Progress report for
The Target 75 Initiative
Achievement at a glance
Supply Chain Roundtables (SRs) are the core organizing principle of Target 75. More than 30 companies have joined the SRs since the start of the Target 75 campaign in 2017, for a total of over 150 participating companies today. The SRs have started or reactivated more than 30 FIPs since 2017, and now support a total of over 80 FIPs. The SRs cover more than 12 million metric tonnes of seafood.Challenges faced in implementation
The seafood production volumes identified as sustainable and improving have shown steady but clear increases from year to year since the T75 initiative began. Some individual sectors (e.g., snapper and grouper, squid, swimming crab) have shown substantial progress from 2018 to 2019. Unfortunately, these increases are not yet of the magnitude needed to achieve Target 75 by 2020. Broader engagement, incl. from new markets is needed. Other sectors (e.g., whitefish, large pelagics) started off well but have shown reductions in the production volume that is sustainable or improving.Beneficiaries
Target 75 not only benefits the companies we partner with (listed above), but also benefits all companies that source from the 20 million tons of seafood that are currently sustainable or improving.
<br>Besides providing direct benefits to seafood companies and offering millions of people around the world the opportunity to eat more sustainable seafood, the T75 Initiative has wide-ranging benefits for marine conservation and for the many fishing communities around the world that rely on fisheries for their livelihoods and food supply.
<br>Safeguarding marine environments and conserving marine biodiversity is an essential part of guaranteeing that fisheries are healthy and productive in the long-term. A key priority of many FIPs, SRs, and other T75 work is reducing the unintentional bycatch of non-target species, particularly endangered, threatened, and protected (ETP) species, such as turtles, sharks, rays, seabirds, and marine mammals.
<br>Sustainable fisheries are also a key part of global poverty reduction and community development, and play an important role in local food security and income generation. Marine fisheries directly and indirectly employ more than 200 million people, 90 percent of those in small-scale fisheries. By encouraging major seafood buyers, in both international and domestic markets, to factor sustainability issues into their purchasing decisions, we help ensure that these fisheries will continue to support communities and provide a sustainable source of protein for a growing world population. Fully one-third of all SFP projects focus on small-scale fisheries or have a significant small-scale component.