The next meeting of the Abalone Aquaculture Dialogue will be held on February 16-17 in Cape Town, South Africa. The fate of the global abalone standards depends on this meeting. It is said that the standards will help minimize the eight key environmental and social impacts associated with abalone production. The participants in the meeting is said to identify people to serve on the steering committee that will manage the Dialogue process.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) coordinates the Dialogue but has an equal voice in the roundtable discussions. WWF Aquaculture Program Officer Colin Brannen said that the steering committee will use the opinions from the participants to build consensus on a set of standards that will encourage innovation and increased sustainability in the abalone industry.
In the first meeting the participants agreed on overarching goals (a.k.a., principles) to address those impacts. The impacts discussed relate to biosecurity, genetics and the ecosystem effects of abalone aquaculture. Dialogue participants also made significant progress in categorizing criteria, which are specific areas to focus on in order to reduce the impacts of abalone farming.
