[Chapter 13, page 222]

The Packard Foundation’s Seafood Campaign

In Chapter 12, we discussed market-based vs. non-market-based avenues for providing goods and services. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s Seafood Campaign, a multipronged effort to protect the world’s ocean ecosystems, provides an example of a program strategy that implements both market-based and non-market-based solutions.

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has long supported efforts to address the threat of unsustainable fishing to ocean ecosystems, initially through fisheries management and, more recently, by changing the United States and European markets for seafood. Its Marine Fisheries program seeks to build market, business, and consumer support for improved conservation and management of marine fisheries worldwide. The program supports grantees working in two broad areas: market interventions and policy reforms.[1]

On the market side, the program’s long-term objective is to change individual consumers’ behavior by stimulating substantial demand for certified seafood. Such an increase in demand would pressure retailers and suppliers to distribute seafood that is certified to indicate that this fishery operates in an environmentally responsible way and does not contribute to the global environmental problem of overfishing. This requires both consumer demand and a sufficient supply of certified seafood to meet it.

Packard has supported the Seafood Solutions program of Chefs Collaborative, a project dedicated to promoting the use of sustainable seafood in the culinary community.[2] And it has also funded SeaWeb to bring together leaders in the sustainable seafood movement to coordinate their efforts to increase the amount of sustainable seafood purchased. A 2005 evaluation[3] of Packard’s market-based strategies in Marine Fisheries conducted by the Bridgespan Group found increased awareness about the issue, but no evidence that it was producing significant changes in either buying practices or fishery policies. It found that major retailer and food service companies often lack the information necessary to make decisions about sustainable seafood choices and tend to rely on their suppliers for guidance.

Since the report, the Foundation has expanded its efforts to target commercial purchasers of seafood—for example, by supporting certification standards, informing consumers about environmentally preferable seafood choices, and engaging in policy reform.[4] By 2006, a number of major U.S. and European buyers—including Wal-Mart, Metro, Compass Group, Disney, Darden, Sainsbury’s, Unilever, Ahold USA, Marks & Spencer, and Whole Foods—have committed to purchasing sustainable seafood.[5] The Marine Stewardship Council (also supported by Packard), which developed the only internationally recognized marine eco-label[6], has seen a large increase in products that meet its standards (which consumers can identify by the Council’s blue label on the product’s packaging). [7] The number of fisheries interested in practicing more sustainable catch methods has also grown to include 7% of the global wild capture fisheries.

The Marine Fisheries program continues to work to reform fisheries management, habitat protection, and ocean conservation policies in U.S. waters and, as opportunities permit, internationally. Domestic and international regulatory policies can be used to limit fishing to sustainable levels, reduce by-catch[8], and prevent damage to important ecosystem functions.[9] International agreements can be used to make ecosystem and fishery sustainability a priority, as well as to eliminate harmful subsidies and prevent illegal fishing. Packard has supported Environmental Defense to catalyze federal investment in ocean conservation, the Ocean Conservancy to protect fish populations in the Pacific through policy reform, as well as other national and local organizations. The Foundation has also supported Marine Fish Conservation Network to ensure implementation of the conservation requirements in the 2006 reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.[10]