The Global Marine Commodities project contributes to the transformation of the seafood market by mainstreaming sustainability in the value chain of fishery commodities from developing countries. This initiative achieves this goal by employing and strengthening emerging tools such as corporate purchasing policies, sustainable marine commodity platforms, and fisheries improvement projects (FIPs).

Marine resources play an essential role in human well-being and social and economic development worldwide. The global increase in demand for seafood coupled with an increase of the number of fisheries that are poorly managed, overfished, or negatively affected by illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, poses a significant threat to the sustainability of fish stocks, to ocean biodiversity, and to the livelihoods of fishermen and women across the world.

The UNDP inter-regional initiative Global Sustainable Supply Chains for Marine Commodities (GMC) is led by the fisheries and planning authorities of Costa Rica, Ecuador, Indonesia and Philippines, and finances by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). This initiative establishes multi-stakeholder dialogue roundtables (National Commodities Platforms) for the development and implementation of sustainable fisheries management policy (National Action Plans), based on the Green Commodities Programme’s signature process (more on Our Focus).

The initiative also harnesses the market power of sustainability certification mechanisms (eco-labelling) to engage seafood retailers and private sector actors in the supply chain. GMC assists the private sector in transitioning to responsible seafood sourcing and thereby generates investment for improving the management of target fisheries.

Download the Global Marine Commodities brochure, and visit our Costa Rica, Indonesia, Ecuador and the Philippines country pages to learn more about our progress. You can also visit the official Global Marine Commodities website.