Planning and management of aquaculture is key to ensure that natural capital is used efficiently, maximising benefits through food provision and contributing to the economy. A strong but flexible regulatory and licensing framework can protect, secure and enhance the marine and coastal environment. However, at present, the fragmented approach to regulation and licensing throughout Europe is one of the limiting factors in aquaculture development. The outcomes of the WP2 during the first period was reviewing and assessing the regulatory approaches throughout the EAA and implementation of national consultations. The following tasks were completed:
- Developing a common data collection methodology
- Implementing consultations, build stakeholder partnerships, identify causes of variations, bottlenecks and problems
- Identifying bottlenecks within regulatory policies and licensing regimes
- Preparing case study to compare the different methods
- Providing requirement analysis and feedback
