aquaculture has the potential for continued strong growth to supply the food requirements of a growing world. An integrated policy view that takes in the whole of the “blue economy” of marine and coastal spaces and which evaluates itself against clear and measureable objectives is required to secure this vision of green growth for fisheries and aquaculture.

This chapter identifies the challenges for green growth in aquaculture, the policies that can underpin further sustainable growth in aquaculture, and the factors necessary for successful aquaculture development. The objective is to develop advice and best practices that can inform a roadmap for national aquaculture planning. This report also discusses the effects on competitiveness of incorporating green growth principles into aquaculture policy.