The provision of ecosystem services by European aquaculture.

Abstract

Through the Commission communication "The European Green Deal", Europe reaffirms its commitment to respond to the climate and environmental challenges that will shape our common future. Global warming and climate change on the one hand and the loss of biodiversity on the other are challenges that we must respond to if we want to guarantee a sustainable future1. In line with the Green Deal, the Commission has published a new Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, COM (2020) 380, which proposes actions and commitments to address the loss of biodiversity in Europe, and the Farm to Fork Strategy, COM (2020) 381, with which to facilitate the transition to a sustainable and equitable food system. Both strategies are interconnected by the conviction that a sustainable food system must preserve biodiversity. In this context, European aquaculture must also contribute significantly to the protection of biodiversity, enhancing ecosystem services, preserving habitats and landscapes and constituting an important part of the EU’s sustainable food systems, which can and should be diverse. The objective of this document is to promote, protect and value biodiversity and ecosystem services by recognizing and supporting the European aquaculture that provides these services. 1 Rockström et al. (2009) and Steffeen et al. (2011, 2015) warn that the planet has exceeded its safe limits for certain biophysical processes, climate change and the rate of loss of biodiversity; these authors add the imbalance in the biogeochemical flow (mainly in the nitrogen and phosphorus cycle). The other areas for which planetary boundaries have been defined are stratospheric ozone depletion, ocean acidification, global freshwater consumption, land use changes, atmospheric aerosol load, and chemical pollution (renamed ‘new entities’). Although uncertainties remain in the evaluation of these last two limits, there is a strong consensus that all these problems are deeply interconnected, so there are no individualized solutions. In any case, the sustainable development of the world is only possible if the safety thresholds of these nine planetary processes are not exceeded. This will also contribute to the right to food of European citizens, which the UN defines as ‘the right to have […] access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer belongs, and which ensures a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and dignified life free from anxiety’2. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic this became not only more relevant but also of utmost importance.