The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has opened the second round of its research and capacity building fund to help fisheries achieve the MSC standard for sustainable fishing.
The Global Fisheries Sustainability Fund (GFSF) is open to organisations including fisheries, governments and research scholars. It is designed to improve the research, knowledge, technology and guidance available to small-scale and developing world fisheries working towards MSC certification.
David Agnew, director of standards at the MSC, said: “For many fisheries, achieving the scientific, independently verified criteria required for MSC certification is a significant challenge. We established the Global Fisheries Sustainability Fund to support fisheries with the knowledge, tools and expertise they require to achieve the MSC Standard.”
“This investment will not only help more fisheries to achieve their aspirations of sustainability, it will also help to secure seafood supplies and fishing based economies for future generations.”
Winning projects from the first year of the fund include a risk assessment of tuna supply chains in Indonesia, development of data limited management methodologies for Suriname coastal artisanal fisheries and the use of smartphones to capture octopus fishery data in Madagascar.
In total, £207,500 has been allocated to the Global Fisheries Sustainability Fund in 2016/17.
The deadline for applications for the 2016/17 fund is 13 February 2017.
Organisations and individuals interested in receiving funding can find further guidance and application forms at www.msc.org/GFSF and can contact the MSC via GFSF@msc.org with any queries.
