NGO and Global Voluntary Standards in Sustainable Seafood: The Case of Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) in Indonesia

• Published date: 01 June 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10704965231158568
• Author: Moch Faisal Karim,Jassinda Almira
• Date: 01 June 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

The Journal of Environment &

Development

2023, Vol. 32(2) 165–191

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/10704965231158568

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NGO and Global Voluntary

Standards in Sustainable

Seafood: The Case of

Aquaculture Stewardship

Council (ASC) in Indonesia

Moch Faisal Karim

1

and

Jassinda Almira

2

Abstract

This article examines the role of non-governmental organisation in supporting the

implementation of global voluntary certif‌ication. This article investigates how World

Wildlife Fund (WWF) helps implement the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)

ecolabel standard in Indonesia. As the world’s second-largest aquaculture f‌ish-

producing country, many Indonesian seafood products are rejected in the interna-

tional market due to quality problems. This makes Indonesia an ideal country for

implementing sustainable aquaculture practices. Using transition theory as a frame-

work, we f‌ind that WWF has played a key role in three areas: (1) harmonisation of

national regulations with ASC principles, (2) establishment of a campaign prog ram to

advocate for the public on sustainable seafood consumption behaviour, and (3) creating

a special agency to assist to f‌ishery industry players in obtaining ASC certif‌icates. Our

f‌inding sheds lights on the importance of strong collaboration between business actors,

states, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to implement global voluntary

standards.

Keywords

Aquaculture, Indonesia, sustainable seafood, voluntary standards, sustainability

1

Department of International Relations, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia

2

Centre for Business and Diplomatic Studies (CBDS), Bina Nusantara University, Indonesia

Corresponding Author:

Moch Faisal Karim, Department of International Relations, Bina Nusantara University, Kijang Campus,

Kemanggisan Ilir III No.45, Palmerah, Jakarta 11480, Indonesia.

Email: faisal.karim@binus.ac.id

Introduction

Globally, the aquaculture sector is one of the fastest growing commodity sectors due to

its great potential in meeting the food needs of the world’s eight billion people (Lester

et al., 2018). Statistics from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) show

that global aquaculture production in 2018 reached 114.5 million tons, of which 52%

was traded internationally as a commodity for human consumption (FAO, 2018).

However, despite the signif‌icant benef‌its aquaculture offers to global seafood supply,

the expansion of the aquaculture industry in the world has created environmental

problems, specif‌ically ecological and f‌ishery ecosystem damage, due to inadequate

rearing practices (Martinez-Porchas & Martinez-Cordova, 2012) and the use of

chemicals toxic to animal and human health (Mavraganis et al., 2020).

Increasing global awareness on aquaculture’s environmental impact has sparked

advocacy for reductions in unsustainable production and consumption patterns in order

to achieve a better quality of life for everyone. Consumers, especially from developed

countries, are becoming more aware of social and environmental issues and are in-

creasingly purchasing sustainable products (Potts et al., 2016). Consumer demand for

sustainable seafood products is a strong factor to encourage producers to comply with

codes of ethics for sustainable f‌isheries governance.

Various national and international regulatory frameworks have been developed, but

regulatory frameworks established by national governments are often ineffective

because of the prioritisation of economic growth over environmental protection. As a

result, it is necessary to establish demand-side-oriented policies to promote sustainable

f‌isheries products (Howes et al., 2017). In this case, non-state actors initiate eco-

certif‌ication systems that emphasise a non-state market-driven mechanism in the form

of voluntary sustainability standard. This mode of governance is seen as an alternative

form of regulation that uses market power to control safety, traceability, transparency of

production processes, and standardisation of products from international suppliers

(Washington & Ababouch, 2011).

In Indonesia, global voluntary standard in the form of certif‌ication has been widely

used in governing sustainability in sectors such as palm oil. However, many argue that

such governance might privilege business interests in general and export-oriented palm

oil companies and downstream industries while implementing such voluntary sus-

tainability standards is relatively ineffective for smallholders (Brandi et al., 2015;

Pichler, 2013). This article is interested in understanding to what extent such dynamics

occur in the aquaculture sector.

The application of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certif‌ication

mechanism by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) illustrates such dynamics. Aquaculture

Stewardship Council was founded in 2010 as a result of the Aquaculture Dialogues by

WWF and the Sustainable Trade Initiative and aims to manage the world seafood

market with global standards through certif‌ication and an ASC logo labelling program.

These methods send a clear message to consumers about the environmental and social

integrity of the products they buy (ASC, 2021a).

166 The Journal of Environment & Development 32(2)