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HAVBRUK2-Stort program for havbruksforskning

A Green Light for Aquaculture? Sustainable Innovation and Growth in Norway

Alternative title: Grønt lys for havbruk? Bærekraftig innovasjon og vekst i Norge

Awarded: NOK 9.9 mill.

This project examines how and to what extent the politics and new policies and regulations of Norwegian salmon farming contribute to enhancing or limiting environmental sustainability. The project uses the occurrence of farm sea lice and sea lice infestations on wild salmonids as the key indicator of sustainability, but also focuses on other sustainability indicators, including farm density and area use. The project focuses on policies and regulations such as maximum thresholds for salmon lice in fish farms and production areas, biomass management in the traffic light system, development permits, and the aquaculture fund. It analyzes policy effectiveness and goal attainment, e.g. by studying the impact of regulatory measures on sea lice levels in fish farms on the sea lice infestation pressure on wild salmon population developments over time. It also conducts an international assessment of political approaches and policies for protecting wild salmons from farm sea lice, comparing Norway to other salmon farming jurisdictions, including Scotland, Ireland and Canada (BC). Furthermore, the project analyzes differences in local governance of aquaculture and attitudes towards further growth in the industry, focusing on a selection of coastal municipalities in the north, mid- and west coast of Norway. Ultimately, the project seeks to explain differences in salmon aquaculture politics and policies for enhancing environmental sustainability between different areas, and evaluate how regulatory systems can be improved to ensure more sustainable salmon farming.

This project focuses on how new policy instruments in Norwegian aquaculture, including the Traffic Light System (TLS), Development Permits (DPs) and the Aquaculture Fund (AF) are implemented and stimulate innovation towards environmentally sustainable aquaculture production. It develops a novel theoretical framework combining different approaches to studying how the design and coordination of policy can spur industry innovation to enable goal attainment. Based on this framework, we propose that shifts towards environmentally sustainable production is likely to reflect appropriate design with strong horizontal and vertical coordination of push and pull policies. In our research, we first we examine the interrelationships of new policy instruments and the broader aquaculture governance regime, and assess how implementation and innovation can enable and/or hinder more environmentally sustainable production. Second, we conduct in-depth analysis of how the implementation of new policy instruments affects two promising innovation pathways, genetic and mechanical innovation, and the related consequences for environmentally sustainable production. Third, we study how the new policy instruments are implemented and stimulate innovation locally within three Norwegian production areas. The objective is to analyze whether and how local innovation can help explain the degree of- and variation in environmentally sustainable production among different production areas. Finally, we synthesize lessons from the empirical investigation of early effects and impacts of new policy instruments, with a view to promote environmentally sustainable production.

Publications from Cristin

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Funding scheme:

HAVBRUK2-Stort program for havbruksforskning