The International Pole & Line Foundation (IPNLF), the only non-profit association that is solely committed to promoting responsible one-by-one tuna fisheries and supply chains, is delighted to announce that it has signed an important Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Maldives Seafood Processors and Exporters Association (MSPEA).
This five-year agreement, ratified between the two parties in Malé, Republic of Maldives, establishes a dynamic, collaborative commitment to support the local tuna sector. The initiative aims to improve the livelihoods of communities connected to these fisheries, and ensure that the Maldives remains at the forefront of the global one-by-one tuna supply. The two organisations will also share office facilities in Malé.
One-by-one fisheries in the Maldives are people-centric, and comprise 100% locally-owned fishing operations engaged in traditional practices. For this reason, an important element of the IPNLF-MSPEA cooperation will be to continue to study, and ultimately quantify, the social and economic contributions of these fisheries.
These endeavours will further drive IPNLF’s social sustainability manifesto which states that investing in the one-by-one tuna supply chain must be done in tandem with delivering social benefits to those coastal communities involved in responsible pole-and-line, handline and troll fisheries.
Another priority for IPNLF, MSPEA, and their Maldives’ partners over the coming years is to further improve the traceability and transparency of one-by-one tuna harvests. This will be done with a variety of new technologies and tools which are either already available or will be implemented in the near future.
2019 | Phoenix Media Network