SEAFOOD SAVERS BOOST CONTRIBUTION OF INDONESIAN CHEFS ASSOCIATION
Buyers (wholesalers, retailers, hotels and restaurants) as actors in the provision of seafood dishes in their business have a major role in encouraging the consumption of environmentally friendly seafood. WWF-Indonesia through Seafood Savers continues to encourage the commitment of buyers to improve their product purchasing policies by becoming Seafood Savers members as part of their support to change for the better.
If usually the participants invited in the discussion of sustainable fisheries efforts are limited to the managerial level, in 2018 Seafood Savers began to invite the main actors of the seafood serving process. These are chefs or cooks from restaurants and or hotels and institutions that provide processed seafood.
Throughout 2018, Seafood Savers has collaborated with the Indonesian Chef Association (ICA) and Indonesian Hotel General Manager Association (IHGMA) through several activities in five major cities in Indonesia. The campaign activities were carried out in collaboration with the Signing Blue and Panda Mobile teams with the theme "The Role of Business Actors in Sustainable Fisheries". Campaign activities were held at The Hook Restaurant and The Café Jakarta, Golden Tulip Bali, Mercure Hotel Surabaya, Swiss-Belhotel Jakarta and The Luxton Bandung and Swiss-Belhotel Manado.
The agenda presented in these activities included information related to the Seafood Savers program in general, data on the status of fish stocks in Indonesia, the size of mature fish gonads and how the role of buyer and chef to maintain the sustainability of fisheries. As part of brainstorming to support these activities, Seafood Savers invited participants through group discussion activities to be able to understand more broadly the process of fish selection, purchasing, and processing of seafood ingredients that are good and environmentally friendly.
WWF-Indonesia's collaboration with ICA and IHGMA in several socialization activities shows that business players, especially at the chef level, are starting to support efforts to realize sustainable seafood consumption trends. This is certainly an additional energy in accelerating the process of improving fisheries in Indonesia.