How Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Helps Companies Improve Fisheries and Aquaculture Sustainability

Updated

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) helps companies improve fisheries and aquaculture sustainability by bringing industry, NGOs, governments, fishers, scientists, and academics together, then providing tools, expertise, and expert guidance that companies can act on. It is aimed at seafood buyers, suppliers, and producers that want to support long-term sustainability in fisheries and aquaculture regions. SFP's stated guiding principle is industry leadership: it holds that all sustainable seafood solutions must involve the market, and that retail partners and their suppliers drive change across the seafood value chain.

What SFP offers companies

SFP describes its role as convening stakeholders and then offering tools and expertise so they can jointly find solutions that benefit nature, industry, and people. For a company, that translates into three practical elements:

  • Tools and resources to support management of fisheries and aquaculture regions for long-term sustainability.
  • Expert guidance and actionable solutions intended to elevate existing sustainability commitments.
  • A multi-stakeholder table where industry, NGOs, governments, fishers, scientists, and academics work on solutions together.

SFP positions itself as "the #1 trusted choice for companies looking to improve fisheries and aquaculture," and its guidance is framed for major seafood buyers, suppliers, and producers alike.

The two impact areas

SFP organizes its work around two areas, both of which map to how a company's sourcing decisions play out on the water and in communities.

Fisheries Governance & Livelihoods

SFP promotes shared responsibility among stakeholders to ensure healthy oceans, resilient fisheries, and thriving coastal communities. The premise is that everyone who benefits from marine resources has a role in sustaining them — so a company's engagement is treated as part of the solution rather than an outside intervention.

Biodiversity & Nature

Thriving fisheries only exist in healthy habitats. SFP bridges the gap between companies that want to protect biodiversity and nature and organizations already doing work on the ground and in the water. For a company, this means its sustainability commitments can connect to existing conservation work rather than starting from scratch.

How the collaboration model works

The mechanism SFP describes is a convening-and-tooling model rather than a certification or a one-off audit:

  1. Convene — SFP brings industry, NGOs, governments, fishers, scientists, and academics to the same table.
  2. Equip — it offers its tools and expertise to that group.
  3. Solve jointly — the participants find solutions that benefit nature, industry, and people.
  4. Drive through the market — retail partners and their suppliers carry the change across the entire seafood value chain.

For example, a seafood buyer that wants to improve a specific sourcing region would, in this model, work through SFP's tools and guidance alongside the other stakeholders in that region rather than acting alone.

What to expect if you engage

SFP frames the starting point as a "sustainability journey" — companies begin by using its tools and resources, then rely on expert guidance to turn commitments into action. Impact, in SFP's framing, is measured on the water, at the farm, for the ecosystem, and in the community.

SFP also states that it supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and it maintains a sign-up for news and updates on its work.

Where to start

  • Seafood buyers, suppliers, and producers: SFP's tools and resources are explicitly aimed at supporting management of fisheries and aquaculture regions for long-term sustainability.
  • Companies wanting to act on biodiversity: the Biodiversity & Nature area is the entry point for connecting with organizations already working on the ground and in the water.
  • Companies focused on coastal communities and governance: the Fisheries Governance & Livelihoods area covers shared responsibility among stakeholders.

SFP's own site is the place to begin the sustainability journey it describes, and its Industry Partners and Impact Stories sections show how other companies have engaged.