Species Diversification in Aquaculture: a Global Assessment

Suggested Bibliographic Reference: Challenging New Frontiers in the Global Seafood Sector: Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, July 11-15, 2016. Compiled by Stefani J. Evers and Ann L. Shriver. International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET), Corvallis, 2016.Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, held July 11-15, 2016 at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Center (AECC), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.Species diversification in aquaculture has been driven and influenced by various factors including consumer preference, technical innovations such as advances in artificial propagation, economies of scale, risk diversification, policy orientation, among others. Global aquaculture development in general has been associated with species diversification in terms of both increasing number of farmed species and more even distribution of production among species, yet diversifying patterns vary across countries or regions. While species diversification has become a popular notion attractive to policymakers and other experts, there is much room to improve in measuring species diversification in aquaculture and proper use of diversity indicators to facilitate evidence-based decision making. This paper reviews the concept and measurement of farmed species diversity and conducts a global assessment of species diversification in aquaculture based on the FAO global aquaculture production statistics. The assessment covers close to 600 farmed species items registered by FAO in nearly 200 countries or territories for over 60 years since 1950. The assessment quantifies farmed species diversity with indicators at various species aggregate levels for different farming environments and/or geographical areas. The assessment synthesizes the status and trends of aquaculture species diversification at the national, regional and global levels. Some stylized facts and salient issues uncovered by the assessment are highlighted and discussed in the paper; whereas all the assessment results are documented in spreadsheet templates for easy access by other experts who are encouraged to uncover stylized facts or salient issues in addition to those addressed in the paper