Our oceans provide around 90 million tons of wild-captured seafood each year. Fishing communities, businesses and consumers alike rely on healthy ecosystems and fisheries to continue to source, sell and eat fish.
Unfortunately, over a third of the world’s fisheries have been overexploited and the health of the ecosystems on which they depend is in decline. Despite these realities, seafood still holds much promise. The World Bank has indicated that fishery production globally could be worth $83 billion more each year if fisheries were managed at sustainable levels.
Fisheries are an inherently renewable resource. They can provide more fish, guarantee more predictable and resilient incomes, and deliver higher environmental benefits if we invest in their recovery and continued management. At present, Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) many of which work towards third party certification are a primary mechanism for achieving these goals.
However, funding for FIPs comes predominantly from governmental and philanthropic sources, and it is inadequate for the major work needed. Given competing priorities in the philanthropic sector and pressure to reduce public spending, we urgently need other sources of capital.
In response, Ocean Outcomes (O2) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) are at the forefront of developing a solution a proposed Sustainable Seafood Fund (SSF or Fund). The Fund is designed to overcome current implementation and funding hurdles by providing a vehicle for both impact investors and seafood companies to invest in FIPs and help scale sustainability initiatives.
The Fund is based on the business case for seafood companies to invest in programs aimed at improving the long-term viability of their seafood supplies. Under the Fund’s proposed model, industry partners support the improvement of fisheries that supply them through a volume-based fee, while investors support improvement by pooling capital in a return-making financing mechanism that advances funds for those improvements.
This vehicle provides a much-needed platform to ensure accountability, scale up financing for fisheries recovery, reduce transaction costs and achieve economies of scale. It also ensures attainment of environmental, social and livelihood goals, in alignment with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14. Central to the success of this model is a pipeline of investment-grade FIPs.
As part of the design process for the proposed Fund, we have compiled a list of over 250 fisheries of interest. While we have been able to identify a pipeline of opportunities, these currently amount to fewer than 7% of the 250. Most FIPs lack fully vetted financials, have limited or unclear landing volumes, have varied and disparate workplans, or have not developed robust industry supporters. To realize blue finance investments in sustainable fisheries, addressing these challenges should be a priority for future capacity building and grant making.
Collectively, those working in fishery improvement need to pursue achieving clearer, consistent fishery data through more robust stock assessments which support aggregation of universally adopted key data elements. Those developing FIPs need to ensure budgets, workplans and objectives are developed using agreed upon templates and guidance, much of which is already available on FisheryProgress.org.
2020 GoodMenProject.com