State of sustainability initiatives review : Standards and the blue economy

ISBN: 978-1-894784-74-0 State of Sustainability Initiatives Review: Standards and the Blue Economy Note from the SSI Management Team The State of Sustainability Initiatives (SSI) project was founded under the auspices of the UNCTAD/IISD Sustainable Commodity Initiative and is implemented by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the International Institute for Sustaina [...] To that end, the SSI has worked documents and third-party literature in close partnership with a number of other Unless otherwise reported, all of the market leading organizations that share a similar objec- analysis and numerical representations of tive, including, among others, the International all data, regardless of the source, are strictly Trade Centre (ITC), the International Social and the [...] The State of source of protein, while an estimated 10 to 12 Sustainability Initiatives Review: Standards and the per cent of the world’s population is either Blue Economy offers a rare analysis of the market directly or indirectly dependent on seafood for and performance characteristics of international their livelihoods. [...] However, a host of pressing infra- for all of the challenges facing the sector, it does structural and environmental challenges cur- offer the definitive advantage of enabling more 5  For the purpose of this paper, the term “seafood sector” is used to refer to both wild catch fisheries and aquaculture. [...] Meanwhile, the concepts of “blue Recognizing this opportunity, coastal and growth” and a “green economy in a blue world” island economies of the developing world align with and support Sustainable Development have called for the development of a “blue Goal (SDG) 14 to “Conserve and sustainably economy”8 emphasizing the importance and use the oceans, seas and marine resources for special concerns o