Ghana aquaculture: building the foundations for responsible growth

Africa is on the brink of a demographic transformation. As population growth accelerates and demand for affordable protein increases, aquaculture is increasingly recognised as one of the most promising sectors to support food security, livelihoods, and economic development across the continent.

In Ghana, tilapia farming already plays a central role in the national diet and rural economy. The question is no longer whether aquaculture will expand, but how that growth can be guided in a way that is responsible, inclusive, and resilient.

From vision to laying the first stones

Over the past months, work in Ghana has focused on laying the groundwork for a Code of Good Practice for aquaculture, developed in close collaboration with national stakeholders. Rather than starting with certification as an end point, the emphasis has been on defining what responsible aquaculture looks like in the Ghanaian context. In a way that is credible, locally owned, and achievable.

At this stage, the effort remains under development. The focus has been on: Engaging producers, public institutions, and value-chain actors; exploring governance and ownership models that balance local leadership with independent credibility; and identifying environmental, social, and health-related (One Health Approach) practices that could form the backbone of a future Code.

This early work is as much about alignment and trust as it is about technical content. Bringing together diverse perspectives and needs, has helped surface both shared ambitions and real constraints, including informality in markets, data limitations, and, of course, access to finance.

What is emerging

One message has been consistent across conversations: there is a clear appetite for a voluntary, improvement-oriented reference that sits between regulation and full third-party certification.

Such a Code would not replace existing laws, nor would it act as a shortcut to certification. Instead, it could serve as a common language for better practices in the region. Supporting producers in improving step by step, while giving confidence to financiers, insurers, and market actors seeking clearer signals of responsible production.

Importantly, the discussion is not about imposing external models, but about adapting principles of responsible aquaculture to local realities, including how data are collected, how practices are verified, and how incentives can support adoption rather than exclusion.

Reflection

Being involved at this stage is a reminder that system change rarely begins with polished frameworks. It begins with conversations, shared problem-framing, and a willingness to explore.

In Ghana, those foundations are now being laid. The work ahead will be iterative, collaborative, and shaped by what proves workable on the ground. If done well, this process can help create a reference point that supports responsible growth, as well as a model to be replicated across the West Africa.

Indonesia - Scaling Sustainability Through a Jurisdictional Lens

Indonesia is changing fast. With a population that has surpassed 270 million people and an economy growing steadily over the past decade, the country’s development is deeply tied to its natural resources. For millions of families, seafood and palm oil are not only key export commodities, but the main sources of income, food security, livelihoods, and community identity.

This interconnection between land and water makes Indonesia one of the most important places to explore how sustainable production can work at scale. Through the ASC Improver Programme, we are now working with partners to understand how a jurisdictional approach could help align progress across aquaculture, fisheries, and feed production systems, linking them to broader land-use and conservation goals.

Early Steps Toward Integration

The work is still in its early stages, but the foundations are being built. In 2024, I visited farms and community sites in Central Kalimantan, Borneo, where the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has been applying jurisdictional methods in the palm oil sector.

Observing their work on multi-stakeholder governance gave us valuable insight into how similar models could apply to seafood and feed secotors. These learnings are helping us identify what kind of enabling environment is needed to make sector-wide sustainability truly feasible in that region.

Working Hand in Hand with Kaleka

Our partnership with Kaleka, a local organization experienced in systemic issues in Indonesia, has been central to this process. Together, we are exploring how sectors can be better integrated into landscape-level governance dialogues, where decisions about land, water, and livelihoods intersect.

This collaboration also supports the exchange of knowledge with other sectors already advancing jurisdictional coordination under the Sustainable Palm Oil (SPO)framework in Central Kalimantan. The aim is to create shared learnings , not to reinvent the wheel, but to understand how existing structures can support sustainability transitions in agrifood systems.

Reflection: Where Conservation Meets Production

During our 2024 field visit, we were invited by Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas, one of the world’s leading orangutan conservationists, and founder of Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), to see the work being done to protect Borneo’s remaining forest habitats. Standing in the forest that still shelters these great apes, it was impossible not to feel the tension between conservation and production.

Palm oil remains one of the major drivers of habitat loss in Borneo, and yet, it also sustains countless local livelihoods. This reality underscores why it’s so important to work with these sectors. By engaging major commodities such as palm oil in the jurisdictional dialogue, we can help ensure that accountability, transparency, and shared responsibility become part of how development happens.

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Thailand – Advancing Workers’ Rights

Thailand is one of the most advanced seafood producers in the world. Home to a highly efficient shrimp and seafood industry that supplies markets across the globe. Yet behind this success lies a human dimension that often goes unseen. Among the hundreds of thousands of workers who sustain the sector are migrants from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, many of whom speak different languages and, in some cases, cannot read or write.

This complexity makes communication, fair treatment, and inclusion a daily challenge. Through a partnership with Thai Union, we have been working to address this, amongst other improvements. Ensuring that progress in aquaculture also means progress for the people who make it possible.

Working Together for Fair and Safe Workplaces

Our collaboration focused on improving amongst other things, social responsibility practices at farm level, helping producers and processors strengthen policies around worker welfare, contracts, grievance mechanisms, and access to information.

In Abril 2025, I joined the teams on site, to assess and verify these improvements, and provide recommendations on how to tackle challenges. Aligning with ASC’s social standards while ensuring the process remained practical for farms and clusters.

Bangladesh – Working With Coastal Communities Toward Resilient Systems

Bangladesh is home to one of the world’s most important shrimp-producing regions, where thousands of smallholder farmers rely on aquaculture for their livelihoods. Many of these farms are located along the edges of the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, and the only place where Bengal tigers roam among mangroves. There, aquaculture offers vital income opportunities but also poses complex challenges for conservation and environmental impact.

Challenges such as disease outbreaks, limited market access, and environmental degradation continue to affect the sector’s sustainability. We set out to address these issues by working directly with farming communities, not only to improve production practices, but to strengthen the systems that support them.

Building from the Ground Up

In collaboration with Luna Shrimp Farms, LENK cluster associations, and other local partners, we launched an improvement project in the Khulna and Satkhira regions. The goal was to help family-scale producers enhance water quality, feed use, and social practices while maintaining their traditional livelihoods in the delta.

As Manager for the ASC Improver Programme, I led the project’s technical design, defining verification processes, data requirements, and improvement milestones. A central focus was to ensure that monitoring and assurance systems were realistic for smallholders, while still aligned with ASC’s global sustainability framework.

By combining local knowledge with structured improvement plans, we helped farmers understand not only what to improve but why. Linking better practices to resilience, income stability, and access to responsible markets.

Innovation at a Human Scale

One of the key innovations explored in Bangladesh was a simplified digital traceability system tailored for small clusters. A system that could allow farmers and exporters to track the products without adding complexity, creating a foundation for transparency that could later scale. The project also prioritized capacity building. Local implementers were trained to guide farmers on environmental and social best practices. Often in feeding, pond maintenance, or post-harvest work.

Reflection: Lessons That Stay With Us

Working in Bangladesh was not easy. The field conditions were challenging, and progress often required patience, creativity, and respect for local realities. Political shifts and economic uncertainty made the context unpredictable. Yet these are the very environments where responsible aquaculture matters most.

Although the project has now ended due to political instability, the lessons we learned there continue to shape how we approach new initiatives. From designing risk-based assurance systems to engaging farmers in collective action, the insights from Bangladesh now live on in my work in Ghana, Indonesia, and beyond.