aquaculture improvement partnerships
The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) is leveraging retailer and supplier influence to improve the rapidly expanding aquaculture sector. We are starting by working with tilapia and Vietnamese catfish farmers to better understand and mitigate their environmental impacts, and we’re participating on the steering committees of WWF-US Aquaculture Dialogs for both these species, to help set outcome-based standards for eco-labeling.
Most of the world’s farmed fish production comes from millions of small farmers across Asia, Africa and Latin America, yet these farms cannot afford to be audited against the kinds of rigorous eco-labeling standards under development. We are reviewing approaches taken in other sectors – forestry, agriculture, organics–to develop or modify eco-labels to make them feasible for small farmers.
We are also reviewing world supplies of fish meal and fish oil, to promote transparency about the sustainability of key wild capture fisheries that supply feed for aquaculture. We will then work with these fisheries and feed manufacturers to identify needs and opportunities for Fishery Improvement Partnerships to tackle growing concerns about potential for depletion of these important fish stocks.