NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, March 9, 2018

By Matt Smelser

With a growing list of adopters and endorsers, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Meloy Fund, and Encourage Capital today launched new guidelines for investing in global fisheries to drive needed capital into scaling sustainably managed fisheries and restoring our oceans to abundance. The announcement was made at the World Ocean Summit 2018.

Although billions of public and private dollars are invested in fisheries every year, more often than not, sustainability is neither the driver nor the intended outcome of those investment dollars. That means we are currently missing a major opportunity to solve the global overfishing and food security problem, which requires significantly more and better-aligned investment from a variety of capital providers.

The Principles for Investment in Sustainable Fisheries, are designed to do just that—to move new and sidelined capital into fishery investments, align that capital with responsible management, and give investors confidence that building environmental and social sustainability into fisheries will also yield a return on their investments. The Principles also train a spotlight on human rights for investors, especially when it comes to bringing new capital to small-scale fisheries and coastal communities. They have already been endorsed or adopted by more than 15 foundations, investment funds, project developers, and non-profit organizations.

Photo courtesy of USFWS Fish & Aquatic Conservation via Flickr.