Summary
The seafood sector has been working to address issues of sustainability for decades, but much progress is still required. Recent media revelations around human rights abuses in fisheries provide new impetus for improving social responsibility and eradicating human rights abuses in fisheries worldwide.
This project organized a community of practice, comprised of human rights and fisheries experts and practitioners, to catalyze the systematic integration of social responsibility into seafood supply chains.
Specifically, we co-developed a social responsibility assessment methodology for seafood supply chains, intended for use in fishery improvement projects and aquaculture improvement projects, to identify areas of high social risk and to guide the improvement of these high-risk areas. This highly collaborative process involved expert workshops, public comment periods and continual communication, socialization, and dissemination of our co-created methodology.
Read more about this work in Stanford University’s Center for Ocean Solutions newsfeed.
Publications and reports
- John N. Kittinger et al., Committing to socially responsible seafood. Science 356, 912-913 (2017). DOI:10.1126/science.aam9969
- Oceans and sustainable development goals: co-benefits, climate change, and social equity. (2017). Nereus Program, The University of British Columbia. https://nereusprogram.org/reports/report-oceans-and-sustainable-development-goals-co-benefits-climate-change-and-social-equity/
- Kittinger, J. N., Bernard, M., Finkbeiner, E., Murphy, E., Obregon, P., Klinger, D. H., Schoon, M. L., Dooley, K. J., & Gerber, L. R. (2021). Applying a jurisdictional approach to support sustainable seafood. Conservation Science and Practice, 3(5). https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.386
Partners and funding
- Conservation International
- Stanford University Center for Ocean Solutions
- The Nippon Foundation Nereus Project – University of British Columbia (Award # FP00010817)