Norway expanding incentive scheme for lower-impact fish farming
Government will consult on plan to encourage 'zero-emission' production systems
Norway’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries is to consult on a scheme to incentivise fish farmers all along the coast to adopt “zero-emission” production methods.
The country already operates an environmental flexibility scheme that allows fish farmers that have had their maximum biomass allowance reduced under the “traffic light” system to use some of the suspended capacity if they farm the extra fish in government-approved floating closed containment systems.
But that incentive only applies to production areas that have lost capacity under the traffic light system. The traffic light system dictates whether farmers in Norway’s 13 production areas can grow more fish (green light), stay as they are (yellow light), or must reduce capacity by 6% (red light), depending on the impact that lice from fish farms are perceived to have on migrating wild smolts.
Strengthening the incentives
Today’s announcement extends zero-emission incentives to all production areas and should give farmers the opportunity to increase production as long as they don’t increase impact on the environment.
“We want to facilitate further development, more jobs and greater value creation – but it must happen in a predictable, controlled and sustainable way. Therefore, we will now strengthen the incentives to achieve the goals in the aquaculture report on lower environmental impact,” said fisheries minister Marianne Sivertsen Næss in a press release
The aim is to submit the government’s proposal for consultation as quickly as possible. It is a follow-up to a request from the Storting (Parliament), said the ministry, which added that it is desirable to put in place a scheme that is closer to the principles in the aquaculture report that the Storting also supported.
“We are well under way in investigating this. These are complex issues that it is important that we spend time on, both within the administration, but also in consultation rounds and discussions with affected stakeholders. Many are impatient, and so are we,” said Sivertsen Næss.
