Environmental best practice in not-for-profit organisations: The Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative
Some fish species are in serious trouble — and eating them can be criminal. The Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (Sassi) tackled the problem by launching a campaign to alert consumers, restaurateurs, wholesalers and fishers about the threats to marine resources.
It’s an awareness-raising campaign, aimed at encouraging voluntary compliance with laws that protect over-exploited fish species.
“Initial surveys in KwaZulu-Natal showed that people who broke the laws governing trade in seafood often did so more out of ignorance than intent,” says Sassi coordinator Timony Siebert. “We assumed that if more people were made aware of the laws, they may be compelled to abide by them voluntarily and in this way complement the efforts of enforced law.”
Sassi condensed scientific research on the status of fisheries into colour-coded guidelines, much like a traffic light. The information is instantly available on a cellphone SMS line (FishMS), as well as on a website, a wallet card and a pamphlet.
This means that consumers scanning a menu in a restaurant or shopping at the fish counter in a supermarket can find out immediately if the fish they want comes from an endangered species.
Species with healthy population numbers are placed on a green list and can be eaten with gusto. Orange means they are legal to sell, but if there is a choice you should opt for one of the green-coded species. Species marked in red are illegal to buy or sell.
Since its launch in November 2006, the FishMS service has received more than 35 000 requests for information and has built up a user base of more than 8 500 people. About one million wallet cards have been distributed.
“Most SMS queries concerned kingklip, an orange-listed species,” says Siebert. “This is a strong indication that consumers are increasingly aware of the power of their decisions.
“If, say, half the queries about red- and orange-listed species resulted in consumers opting for green-listed species, then Sassi is helping drive behavioural change that benefits the resource.”
Of more than 700 people interviewed at the Food & Wine show in Johannesburg last year, 45% were aware of the Sassi campaign. “This sort of consumer awareness and pressure is sure to affect the market,” Siebert says.
Sassi holds workshops at consumer events, as well as with fishmongers and employees at retail outlets. It signed a memorandum of understanding with a number of chefs and worked with celebrity chefs to promote the initiative.
Siebert says there was no direct response from subsistence fisher communities. “We have had more interaction with the larger fishing companies as many of the more popular commercial species on our lists originate from their fishing activities, such as sole and kingklip.
“Many of these companies realise the value in the sustainable management of the resource and work closely with our sister programme — the Responsible Fisheries Programme — to adopt more responsible fishing practices.”
Future plans include building up Sassi’s restaurant and retailer participation scheme to encourage further buy-in from the private sector, Siebert says. It aims to engage large retail stores on their seafood procurement systems and to roll out point-of-sale information for consumers.
“We also intend to revise the species list this year to include imported species, farmed products and to incorporate the latest evaluation criteria developed internationally. We expect a new list to be released by the end of this year.”
Sassi is principally funded by The Green Trust, a partnership between WWF-SA and Nedbank, and received further support from Pick n Pay. It is implementing partnerships with various environmental NGOs and the department of environmental affairs and tourism.
The Greening the Future judges loved this initiative, praising its innovation and reach among consumers. They commended the partnerships it formed with a wide range of interest groups to achieve its objectives.
“Issues about food and resources are critically important at the moment. This project has huge potential to be used as a benchmark for other sectors in the retail industry,” the judges commented.
The green benchmark
Sponsor — Environmental best practice in not-for-profit organisations: Nedbank
From conservation education programmes to hands-on initiatives to conserve water, these projects are the feathers in Nedbank’s green cap. The bank is proud to be associated with excellent work done to keep the country and planet green.
In sponsoring this award Ned-bank appreciates the opportunity to recognise selfless organisations and individuals who feel called to make a difference in the world — for this and future generations.
There’s a reason Nedbank has developed a reputation as South Africa’s green bank — and it has nothing to do with the organisation’s corporate colours. Though recent times have seen environmental issues rightly taking centre stage in corporate programmes, Nedbank has quietly worked at helping to preserve the country’s natural habitat for at least 20 years.
In 1990 the bank initiated a partnership with World Wide Fund-SA, aimed primarily at contributing financially towards its conservation efforts. No one would have thought back then that The Green Trust would become a benchmark by which environmental partnerships would be measured.
Nedbank continues to fund The Green Trust, primarily via contributions from its clients through the Nedbank Green Affinity programme.
WWF-SA, for its part, provides input into the bank’s environmental and sustainability policies and practices.
Thérèse Brinkcate, of WWF-SA, says the success of the partnership is its three-pronged approach, combining involvement by consumers through donations via the Green Affinity, a willingness by the bank to seek input into how to limit its impact on the environment and the continuing injection of much-needed finance — R80-million so far — into more than 150 major conservation projects around the country.