Fishery and aquaculture improvement efforts

SFP was a pioneer in the development of multi-stakeholder fishery improvement projects (FIPs) and aquaculture improvement projects (AIPs) to address environmental, social, and management challenges in fisheries and aquaculture regions. 

These projects are structured, collaborative multi-year initiatives with detailed workplans and regular milestones for evaluating progress. Unlike traditional advocacy approaches that ask buyers to avoid seafood from poorly managed fisheries or aquaculture regions, FIPs and AIPs address the root causes of these challenges and create a path to long-term viability and productivity. 

Each fishery or aquaculture region is different, and improvement projects should be tailored to address specific needs. However, they all share a common process and elements. SFP offers toolkits of products and templates to help industry and stakeholders initiate, fund, implement and evaluate improvement projects.

When SFP was first founded, we worked directly with stakeholders to establish, implement, and manage FIPs and AIPs. However, as they became more widely used, we shifted our focus to transferring leadership to industry, and became less directly involved in implementation. The FIP and AIP Archive includes projects that SFP once directly supported but which are now led by industry or another third party.