Date: Thursday 21 May 2026
Time: 10:30am (SAST)
Venue: Lecture Room
Teams Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/343447198197111?p=3xiccJcyo5zhiCwiJ7
By Dr Josephine Pegg
Conservation Scientist, Organisation for Tropical Studies
Honorary Research Associate, NRF-SAIAB
Lessons from Laos: Industrial Aquaculture and sustainable fisheries?
Freshwater aquaculture and inland fisheries are receiving growing attention in South Africa’s policy and development agenda. The DFFE’s National Freshwater (Inland) Wild Capture Fisheries Policy was adopted in 2021, while the draft Aquaculture Development Bill remains a work in progress. This seminar draws on Josephine’s Tiny Beam-funded work examining the potential expansion and industrialisation of freshwater aquaculture in South Africa through a comparative lens with Lao PDR. Using examples from the Mekong region alongside South Africa, the seminar explores what happens as freshwater aquaculture scales up, how aquaculture expansion interacts with inland fisheries, environmental governance, fish welfare and development policy, and why many of the risks associated with industrial aquaculture are already predictable from experiences elsewhere. The seminar is neither for nor against aquaculture, rather, it asks: what should South Africa be paying attention to before freshwater aquaculture expansion accelerates?
