This initiative, which is coordinated by OESA Foundation, takes into account the different raised species and productive systems used, as well as the level of development of aquaculture in each Mediterranean country. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Spanish Marine Aquaculture Producers Association (APROMAR) have collaborated in this project. In the second phase, that begins this year, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM/FAO) joins the project.

Mediterrane-On project, which has the support of the Biodiversity Foundation and of the Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM) in Spain, finished its first phase with the definition of a collection of sustainability indicators for Mediterranean aquaculture. These indicators can be measured and assessed.

OESA Foundation, also attached to the MARM, and together with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (UICN) and the Spanish Marine Aquaculture Producers Association (APROMAR), has obtained the first results of the project.

Entities and experts that participate in these programs deepened in the definition of sustainability indicators for the Mediterranean area. These indicators have been collected in a guide that may be applicable to all the species, the production systems and the different countries taking part of the Mediterranean basin. This document�s aim is to give a first collection of indicators for those who work in the aquacultural sector, in order to implement them throughout the Mediterranean basin, so they make possible to improve the sustainability of this sector, which is strategic to the socioeconomic development of a great number of Mediterranean countries, as in the case of Spain. 

The eclectic work made possible to analyse the necessities this sector has, and the challenges to achieve a bigger sustainability, which lets the aquiculture be an activity more consolidated, extended and appreciated in the Mediterranean area.

This is the starting point of a project that is going to be continued in 2011. During the second year, work will focus the implementation of sustainability indicators to the Spanish case, as well as the definition of new specific indicators, in order to complement those ones previously defined to productive systems that use floating tanks in the sea.
In addition, during the second phase, Mediterrane-on will collaborate with General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM/FAO) to develop a pilot project for the selection of sustainability indicators at a local level. This project will be organized in Andalusia by the first half of the year. Together with other activities, a formative course about sustainability indicators in aquaculture will be arranged.

First of all, Mediterrane-On intends to improve the awareness not only of aquacultural managers, but also of the whole society, concerning the necessity of relying on aquacultural activity, as well as contributing with it to a more sustainable management of coastal and rural areas.