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Development of the EAFI (Ethical Aquaculture Food Index); a Sustainability Decision Support Tool for SE Asia

Professor Jason Weeks, Dr Francis Murray,Professor David Little

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Asia

Kasetsart University

Shanghai Ocean University

Can Tho University

Bangladesh Agricultural University

WorldFish

Europe

University of Stirling

Wageningen University

Leiden University

Bergen University

University of Copenhagen

Danish Institute of International Studies

CEFAS /

Food & Agricultural Organisation

SEAT Project• EC funded project 2009 - 2013• Focus on Asian aquaculture species exported to Europe

• Creating evidence base that support sustainability standards and policy• Develop the EAFI as a tool for decision makers

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Tilapia Pangasius Shrimp Prawn

Thailand √ √

China √ √

Vietnam √ √

Bangladesh √ √

Project Scope• 4 species from 4 countries• Particular focus on the main export species from each country• Whole value chain approach, looking beyond the farm

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Project StructureNo. Work Package Name

1 Project management

2 Scoping and systems overview

3 Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)

4 Environmental models

5 Social and economic dynamics

6 Food safety and public health

7 Contamination issues

8 Key values in a broader ethical framework

9 Enhancing food values through action research

10 Transparency & utility of trade information

11 Policy development and implementation

12 Dissemination

Feeding directly into the EAFI

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What is the EAFI

EthicalAquaculture

FoodIndex

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Selected EAFI Case Studies

• Pangasius Vietnam• Shrimp Thailand• Shrimp China• Shrimp and Prawn Bangladesh

• SEAT’s 4 countries and 4 species present 48 different scenarios.• SEAT project will present 4 specific case studies in detail

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• Evidence based decision support tool primarily for international seafood buyers and certifiers

• Incorporates environmental, economic, social and ethical data

• Assesses and scores the sustainability of an aquaculture commodity, beyond the farm level

• Specific to the 4 SEAT countries

What is the EAFI

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• SEAT work packages generated data and identified species and country specific indicators

• Indicators developed into a tiered, hierarchical, iterative framework

• Simple tool, becoming more complex only where necessary

• Utilises a weight of evidence approach to make decisions

What is the EAFI

Key Features of the EAFI as a tiered iterative hierarchical framework

Tier 0 – simple assessment of the national value chain

landscape

Tier One – qualitative assessment of landscape by

questions

Tier Two More questions leading to

semi-quantitative decisions

Tier 3More questions leading to

more quantitative decisions

Valu

e ch

ain

land

scap

e

EAFI ?

Decision m

aking

EAFI ?

EAFI ?

EAFI ?

Decision point at each tier

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How do I use the EAFI?• Step through from Tier 0• Decision point at each tier. You can exit at any

tier if available information is specific and you can satisfy the indicator/ answer the question

• If moving to more quantitative and specific tiers then EAFI facilitates improvements in knowledge and techniques

The value chain landscape (Tier 0) - product

Nutrients out?

Chemicals in?

Nutrients in?

Chemicals out?

Product quality?

Feed in? Welfare?

Community?

Ethics?

Disease?

Processing?

Value Chain Landscapes – Tier 0

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Types of questions• All questions within the framework have a graduated

range of answers or indicator of sustainability.• Significant use of the actual project data collected and

used via an interrogational approach• Links to all models ERA Aqua, nutrient, GIS, LCA etc.

within the framework; toolbox approach• Development of bias and weighting towards ethics and

sustainability• Mixture of detailed and yes/ no questions dependent on

tier – different questions with greater complexity of answers at higher tiers.

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How is the EAFI weighted?• Currently under development (expect finished

product - November 2013)• Biased towards ethical/ sustainable values of

producers and European consumers• Undergoing Delphi process as we speak –

three iterations of testing with end users

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“The maths bit”• Normalisation• Aggregation• Monte Carlo simulation• Bootstrapping• Weighting

0 50 100 150

sharon

traceylevel 0

level 1

level 2

level 3

level 4

level 5

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

sharon tracey

level 0

level 1

level 2

level 3

level 4

level 5

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What the output may look like

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Global warming

acidification

eutrophication

Fossil resource depletion 0.00

1.00

2.00

b: Mean - SDFarm A

LCA incorporation into the EAFITier EAFI-LCA description Type of

analysis0 Landscape of value chain No1 Strict and clear criteria per species, per country and per

farm-type, like “no feed from …”; “no on-site (diesel based) electricity production”; etc.

Qualitative criteria

2 Screening: Farm or farming from existing SEAT LCA work for 4 indicators: global warming, acidification, eutrophication and fossil resource depletion (maybe to combine with screening LCA excel results for feed inputs to farms)

Quantitative LCA

3 Detailed: New LCA for a new farm – not in current SEAT LCA database – or for an “improved” farm from the existing LCA database for 4 indicators: global warming, acidification, eutrophication and fossil resource depletion

Quantitative LCA

b: Mean - SD

Farm A Farm B

Farm C Farm D Farm E Farm F Farm G Farm H Farm I Sd Mean

Global warming

0.19 1.5 0.1 1 2 4 3.5 0.5 0.2 5 1.79 1.98

acidification 0.80 2 1 0.4 5 7 3 0.5 6 7 2.75 3.54

eutrophication

0.72 0.5 1.5 1 3 4 2 1 1.5 1.8 1.09 1.81

Fossil fuel depletion

0.41 0.67 0.33 1.25 0.5 1.5 0.4 1.4 0.6 1.3 0.47 0.88

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Feedback to date• A range of aquaculture standards setters/ certifiers

have been consulted and been positive about the EAFI potential and the (risk) framework approach

• Buyers also tested; main comment is to keep it as simple as possible

• All have liked very much the inclusion of ethics and the whole value chain approach into the EAFI process

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Summary• Independent iterative process that is evidence based and

focussed on ethics and sustainability• Easy to use by non experts• Not an accreditation scheme but a first consideration

Next steps.....• Now encouraging feedback on how you would use the EAFI• Development of EAFI is moving toward worked case studies,

weighting, and refined presentation of robust database.

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Thank you

• Jason Weeks (EAFI development)J.weeks@cranfield.co.uk