Higher stakes and increasing interest in the marine finfish aquaculture sector combined with recent European policies

aimed at its growth imply a need for detailed socioeconomic, ecological and political analyses. In this context, shedding light on a considerable number of socio-environmental conflicts in Europe is of great importance, especially by focusing on their policy implications when new legislation and strategic plans are under development. This article illustrated that marine finfish selleck chemicals llc aquaculture sector in Europe – just like its counterparts throughout the world – does not operate conflict-free, and unearthed the actors and their arguments in order to derive lessons for new policies and their coherent application. The results first illustrated that numerous conflicts related to marine finfish aquaculture exist in Europe. Interestingly, most of these conflicts were not identified in the literature, and they could only be detected by carrying out interviews with the actors involved. While covering the biggest database of peer-reviewed articles enabled to detect 12 conflicts, 27 in-depth interviews with key actors pointed to 12 additional cases. This

shows that the relevance of aquaculture conflicts in Europe remains under addressed in the peer-reviewed selleck chemicals literature. Secondly, the arguments employed in these conflicts demonstrated that conflicts are not a result of pure conservationist concerns, neither of purely local selfish complaints; rather, they are strongly related to environmental justice claims. Yet, some sector and public administration representatives usually consider these debates and opposition as NIMBY attitudes. This perspective labels local movements as NIMBY reactions and blame them for intending to block fish farm projects. This article instead asserts that this approach underrates local movements and ignores the significance of these conflicts with respect to their policy implications and their potential to include constructive and transformative proposals. Indeed, opposition movements that are spotted

often demand the use of best available techniques and practices such as the establishment of closed containers instead of open cages, sustainable Selleckchem Gemcitabine sourcing of feed, labeling and monitoring systems, and an even, transparent and participatory governance [24], [35] and [43]. Moreover, environmental justice arguments are used to call for a just distribution of burdens, benefits and risks generated by marine finfish aquaculture activities; for recognition of relevant stakeholders; for adequate access to information and tools to effectively participate and influence decision-making processes; and for an enhancement of the capabilities and social functioning of individuals and communities. In fact, many debates are related to how decisions are made.