Good practice:

Aquaculture: insights for a correct integrated management approach of the sector at a region level

The guideline aims at creating a unique and complete document, starting from the selection of the species, the identification of the territory, the explanation of the bureaucratic process to obtain the license in order to increase the international production and to oppose the foreign competition.
Despite the rapid growth of recent years, aquaculture encounters many difficulties due to an increasingly competitive food market, technical problems and high production risk, bureaucratic delays to obtain the planned permits and a defective communication with consumers and the public sector. In order to clarify some of these aspects, Liguria Region issued a specific Regional Law which regulates the activity of mariculture. It performs multiple functions:
- represents a useful reference tool for Municipalities and Port Authorities in the context of reorganization, rationalization and restructuring of ports and Liguria landings
- constitutes a reference document for potential subjects interested in realizing new aquaculture production realities in Liguria
- represents a useful cognitive tool for the public sector to learn about currently existing activities in Liguria, information on the health issues regarding aquaculture products, the protection of the environment and the welfare of farmed animals and, more generally, the initiatives of the Liguria Region aimed at the discipline and control of this specific productive sector.

The main funds came from Regional Funds; a part of the activities has been financed by the EU structural funds Fesr and Feamp. Liguria Region has created this guideline after a long and participative process involving directly companies and local stakeholders, listening to their needs and barriers.

- Drafting of a regional guideline that has been distributed among regional stakeholders
- Approval of a regional Law regulating the mariculture sector: it has been the first regional law in Italy related to this issue
- useful reference tool for Municipalities and Port Authorities
- reference document for subjects interested in realizing new aquaculture production realities in Liguria and useful cognitive tool for the public sector to learn about currently existing activities in Liguria

To raise the level of dialogue between public and private worlds in the aquaculture sector has been the main challenge successfully encountered during the realization of the guideline.

This good practice has an high potential for learning or transfer, because it is as easy as it is useful. it is a practical and easy to use guideline, distributed by regional offices to all interested stakeholders or future entrepreneurs, in order to avoid a long process to acquire the necessary information to obtain the licence to project, built up and start a new SME. Moreover the needs in this sector are quite common across European regions and in this case it can be useful to follow the exemple of somebody that has developed a good practice that is demonstrating that achieved benefits outweigh investment costs by far.