Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade Ethical Tool Workshop in Thailand 14 June 2012 (Source: Running ethical tool workshops

in Asia: A user-guide By Scott Bremer, Arne Sveinson Haugen and Matthias Kaiser, Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, University of Bergen, Ida Bloms Hus, Allegaten 34, 5020 Bergen, Norway Dec 2011. Work Package 8 Coordinator. Draft 1).

As part of the SEAT Project Deliverable D8.9: Boundary Issues; A user guide on exploring ethical principles for aquatic farmed products, an Ethical Tool Workshop will be organized among stakeholders across the value chain in Thailand. The ethical tool workshops is a participatory mechanism used by Work Package 8 for engaging Asian stakeholders in the aquaculture industry, to frame their conception of the key values within an ethical industry. It includes a pragmatic discussion, divided into three sections according to three broad questions: (a) Why, within the context of the SEAT Project, is it valuable to run ethical tool workshops? (b) What form should these ethical tool workshops take? This includes a discussion of who will be invited to participate, and when the workshops will run; and (c) How will the ethical tool workshops address boundary issues and other challenges? Work Package 8 (WP8) seeks to add an ethical component to the SEAT Project, including a regard for the values and ethical principles of both European consumers and Asian producers, in any potential Ethical Aquaculture Food Index (EAFI). While other work packages describe the aquaculture industry, WP8 seeks to add normative meaning to these descriptions. To the degree that the industry has been shown to lead to environmental, social and economic changes in Europe and Asia, to what extent are these changes congruent with the values and principles of stakeholders engaged in the industry, or consumers alike? The five rationales for holding ethical tool workshops translate to five objectives for the workshops: (1) To organise an inclusive workshop comprising diverse groups of stakeholders, both from within the aquaculture industry (primary) and the broader community (secondary), including an appreciation for under-represented stakeholders such as the environment or future generations.

(2) To communicate the European consumer perspective (encapsulated in D8.8) to Asian producers and vice versa, as an exercise in disseminating key SEAT Project messages. (3) To explore through dialogue and validate the ethical terrain of values and ethical principles within each of the four Asian countries, presented in D8.10 Asian Stakeholder Realities (4) To arrive at a list of indicators, or categories of indicators, deemed salient, legitimate and credible by Asian stakeholders for an ethical aquaculture food index (EAFI). (5) To encourage social learning on ethical standards of aquaculture among stakeholders, as an integral component of action research. Who will participate in the workshops? It is proposed that the workshop will comprise 30-45 participants, representing a crosssection of primary and secondary stakeholders associated with the aquaculture industry. Roughly three quarters of participants will be primary stakeholders with a direct stake in the industry, drawn from different stages in the food chain, including, though not exclusively; (i) input suppliers; (ii) aquaculture farmers; (iii) middle-men; (iv) wholesalers; (v) processors and (vi) those involved in the storage and transport of the product to market. Primary stakeholders may also, where relevant, include other actors outside the food chain, though with a direct stake in the industry, such as state regulators, scientists from government laboratories, or representatives from nongovernmental organisations for example. The other quarter of participants will be drawn from secondary stakeholders from the wider community within which the industry is nested. These secondary stakeholders may include, for instance; school teachers, religious leaders, local government officials, retailers, journalists, long-time residents or other local professionals. The exact composition of participants, and the split between primary and secondary stakeholders, will be contingent on the advice of the SEAT partners in each Asian context. The intention is that participants will be split into groups of 8-12 participants, with primary and secondary stakeholders in separate groups. This separation is important to ensure that any knowledge asymmetry between primary and secondary stakeholders does not prevent free and frank discussion. However, the groups of primary or secondary stakeholders themselves will comprise a diversity of stakeholders, for example, from different links in the food chain.

There are two important considerations that must be taken into account when selecting participants: (i) Aquaculture Species: If stakeholders associated with two separate aquaculture species are brought together within one workshop, it is important that there is a balanced representation of primary and secondary stakeholders associated with both species, while not including any more participants than the 30-45 proposed. Participants will then be grouped, (a) according to the species they associate with, and (b) whether they are primary or secondary stakeholders. (ii) Gender of participants: The workshops should have a close gender balance. Among primary stakeholders the proportion of females participating should, where possible, correspond to their representation within the aquaculture industry within a given Asian context. This ratio can be determined from previous surveys done for the SEAT Project. Among secondary stakeholders, participation should be as close as possible to an equal ratio of male and female participants. How will the ethical tool workshops address boundary issues and other challenges? Used here, boundary issues concern the artificial demarcation of a boundary around the system of interest in this case the aquaculture food chain in order to identify stakeholders. The aim is to identify stakeholders with diverse perspectives on the interactions within this system and across the boundary with other systems within the wider global context; necessitating perspectives both from the inside looking out, and from the outside looking in. Boundary issues are the challenges that emerge in identifying and working with these stakeholders, with this a particular challenge where the boundary encompasses an industry that crosses political, economic social and continental borders between Europe and Asia. Boundary issues draw on a literature expounding methods for stakeholder analysis and mapping.