Social auditing and social compliance frameworks have been created out of a need by manufacturers to grasp the present state of labor dangers, talk expectations by means of their provide chains, and guarantee steady enchancment and monitoring to mitigate related model dangers. In seafood, the usage of these instruments was a pure evolution out of the already established use of eco-certifications as assurance fashions for end-buyers and types. When early investigations into labor abuses in 2015 unearthed important points in seafood, firms turned to audits and certifications to attempt to make things better, as many different sectors had finished. On the time, the logic appeared sound: elevated monitoring would result in enhancements.

As audits and certifications grew to become extra widespread, their limitations grew to become obvious. Firms created barely completely different, however duplicative necessities, resulting in inefficiencies and a excessive price and burden of course of, which weighed largely on upstream provide chain actors. Many suppliers and producers started doing the minimal to conform to be able to preserve or achieve entry into the market, creating much less impactful efforts. All of this has resulted in fairwashing and mistrust of the strategy.

Human rights abuses and labor exploitation proceed to be properly documented in seafood provide chains throughout the globe regardless of current efforts, and regulatory stress is beginning to mandate firm motion. In response, Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) is gaining traction. HRDD is a extra complete, cyclical strategy, designed to deal with the ever-changing and sophisticated nature of seafood. HRDD not solely meets rising regulatory necessities, it additionally has the potential to construct accountable and resilient pathways to sourcing by means of engagement throughout provide chains. 

But, for a lot of firms, the problem lies within the how. At a theoretical degree, companies know what they need to be doing; however it may be difficult to place it into motion. One side of this confusion facilities across the function that social certifications and audits ought to play in HRDD. Some teams advocate abandoning these instruments fully, whereas others promote them as a ‘silver bullet’ answer. Unsurprisingly, the strategy most organizations are actually aligning on falls someplace within the center. FishWise believes that certifications and social audits can play a job, however solely as a part of a wider and extra complete human rights due diligence program. Firms ought to pay attention to the monetary funding concerned and make a aware willpower as as to if that is the very best use of their restricted assets for social duty packages.