Jakarta (16/06) – The abundance of natural resources will never be enough to meet the people’s demand if there is no collective effort to protect its sustainability. This also applies in the marine resources. This call to action was delievered by WWF-Indonesia at the pers conference titled “Choose your seafood right” which took place in Ninety-Nine Restaurant, Ranch Market, Grand Indonesia, on Thursday (16/06).
With the high potential of marine resources, sustainable management and responsible seafood consumption are urgently needed in order to ensure the resource sustainability. Furthermore, the Indonesian waters are now facing serious scarcity of marine resources. According to the data from Research Center for Capture Fisheries-Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries 2010, 55 % of fishery resources are overexploited, 24% are categorized as moderate exploited, and the rest 21% still remain unidentified.
Derived from great concern toward Indonesian marine sustainability, WWF tries to build up public awareness regarding sustainable seafood consumption. One of the strategies is by socializing the latest version of Seafood Guide, the pocket-sized guide which provides an insight into the sustainability of the most popular Indonesian seafood species. The guide uses a simple traffic light system of categorising the seafood species. Consumers are advised to stop purchasing sea food and fish which fall under ‘red’ category. Fish under ‘yellow’ category can be consumed in moderation, and those under ‘green’ category should be the focus of public consumption.
“The seafood guide empowers the seafood lovers to make informed decisions in choosing sustainable seafood. It doesn’t urge them to stop consuming seafood. This is essential to maintain the stock of marine resources,” said Devy Suradji, WWF-Indonesia Marketing and Communication Director.
If Seafood Guide aims at increasing sustainable seafood demand, WWF uses different approach to engage corporate partners who provides seafood products to the consumers. This approach is demonstrated through Seafood Savers, a convention of producers, retailers and financial institutions, all of which owns a significant relation to the seafood business. Through this collective effort from the seafood industry players, WWF tries to accelerate better fishery practices in Indonesia. The forum is expected to create a collaboration of corporate partners to conduct on a common movement to achieve sustainable fisheries for the sustainability of both marine ecosystem and resources.
“Seafood Savers tries to acommodate both industrial interest and conservation aspect at the same time. In fact, there are many ways to gain more benefits for the companies without damaging the environment. For instance improving the quality of their catch through environmentally friendly fishing practices, procession, distribution, and efficient packaging. This is important to ensure their business stability as well as the sustainability of marine resources,” WWF-Indonesia Fisheries Program Leader Imam Musthofa emphasized.
The initiative gains positive response from number of business actors, one of them is Ranch Market, retail company which is now a candidate of Seafood Savers member. “Our initiative to join Seafood Savers is assosiated with our great concern and responsibility to the consumers. By providing our customers with sustainable seafood products, we have demonstrated one of Ranch Market values, Advocate Social-Environmental Sustainability. Since 2010, we have been working with WWF-Indonesia to bring sustainable seafood in our two counters, Grand Indonesia and Pondok Indah. This program can help promote high quality of sustainable seafood produced by the local fishermen who had been assisted by WWF-Indonesia. We expect what they have done might be able to inspire other fishermen to implement responsible and sustainable fishing practices, in the end, it will improve the fishery industry in Indonesia as well as improve the environment,” Fransisca Natalia Widowati, Marketing & Communication Manager Ranch Market said.
Furthermore, Ranch Market also assists WWF-Indonesia seafood campaign by collecting petition from all their counters. The petition urges the importance to create policies which support environmentally friendly fishing practices and supply of sustainable seafood products in Indonesia. The petition has been collecting during the seafood campaign period in three cities which are Manado, Makassar, and Jakarta. In Jakarta, the campaign will be concentrated in Central Park from 18 to 27 June 2011. On 18 June 2011, WWF will conduct interactive events for instance seafood guide quiz, essay photo exhibition, story telling, educative games, and special performances by Jamaica Café and 3 in 1 band.
Notes to Editor
About WWF
World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) is a global conservation organization, a network organizations which operates in close to 100 countries worldwide. WWF-Indonesia is a part of this independent foundation, registered under Indonesian law. In carrying out its conservation work, WWF-Indonesia has 25 project offices in 17 provinces. This organization works with local governments through practical field projects, scientific research, advising local governments on environmental policy, promoting environmental education, empowering communities, and raising awareness on environmental issues. More info about WWF-Indonesia, visit www.panda.org; or our local sites www.wwf.or.id and WWF-Indonesia supporter website in www.supporterwwf.org
About Sustainable Seafood Campaign
The “Choose Your Seafood Right!” campaign aims to increase national demand on sustainable/responsible seafood products that will lead to increase adoption of sustainable fishery practices among seafood industries in Indonesia, that in the end will stop further destruction of marine habitats and will stop overfishing. One of the campaign instruments used is Seafood Guide, the pocket-sized guide which provides an insight into the sustainability of the most popular Indonesian seafood species. WWF also conducts public event which takes place in Central Park mall on 18 June 2011. This event is a collaboration of WWF-Indonesia, Sariayu Martha Tilaar, and Central Park Mall. For further information, visit http://www.wwf.or.id/seafoodguide.
About Seafood Savers
Seafood Savers is a convention of producers, retailers and financial institutions, all of which owns a significant relation to the seafood business. Initiated by WWFIndonesia, Seafood Savers is aimed to create a collaboration of corporate to conduct on a common movement to achieve sustainable fisheries. To become an official member of Seafood Savers, a company needs to go through the eight steps. Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing is the fourth step where company and WWF concur that the company will fulfill the minimum requirement of sustainable practices as recommended in the Identification report.Download Seafood Savers Factsheet: http://assets.wwfid.panda.org/downloads/09_seafood_savers.pdf

For more information, please contact:

• Margareth Meutia, Corporate Campaigner for Marine & Marine Species Program WWF-Indonesia (Email: Mmeutia@wwf.o.id)
• Shintya Kurniawan, Media Engagement Officer (Email: Skurniawan@wwf.or.id)