Episode 3

De-risking Aquaculture through Jurisdictional Sustainability Programs

with Jason Carter

Jason Carter is the former Investment Manager for IDH’s global aquaculture program. Jason is now working closely with the Asia Aquaculture Facility to continue building marine investment programs. Based in Indonesia, he has been working primarily with farming communities to understand their specific social, environmental, and economic characteristics to improve the effectiveness of sustainable development programs for them. Concurrently, he bridges these works to international stakeholders, structuring investment vehicles to channel capital into such sustainable development programs to fund their growth. He has a background in structuring investment funds on the private and public markets (esp. revenue-based finance), North American sustainable aquaculture, marine science and entrepreneurship.

IDH is an organization that works with businesses, financiers, governments, and civil society to realize sustainable trade in global value chains. IDH believes that action-driven coalitions will drive impact on the Sustainable Development Goals and create value for all. You can learn more about IDH here.

IDH has been a long-time supporter of GSSI since its inception – involved in the development of GSSI, sitting on the GSSI Steering Board and Executive Committee, and an Affiliated Partner of the GSSI Global Partnership. It also played a big part in getting GSSI’s Seafood MAP program off the ground. Since the inception of Seafood MAP, IDH has been involved in overseeing the project’s development and implementation – providing the seed funding to translate the concept into an initial theoretical design. During this period, actively participating in the scoping process and testing initial concepts on the ground in their Banyuwangi project.

In 2021, IDH joined the GSSI Seafood MAP Partner Taskforce to continue active participation in the implementation phase of Seafood MAP. IDH ran several pilot projects in different parts of the world to test the theoretical design and identify the next steps to build the digital platform.

Jason, what brought you to Banyuwangi, and what are you working on there?

A few years back, The Walton Family Foundation’s Indonesian Aquaculture Initiative funded a number of organizations to address numerous angles of sustainable development for Indonesian aquaculture, especially shrimp in East Java. Of those organizations funded, a subgroup focused on Banyuwangi was created – the Shrimp Improvement Program (SIP) – which included Conservation International, Konservasi Indonesia, ThinkAqua, Longline Environment, the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), and IDH.

I arrived in Banyuwangi in 2019, and while the SIP team had numerous different project objectives, it was clear to me that the farming community would be slow to meet those objectives due to a lack of incentive to do so. Hence, with IDH’s angle being investment, the SIP team turned towards IDH to provide that incentive that would end up convening the region around a unified development plan, a development plan that would then be financed through an innovative financial vehicle that IDH would lead the structuring of. Thus, the concept of the community-built roadmap, which is to be financed through a tailored investment vehicle, was created. The roadmap process also builds off and aligns closely with SFP’s Aquaculture Improvement Program toolkit and best practices developed in Fishery Improvement Programs.

After three years of work, the roadmap has been completed and formally endorsed by the Regency of Banyuwangi, making it a sustainability program that is built exclusively by the community, while also being benchmarked to international environmental and social responsibility standards to ensure effective engagement with international markets. The roadmap is a community-based approach sustainability program that is tailor-made for Banyuwangi and is a result of numerous organizations coming together, with support from the Walton Family Foundations Indonesian Aquaculture Initiative grants.

The macro impact ‘destination’ of the roadmap was agreed on by over 70 different stakeholders, both national and international, during a consensus meeting; the ‘roadmap’ to get to that destination, which is detailed, timeline- and milestone-based, was built and will be executed exclusively by the community of farmers, government and local industry representatives.

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The roadmap is a community-based approach sustainability program that is tailor-made for Banyuwangi and is a result of numerous organizations coming together.

Can you go a little deeper into the details and destinations of the roadmap?

