The Aquaculture Stewardship Council and non-profit organisation Kaleka have joined forces to promote sustainable seafood farming in Indonesia’s Seruyan district.
Under the memorandum of understanding (MoU), ASC will lead the implementation of a jurisdictional aquaculture improvement programme in Seruyan, working alongside local farmers, government and international organisations.
“This project is another example of our ongoing work to help farmers who are at the beginning of their journey towards environmental sustainability and social responsibility,” said ASC chief executive Chris Ninnes.
“The collaboration with Kaleka allows us to develop and test approaches that we believe will be instrumental for that future in terms of how the industry can effectively manage impacts and assurances throughout the supply chain.”
This initiative marks the first ‘jurisdictional approach’ within ASC’s Improver Programme, aiming to establish sustainable practices across the district.
The programme will be managed by an entity consisting of farmers, local authorities and key stakeholders. The long-term vision is to create jurisdictional certification requirements within ASC, enabling seafood farmers in Seruyan and beyond to achieve certification on a larger scale.
The MoU also outlines plans to develop a joint verification system to assess the district’s compliance with sustainability criteria for various certification schemes. The outcomes of the programme will inform future jurisdictional certification models, which could be promoted globally for market endorsement.
The Seruyan District Government has committed to trialling this approach, with two local farmer groups already receiving government certification for good fish farming practices.
“Seruyan is currently a pilot for the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil jurisdictional approach and through this partnership, we will learn how large-scale transitions towards sustainability in multiple commodities can be achieved,” said Bernadinus Steni Sugiarto, executive director of Kaleka.
