Abstract
Today, we need to produce sufficient food and simultaneously conserve biodiversity. But, could biodiversity associated with certain food production practices also be used in marketing products? We analyse this possibility for creating a food quality label for carp raised in the Dombes territory, a cultural landscape of fish ponds in France. The biodiversity of 99 fish ponds was studied in the Dombes territory by analysing aquatic vegetation, dragonflies, amphibians, macroinvertebrates, habitats around ponds, and water quality. In addition, a survey with 200 questionnaires and interviews was conducted with consumers to investigate fish and carp consumption and knowledge about quality labels and biodiversity. Findings reveal that fish production practices conserve remarkable species diversity, particularly for aquatic vegetation, dragonflies and amphibians, and habitats around the ponds. This relatively high level of biodiversity is found in spite of having very nutrient-rich fish pond systems, systems for which normally a low level of biodiversity is expected. Nevertheless, currently this biodiversity cannot be valorised for setting up a quality label for locally produced carp. Firstly, few consumers have adequate knowledge about carp and are interested in eating it. Secondly, most of them have less knowledge about the quality label which wanted to be established for carp from the Dombes. Thirdly, only less than one-third of the consumer is familiar with the term “biodiversity”. Fourthly, the stakeholder network of the supply chain is presently not able to communicate the message of biodiversity as they themselves lack a sufficient knowledge about biodiversity of their systems.
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Acknowledgments
We highly acknowledge the work of Florent Huet, Bruno Perico, Charlotte Ruger, and Fanny Lamiraux who carried out the questionnaire survey and the interviews with the consumers. We thank also Florent Arthaud and Veronique Rosset who provided the baseline data for some species groups. Many thanks also to Karly Burch for editing the paper. This study was supported by the French Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development through the DIVA2 program, the Water Agency (Agence de l’Eau Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse) and the Rhône-Alpes Region. We sincerely thank the fish farmers who allowed us to work in their fish ponds.
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Wezel, A., Chazoule, C. & Vallod, D. Using biodiversity to valorise local food products: the case of fish ponds in a cultural landscape, their biodiversity, and carp production. Aquacult Int 21, 1395–1408 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10499-013-9641-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10499-013-9641-x