The best way to understand the roadmap is by looking at its themes. There are three main themes; ecosystem protection, the standard of living for the farmers, and community capacity building. Under these three themes are major objectives, or destinations, that we have set out to achieve. Let me walk you through these objectives to grasp the nature of the details better.
Under ecosystem protection, objectives cover:

Conservation of communal water bodies through community-based water quality management
Management of nutrient loads that enables the health of the surrounding ecosystem to be maintained through measurement, monitoring, and treatment
Maintenance of mangrove forests

Under the standard of living for farmers, objectives cover:

Farmers are able to meet a decent standard of living and stable income level
Farmers can maintain and upgrade their operations in the long term through access to high-quality feed and seeds, capacity-building assistance, financial management, innovative technology, and business legality support

Under community capacity building, objectives cover:

All relevant stakeholders collaborate and coordinate to improve communication and educational capacity to implement an area-based approach to aquaculture, based on the FAO’s Ecosystem Approach for Aquaculture
All farmers collaborate and coordinate to control the spread of disease, improve communication and education among farmers, and seek collective bargaining positions to increase product competitiveness
All relevant stakeholders collaborate and coordinate to encourage investment into the sector through regulatory amendments; support and enhance internationally recognized certification programs and accompanying verification processes, and develop an infrastructure that provides a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue

IDH handing over the MoU of the Roadmap to the Regency of Banyuwangi

Source: IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative

Those objectives sound very encompassing and that a lot of hard work will be needed to reach them. Why do you believe that this program will be successful?

The milestones and timeline (or ‘road’ to reach those objectives/destinations) were built out exclusively by the community members in Banyuwangi (farmers, government, and supply chain workers), with no input from any organizations that are non-community members, and no ‘mediation’ by IDH. Communities have the local knowledge to know their own social, economic and environmental situation much better than anyone who can come in as an outsider. Local knowledge is undeniably valuable, and oftentimes an untapped resource when it comes to sustainability management projects. This local development and ownership angle will ensure maximum community buy-in when it times to commit resources and execute the roadmap over its five-year tenure.

Each item in the roadmap is milestone and time-based, with a volunteer ‘champion’ stakeholder to help make sure that the item succeeds according to the action plan. This ensures dependability.

This roadmap provides an important global precedent for how sustainability programs can be tailor-made, yet systematically established, to ensure maximum relevant impact and community buy-in – versus top-down international certification programs that involve impact goals that haven’t been tailor-made for the communities. I’ve seen the community members, how hard they work, and how important the shrimp industry is to their livelihoods. This concept provides optimism for the farmers and stakeholders involved in how all the stakeholders can come together to unlock the capital needed for a better future; with the common agreement being a prerequisite.

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Each item in the roadmap is milestone and time-based, with a volunteer ‘champion’ stakeholder to help make sure that the item succeeds according to the action plan. This ensures dependability.

Many people may wonder how a program like this measures up to third-party certifications. How can you ensure its credibility?

As GSSI’s Seafood MAP program shows – one size doesn’t fit all for sustainability solutions. Certifications, ratings, and fisheries and aquaculture improvement projects are key tools for increasing seafood sustainability, but they are not a universal solution. Sustainability solutions need to be available to those that do not have access to the key tools that are currently available – such as certification. The Banyuwangi Roadmap is an example of how involving local knowledge and experience can help find a solution that does fit and work for a specific area, where all farmers in an area might not have the means to reach third-party certification.

This program, like Seafood MAP, doesn’t replace certifications but rather works in harmony with them by integrating aspects of international third-party certification programs to help ensure that the products are acceptable to markets and retailers that have strict sourcing mandates. Further, by working with all farmers in an area, and not just those that can be certified, the program tackles important environmental and production issues that international certifications often do not, such as cumulative environmental impacts and coordinated disease management in the region.

There will be a monitoring and evaluation process set up in concert with a formal government program that will ensure its credibility – this is currently in the works.

Interviews with shrimp farmers in Banyuwangi

Source: Alune Aquaculture

Thank you for your insights today Jason. Can you share what’s next for Banyuwangi?

The roadmap has been formally sanctioned by the regional government and supported by leading private industries in the region. The target is to now work with the government to integrate this with their existing capacities and goals, whilst leveraging community leadership and capacity for its execution. Yayasan Konservasi Indonesia will lead the coordination and implementation of the program.

This jurisdictional aspect of the roadmap is believed to be a global first for aquaculture – an industry with numerous investment risks that must be taken in a jurisdictional context, such as water quality of common waterways and disease transfer – and thus provide foundations for international replication and unlocked investment into the sector.

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.

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