Sweden.- A dialogue between ten of the largest seafood companies in the world concluded on 4 September, 2018 with a shared commitment to advance sustainable practices within their global operations and supply chains. The dialogue marks the third in a series of keystone dialogues between companies from Asia, Europe and the Americas, facilitated by the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC). These companies collaborate in the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS) initiative, with the objective to take leadership on ocean stewardship.
In line with the SeaBOS charter, the meeting resulted in an agreement to address key topics affecting ocean health and seafood sustainability, including Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing and modern slavery. SeaBOS companies are now piloting and testing new technologies for traceability in their global supply chains and will actively engage in the ongoing Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability to improve existing global standards.
All companies are committed to transparent reporting and aspire to play a leading role in improving global ocean policy and regulations in support of ocean stewardship.
In the dialogue, the SeaBOS organization was also formally established with the appointment of Shigeru Ito, CEO and President of Maruha Nichiro Corporation – the largest seafood company in the world, as the first chairman of the SeaBOS initiative.
“SeaBOS is a global coalition between companies with a strategic vision to actively contribute to addressing the ocean stewardship challenge. I am committed to making this initiative a great success and ensure that we take on a global responsibility.” said Shigeru Ito, CEO and President of Maruha Nichiro Corporation and the first chairman of SeaBOS
Knut Nesse, currently CEO of Nutreco, was appointed managing director of SeaBOS as of 1 January 2019.
“The ocean cannot wait and we have the responsibility to make a difference. We now have a solid financial and institutional basis for this young initiative, which started only in 2016, and I am very happy to accept this new position as SeaBOS director,” said Knut Nesse.
Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden participated throughout the meeting in her role as global advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The initiative is obtaining scientific support from the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University. With this important support and its new organization in place, SeaBOS is now ready to step up its actions for ocean stewardship.
Background
The aim of the SeaBOS initiative is to stimulate industry leadership for ocean stewardship in accordance with best available science. SeaBOS is the result of a science-based identification of “keystone actors” in global seafood carried out by the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) of Stockholm University in collaboration with the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, published in 2015. The SRC has facilitated and coordinated the work of SeaBOS since 2016, but is now transferring this role to the companies. SRC will remain the main scientific partner to the initiative through funding from the Walton Family Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
The third Keystone Dialogue was hosted by Maruha Nichiro Corporation, Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Kyokuyo and Mitsubishi Corporation, with support from the Swedish Embassy to Japan. The dialogue included participation of 10 CEOs from the ten member companies of SeaBOS, operating globally in wild fisheries and aquaculture: Maruha Nichiro Corporation, Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Thai Union Group, Marine Harvest Group, Dongwon Industries, Cermaq (subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation), Cargill Aqua Nutrition, Skretting (subsidiary of Nutreco), Charoen Pokphand Foods, and Kyokuyo. The fourth Keystone Dialogue is scheduled to take place in Thailand in 2019, hosted by Charoen Pokphand Foods and Thai Union.
Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS) initiative: http://keystonedialogues.earth/
Source: Stockholm Resilience Centre
