Seafood MAP: The Next Phase

by Eva Mudde | Mar 26, 2021

Seafood is an important protein source, accounting for about 17 percent of the total animal protein consumed globally. In addition, aquaculture and fisheries are the main source of income for 59.5 million people. Today, there is a broad consensus that seafood production systems around the world need to become more sustainable and resilient to ensure the supply for future generations. The number of initiatives being undertaken to achieve this are as vast as the world’s oceans themselves. Even so, more than 64 percent of global seafood production is currently not covered by certifications, ratings, or fisheries and aquaculture improvement projects.

Resilience of seafood supply for future generations is a top priority. But how can we ensure that improvement efforts generate impact and accelerate sustainability? GSSI has created Seafood MAP to allow every seafood actor to share their sustainability goals and journeys. As a result, the knowledge gap on the sustainability of seafood production will be reduced, the sustainable seafood industry will become less fragmented and new collaborations will arise to drive continuous improvement efforts by actors of all sizes.

The aim of Seafood MAP will be to:

visualize the sustainability journeys and goals of all actors, regardless of their size and destination;
leverage the influence of buyers and investors to support improvements in fisheries and aquaculture; and
amplify the impact of current and new efforts towards more sustainable seafood for everyone through better information and more collaboration.

Following a multi-year scoping phase, the development of Seafood MAP development kicked off in 2020. GSSI and IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, together with Sustainability Incubator, worked hard to deliver the theoretical design for Seafood MAP. GSSI Partners including FAO, scheme owners of GSSI-recognized certification schemes, investors and seafood producers were consulted throughout the process. Tests were initiated to evaluate the applicability of proposed features. The result of this multistakeholder process was a solid design that is now ready to be built and introduced to everyone who would like to gain more visibility for their efforts on seafood sustainability and amplify their sustainability impact.

Approval of Seafood MAP was gained by the GSSI Steering Board in November 2020, so work has begun to build, test and implement the program. In 2021, GSSI will develop a beta version of the digital Seafood MAP platform. In parallel, we will work with GSSI partners to pilot the program to confirm that:

Seafood MAP puts on the map those fisheries and aquaculture operations currently not on the radar;
buyers and investors use Seafood MAP to drive continuous improvement where certified product is not available; and
Seafood MAP creates a pipeline for non-profits, NGOs and development agencies to engage more people and accelerate their impact.

The first pilot results will populate the beta version of the digital platform and demonstrate that Seafood MAP can truly deliver what it was designed to do: measure and accelerate the performance of global seafood supply towards more sustainable seafood for everyone.

If you are as excited about this project as we are, and want to learn more, our brand new Seafood MAP brochure is now available. Download it here to learn more about the design and how your company or organization can use Seafood MAP.

Are you interested to learn even more? Do you want to join us on our journey towards more sustainable seafood for everyone? Please reach out at seafoodmap@ourgssi.org. We are looking forward to starting a journey together!

Seafood MAP

Download Brochure

CeDePesca

Encourage good practices in small-scale fisheries through co-management.

CeDePesca are working on a confirmation of a Co-management Commission in Panama have begun data collection through voluntary logbooks by fishers.

It is an ongoing experience where we are discussing and resolving together how to recover the diminished resources that make our livelihoods. We really thank CeDePesca and Seafood MAP for their help on this process.

Ernesto Vargas

FENAPESCA (National Artisanal Fishers Federation)

The Philippines and Indonesia - Asian Seafood Improvement Collaborative

Providing improvement-oriented programs to smallholder producers and fishers to improve their social and environmental practices for better international markets while improving livelihoods and building resilient communities.

This aquaculture project seeks to engage smallholder shrimp farmers to help them improve their efforts towards environmental, social, and gender equality sustainability targets. ASIC provides improvement programs to allow for a step-by-step continuous journey for smallholder farmers to comply with the ASIC Shrimp and Social and Gender Standards. The program offers verification of sustainable practices at no cost which is then leveraged to provide direct market access to buyers. ASIC fisheries project is working to finalize its program while providing support to existing fisheries programs in the Philippines and looking to pilot its program soon.

The social and gender components are a new area that we have not yet heard before and through this program, our awareness has increased - which extended to farm management, household, and to the community level.

Smallholder Farmer

Indonesia

Uganda - Deutsche Gesellschaft fϋr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

Ensuring food security and reducing poverty by increasing fish supply and income

The Responsible Fisheries Business Chains Project (RFBCP) in Uganda is concentrating on sustainable fisheries management of Nile Perch on Lake Victoria and Lake Kyoga. Currently, GIZ-RFBCP is drafting selection criteria that will be used to identify producers to work with. The status of such businesses will be ascertained at the beginning and where points of weakness are identified in regards to sustainability measures. GIZ-RFBCP will work with producers to validate their sustainability measures and help them register on the Seafood MAP.

China - China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance and China Blue Sustainability Institute

Optimizing the industrial layout, conserving fishery resources, and protecting water ecology to meet the growing consumer demand for high-quality protein and to provide producers with new sustainable practices.

CAPPMA and China Blue have been working with scientific research teams, producers, purchasers, and other stakeholders over the span of this project. In close cooperation, a large amount of research has been carried out and suggestions have been made for the optimization and next development of the Seafood MAP registration model based on China's characteristics and reality.

