Sustainability standards are used to assure improved environmental performance in the aquaculture sector. But standard setters face limitations in including a broad range of producers with different capabilities, which in turn reduces their scope and impact. Drawing on Sen's capability approach, we introduce a novel way to assess the extent to which sustainability standards can support the capability of farmers to make prescribed improvements to their production practices. In doing so, we compare four shrimp aquaculture standards (Aquaculture Stewardship Council, Global Aquaculture Alliance, Southeast Asian Shrimp Aquaculture Improvement Protocol and the Thai Agricultural Standard) based on an analysis of what we label the 'prescribed capitals' and 'bundle of capitals' that underpin the compliance capability of producers. The results show that standards narrowly prescribe standards requiring human capital, while there is potential for prescribing a wider bundle of social, financial and physical capitals that can allow more flexible standard compliance. The findings raise the prospect of redesigning sustainability standards to support a broader diversity of producer capabilities and, in turn, increase their overall impact.

中文翻译：

---

一种评估水产养殖可持续性标准符合性的能力方法。

可持续性标准用于确保水产养殖部门的环境绩效得到改善。但是，标准制定者在包括具有不同能力的广泛生产者方面面临局限性，从而降低了他们的范围和影响。借助Sen的能力方法，我们引入了一种新颖的方法来评估可持续性标准可以在多大程度上支持农民改善其生产实践的能力。在此过程中，我们根据对“规定的首都”和“捆绑的首都”的标签分析，比较了四种虾类水产养殖标准（水产养殖管理委员会，全球水产养殖联盟，东南亚虾水产养殖改良议定书和泰国农业标准）。增强了生产者的合规能力。结果表明，标准狭义地规定了需要人力资本的标准，同时有可能规定更广泛的社会，金融和实物资本，从而可以更灵活地遵守标准。研究结果为重新设计可持续性标准以支持生产者能力的更广泛多样性提供了前景，进而提高了其总体影响。