Community Catch
Community Catch’s Mission:
Community Catch’s mission is to connect small-scale fishers to those markets which bring the greatest benefit for fishing communities and their environment. Community Catch provides the support, tools and connections needed to allow fishing communities to develop sustainability.
Grant Project Goal(s):
This specific project aims to support fisheries in two of Community Catch’s ongoing five global pilots. In the Indonesia tuna and Mexico snapper pilots, Community Catch will dig into the process for supporting small-scale fisheries (SSF) engaged in two important aspects; 1) How to engage with and receive the support required to meet the fisheries’ sustainability improvement objectives; 2) Identify how best to link each fishery with an interested and supportive market.
The learning gained from this project will inform the process and protocols for how other fisheries can be supported with initiative moving forward.
The project's objectives are twofold:
Establishing the Support Network Linkage Process: Upon completing a self-assessment and a consequent 3rd-party audit, fisheries must develop their improvement action plans, to close the gap identified. Community Catch recognizes that small-scale fishery improvement requires an arena of support, including financial resources, technical expertise, tools and technology. In the Mexican and Indonesian pilots, Community Catch will identify this support network and the process for connecting the fishery with it. This will enable Community Catch to develop a protocol for identifying this network and supporting the process of match-making the fishery with this network in future fisheries and overall for the initiative.
Developing the SSF-Market 'Matchmaking' Process: SSFs can only thrive through Community Catch engagement if they gain market recognition. Community Catch will pilot the market engagement process in Mexico and Indonesia. If existing supply chains in these two fisheries are supportive, Community Catch will assist in promoting 'Community Catch certified' or 'Community Catch improver' products with them. Alternatively, where supply chains are not engaged, Community Catch will endeavour to connect fisheries with new and interested markets. Insights from these pilots will inform the establishment of a standardized process for SSF-market matchmaking.
Background:
Community Catch is a global small-scale fishery (SSF) initiative which aims to promote the prosperity of SSF communities and the sustainability of both global fish stocks and aquatic ecosystems. As a market-based development program Community Catch focuses on the following components:
Certification program (Standard, Improvement pathway to meet the standard, Chain of Custody, Integrated digital platform)
Support infrastructure for SSFs (linking SSFs to on-the-ground support, allowing them to meet their sustainability improvement objectives)
Accessibility, Affordability and Credibility - Community Catch has developed a draft standard and a prototype of a digital platform, with an initial self-assessment module with which SSFs can directly engage.
Upon launch of this initiative, Community Catch envisions that a fishery client will be able to log onto and complete a sustainability self-assessment. The gap between their status and the standard targets defines their improvement requirements.
Additional funding for this project was made possible by Pepper, a Sea Pact Gold Supporter.
Key Learnings:
In progress.
Learn more at Community Catch.
Photo courtesy of Community Catch.