In China, there are many types of aquatic products available for residents to consume, and the production model is diversified. Reflecting on our pilot work so far, we know more time is needed to optimize, but we are looking forward to establishing a concrete buildout of the Seafood MAP platform to move our work forward and improve.

Janelle Dong

CAPPMA

Papua New Guinea - Fishing Association of Papua New Guinea

Exposing our progress and performance with seafood supply chain partners and finding common ground for collaboration to move towards certification.

The prawn and lobster fisheries management in the area is aimed at preserving the fishery for the traditional inhabitants, with strict limited entry for non-inhabitants. We aim to move all fisheries and aquaculture operations toward sustainable certification, we need Seafood MAP as a path to educate our fisher how to collect data properly, report and assess it.

Seafood MAP has increased the collaboration between the National Fishery Authority and the producers in the area with respect to data collection, measuring performance and reporting against the robust Seafood MAP criteria based on FAO and SDG indicators.

Marcelo Hidalgo

Sustainability Director, FIA PNG

Aquaconnect and IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative

Working towards more efficient resource use by collecting and analyzing farm and disease data.

The project focused on improving disease data collection and analysis, by linking Aquaconnect to a lead aquatic epidemiologist. The objective of the project is to provide farmers better information on diseases with the ultimate aim to improve resource efficiency. The Aquaconnect team tested the Seafood MAP registration form for seafood producers, as well as the self-evaluation form for their customers.

Through the IDH-Aquaconnect program, we were able to promote sustainable practices among the farmers communities and set several shrimp production benchmarks. One of the key highlights is that we have redesigned our data architecture to capture individual and population-level symptoms to support the shrimp epidemiology study.

Sudhakar Velayutham

Project Manager, Aquaconnect

Indonesia - UNIDO

Strengthening the quality and standard compliance capacity of small and medium-scale enterprises to improve market access to both domestic and international markets.

The programme supports the country to align the demand and supply of quality services required by markets through enhancing quality infrastructure and services, strengthening producers and value chains, and raising a culture for quality.

The Indonesian fisheries sector has great potential for both capture fisheries and aquaculture, with small fishers and farmers dominating the sector. Small scale fishers and farmers usually have limited access to markets, technology, information, finance, and public services. Helping them to improve their access to these services will ultimately improve their livelihood that could incentivize sustainable fishing and farming practices.

Ita Sualia

Chief Operations Officer, UNIDO

Ecuador - Sustainable Shrimp Partnership and IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative

Supporting SSP members to achieve their goals and supporting small and medium-scale farmers to achieve SSP through the establishment and coordination of an improvement program.

Over the course of the project, twelve farms qualified for the SSP criteria of zero antibiotics, ASC certification, minimal environmental impact, and full traceability. Currently, the SSP focuses on a better understanding of their carbon and water footprint by joining the IDH Aquaculture Working Group on Environmental footprint. The SSP team tested the Seafood MAP registration form for seafood producers, as well as the self-evaluation form for their improvement program.

The improvement program allowed us to support small shrimp farms to demonstrate accountability by improving their environmental and social performance and it demonstrated that SSP members are committed to the highest levels of transparency by being the first shrimp producers in the world to adapt blockchain traceability for shrimp

Pamela Nath

Director, SSP

Mozambique - Pescamar and Nueva Pescanova

Improve maritime fishing training in Mozambique to ensure local generational replacement of fleet masters and resilience of fishing communities

The project is a public-private initiative that transfers knowledge from the Atlantic Maritime Fisheries Institute of Vigo (Spain) to the Matola Fishing School (Mozambique) funded by AECID and the collaboration of Pescamar and Nueva Pescanova. To date it has allowed improving the school´s curricula, and its equipment and has incorporated students to work at Pescamar.

Seafood MAP will give visibility to the work that Pescamar is doing to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, in this case highlighting its collaborative work to improve fisheries education.

Jose Joaquin Rodriguez

General Manager, Pescamar

Hugo Byrnes

Vice President Product Integrity, Ahold Delhaize

Hugo Byrnes joined Ahold in 2006 and was subsequently appointed to the position of Vice President Product Integrity. He is responsible for Ahold Delhaize’s food and non-food product policies, which cover product safety and responsible products. This includes social compliance, animal welfare and environmental issues. Hugo Byrnes has a Dutch Law degree from the State University Leiden, the Netherlands. He is a food lawyer whose career has focused on the food business and in particular on quality management and standardization.

Flavio Corsin

Director of Partnerships, Aqua-Spark

Flavio has spent more than two decades working in responsible aquaculture globally for non-profit, intergovernmental, and for-profit organizations. As Aqua-Spark’s Director of Partnerships, he is responsible for driving the development and execution of a robust partner ecosystem that aligns all stakeholders behind a core vision, while supporting Aqua-Spark’s portfolio, network, and goals. Prior to joining Aqua-Spark, Flavio worked for IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, overseeing their Aquaculture Program. He was also IDH Vietnam Country Director, establishing groundbreaking public-private partnerships in coffee, tea, and apparel. He founded and ran the sustainability arm of the Vietnam association of farmers and fishers (VINAFIS). He has worked as an expert for over 20 international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Flavio holds an M.Sc. in Aquaculture from the University of Stirling and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology, the study of diseases in populations, from the University of Liverpool.

Join our

Global Partnership