John West and WWF partner on sustainable seafood projects

Friday, 01 November, 2013

As part of its commitment to responsible seafood products, John West has launched two new conservation projects with partner World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in the Pacific Islands and the Maldives.

The John West Conservation Program, through which the company will invest $600,000 over three years, is a series of WWF marine conservation projects that aims to ensure more responsibly sourced seafood, create responsible fisheries and improve the social and economic wellbeing of fishing communities.

In partnership with WWF, John West is contributing to the Pacific Islands Conservation Project, which supports community-based fishing and microfinanced projects in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. It aims to protect overexploited reef ecosystems, create food security, boost local economies and provide greater business opportunities for women.

Currently, these communities fish predominantly on or around reefs, which environmental assessments show is causing overfishing. Reef fish numbers are declining, which could have a devastating impact for these communities.

The Pacific Islands Conservation Project will see WWF, with support from AusAid, work with local communities to build floating rafts anchored to the seafloor close to shore to attract non-reef fish, providing an alternative to fishing the overfished reef areas.

This will allow local fishers to catch enough to feed their families and have extra to sell into the market. The project will also fund a scheme to help locals start small businesses.

“These small floating rafts create a win-win situation,” said WWF CEO Dermot O’Gorman. “Local communities get a new source of fish and income while the overfished reefs get a chance to replenish.”

John West is also investing in the Maldives Conservation Project, which incorporates the scientific development of a new tuna stock assessment modelling system for a leading pole-and-line skipjack tuna fishery in the Maldives. The goal is to increase the availability of responsibly sourced tuna and renew the fishery’s Marine Stewardship Council certification.

“The world’s oceans are not an inexhaustible source of food,” O’Gorman said. “We’re working with companies like John West to transform the market and create demand for products that contribute to the long-term health of our oceans.”

“Sustainability is a journey we embarked on many years ago, and through initiatives such as the Pacific Islands Conservation Project and Maldives Conservation Project, we can continue to provide our customers with the seafood they love for years to come,” said Stuart Sterling, John West Group marketing manager.

John West recently introduced a range of MSC-certified pole and line skipjack tuna in Australia. In 2012, the company also updated the labelling across its canned tuna range to ensure consumers know which species they are buying, where it came from and how it was caught.

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