SFP’s overall ambition has always been to see that 100% of seafood worldwide is produced sustainably – in other words, to give everyone in the world the chance to eat sustainable seafood. This is obviously a distant and aspirational goal, likely many decades away into the future, but if we’re ever going to get there we need to lay out a route, complete with milestones and targets.
SFP favors this approach because we believe it will reassure the world’s largest seafood buyers that change is coming at a scale commensurate with the size of their global businesses, and hence give them the confidence to stay the course. 
Our joint success over the years in key sectors has enabled our partners to make firmer and more public commitments over time. By working at this global scale, we have also attracted more of the supply chain to join these efforts, as the business payoffs of doing so became obvious.
For this initiative, SFP has set an interim target that, by 2020, 75% of world production in key sectors is – at a minimum – either sustainable (i.e., certified by the MSC program, or green-listed in SFP’s Metrics tool) or making regular, verifiable improvements.
- for wild production: certified by one of the following programs: IFFO RS, ASMI RFM, Iceland Responsible Fisheries, Fair Trade USA; or if it is under full assessment in the MSC program; or if it is in a fishery improvement project (FIP) that is making good progress (i.e., with a progress rating of A, B, or C using SFP’s FIP evaluation tool.
- for farmed production: certified by one of the following programs: ASC, BAP, GGAP; or if it is in a formal Aquaculture improvement project (AIP).
Check back for progress reports on our Target 75 Initiative.
These are the latest publications related to SFP's T75 Campaign:
June 2017 - Target 75 Initiative Publication
T75 Fresh and Frozen Tuna Sector Report
T75 Coldwater Crab Sector Report
T75 Reduction Fisheries Sector Report
T75 Snapper Grouper Sector Report
The Route to Target 75 is being laid out through our sector reports, which include in-depth analyses of global seafood seafood landings and trade. Implementation is already happening through the SRs and has led to some notable successes and real impact including:
- Increased Industry Participation. There are currently 121 individual companies participating in the 16 SFP- convened supply chain roundtables, up from 107 at the end of 2017.
- More FIPs and AIPs. In 2017, the SRs initiated or reactivated eight fishery improvement projects (FIPs). SR participants have been involved in improving many fisheries, including Northern-Central Peruvian Anchovy, which is the world’s largest source of fishmeal.
- Expanded Interest in Improvement. The SRs have initiated another 10 pre-FIPs that are now working to reach a stage when they can become publicly recorded and evaluated for progress.
- Improvement at Greater Scale. SR participants are increasingly seeking fishery improvements at the national or regional level, rather than at the fishery level (e.g., the newly formed Mexican Seafood SR).
The Target 75 initiative is also an important contribution to meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14 – “Life below water” – which aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.” Companies that sponsor Target 75 will also be directly supporting activities aimed at achieving the UN's SDG 14.
What some seafood industry stakeholders may not know, however, is how closely one of those goals relates to SFP’s Target 75 Initiative and how, if your company is interested in both initiatives, you can showcase your sustainability by meeting the criteria of both at once.
According to the UN SDG website, SDG Goal #14, “Life below water,” calls for the world to “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.” There are a number of “targets,” or specific requests made under Goal #14, but we’d like to note two of these targets in particular:
- By 2020, sustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceans
- By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics
These targets, taken word-for-word from the website, very closely mirror the goals of the T75 initiative. Not only does T75 also set a deadline of 2020, but SFP is also hoping that fishery improvement projects (FIPS) will help stocks worldwide in “strengthening their resilience,” and we believe that industry stakeholder companies, by participating in supply chain roundtables (SRs) are taking “action for their restoration.”
We also believe that FIPs, when properly managed, meet all of the criteria outlined in the second bullet point above—all part of the Target 75 initiative.
We believe that any company that wishes to follow SDG 14’s guidelines should become involved with Target 75—either by volunteering to become a Target 75 Champion, or by joining a relevant SR to help start new FIPs or work with ongoing projects. Doing so will, by definition, meet many of SDG 14’s requirements. Contact SFP today to learn more about how you can get on board!