Ghana – Impacts Through Local Codes of Practice

Africa is on the brink of a demographic transformation. According to the FAO, the continent’s population will grow by one billion people by 2050, making it home to one quarter of the world’s population. As this rapid expansion drives demand for food and livelihoods, aquaculture is emerging as one of the most promising sectors for inclusive growth.

In Ghana, where tilapia farming has become a vital part of the national diet and rural economy, the question is no longer whether aquaculture will grow, but how it can grow responsibly.

A Project in Its Conception

W are now developing the groundwork for what could become Ghana’s code for Better Practices of this Sort. The effort is being designed in close collaboration with the Ghana Chamber of Aquaculture (COA) and the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development.

At this stage, the project is still in its conceptual phase, focusing on stakeholder mapping, defining the governance structure, understanding the market and supply chain, and identifying the environmental and social indicators that would form a future Code.

As Manager, my role is to help develop the frameworks that make collaboration possible, working with government, producers, and research partners to define shared goals, align verification systems, and build trust. That means negotiating among different interests, identifying practical solutions, and determining how data will be collected and used, not only to demonstrate impact to markets, but to provide direct value to farmers themselves.

This early collaboration also opens a space for South–South exchange, linking experiences from Asia with Africa’s emerging aquaculture landscapes. Building bridges for knowledge transfer.

Reflection: Beginning With a Vision

There is no blueprint yet, only commitment: from government, from producers, and from partners who see the potential for a more coordinated, transparent, and resilient aquaculture sector. For me, being part of this inception stage is a reminder that system change doesn’t begin with outcomes, it begins with conversations, trust, and a shared willingness to imagine how to change the game.

Indonesia - Scaling Sustainability Through a Jurisdictional Lens

Indonesia is changing fast. With a population that has surpassed 270 million people and an economy growing steadily over the past decade, the country’s development is deeply tied to its natural resources. For millions of families, seafood and palm oil are not only key export commodities, but the main sources of income, food security, livelihoods, and community identity.

This interconnection between land and water makes Indonesia one of the most important places to explore how sustainable production can work at scale. Through the ASC Improver Programme, we are now working with partners to understand how a jurisdictional approach could help align progress across aquaculture, fisheries, and feed production systems, linking them to broader land-use and conservation goals.

Early Steps Toward Integration

The work is still in its early stages, but the foundations are being built. In 2024, I visited farms and community sites in Central Kalimantan, Borneo, where the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has been applying jurisdictional methods in the palm oil sector.

Observing their work on multi-stakeholder governance gave us valuable insight into how similar models could apply to seafood and feed secotors. These learnings are helping us identify what kind of enabling environment is needed to make sector-wide sustainability truly feasible in that region.

Working Hand in Hand with Kaleka

Our partnership with Kaleka, a local organization experienced in systemic issues in Indonesia, has been central to this process. Together, we are exploring how sectors can be better integrated into landscape-level governance dialogues, where decisions about land, water, and livelihoods intersect.

This collaboration also supports the exchange of knowledge with other sectors already advancing jurisdictional coordination under the Sustainable Palm Oil (SPO)framework in Central Kalimantan. The aim is to create shared learnings , not to reinvent the wheel, but to understand how existing structures can support sustainability transitions in agrifood systems.

Reflection: Where Conservation Meets Production

During our 2024 field visit, we were invited by Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas, one of the world’s leading orangutan conservationists, and founder of Orangutan Foundation International (OFI), to see the work being done to protect Borneo’s remaining forest habitats. Standing in the forest that still shelters these great apes, it was impossible not to feel the tension between conservation and production.

Palm oil remains one of the major drivers of habitat loss in Borneo, and yet, it also sustains countless local livelihoods. This reality underscores why it’s so important to work with these sectors. By engaging major commodities such as palm oil in the jurisdictional dialogue, we can help ensure that accountability, transparency, and shared responsibility become part of how development happens.

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Thailand – Advancing Workers’ Rights

Thailand is one of the most advanced seafood producers in the world. Home to a highly efficient shrimp and seafood industry that supplies markets across the globe. Yet behind this success lies a human dimension that often goes unseen. Among the hundreds of thousands of workers who sustain the sector are migrants from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, many of whom speak different languages and, in some cases, cannot read or write.

This complexity makes communication, fair treatment, and inclusion a daily challenge. Through a partnership with Thai Union, we have been working to address this, amongst other improvements. Ensuring that progress in aquaculture also means progress for the people who make it possible.

Working Together for Fair and Safe Workplaces

Our collaboration focused on improving amongst other things, social responsibility practices at farm level, helping producers and processors strengthen policies around worker welfare, contracts, grievance mechanisms, and access to information.

In Abril 2025, I joined the teams on site, to assess and verify these improvements, and provide recommendations on how to tackle challenges. Aligning with ASC’s social standards while ensuring the process remained practical for farms and clusters.

Bangladesh – Working With Coastal Communities Toward Resilient Systems

Bangladesh is home to one of the world’s most important shrimp-producing regions, where thousands of smallholder farmers rely on aquaculture for their livelihoods. Many of these farms are located along the edges of the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, and the only place where Bengal tigers roam among mangroves. There, aquaculture offers vital income opportunities but also poses complex challenges for conservation and environmental impact.

Challenges such as disease outbreaks, limited market access, and environmental degradation continue to affect the sector’s sustainability. We set out to address these issues by working directly with farming communities, not only to improve production practices, but to strengthen the systems that support them.

Building from the Ground Up

In collaboration with Luna Shrimp Farms, LENK cluster associations, and other local partners, we launched an improvement project in the Khulna and Satkhira regions. The goal was to help family-scale producers enhance water quality, feed use, and social practices while maintaining their traditional livelihoods in the delta.

As Manager for the ASC Improver Programme, I led the project’s technical design, defining verification processes, data requirements, and improvement milestones. A central focus was to ensure that monitoring and assurance systems were realistic for smallholders, while still aligned with ASC’s global sustainability framework.

By combining local knowledge with structured improvement plans, we helped farmers understand not only what to improve but why. Linking better practices to resilience, income stability, and access to responsible markets.

Innovation at a Human Scale

One of the key innovations explored in Bangladesh was a simplified digital traceability system tailored for small clusters. A system that could allow farmers and exporters to track the products without adding complexity, creating a foundation for transparency that could later scale. The project also prioritized capacity building. Local implementers were trained to guide farmers on environmental and social best practices. Often in feeding, pond maintenance, or post-harvest work.

Reflection: Lessons That Stay With Us

Working in Bangladesh was not easy. The field conditions were challenging, and progress often required patience, creativity, and respect for local realities. Political shifts and economic uncertainty made the context unpredictable. Yet these are the very environments where responsible aquaculture matters most.

Although the project has now ended due to political instability, the lessons we learned there continue to shape how we approach new initiatives. From designing risk-based assurance systems to engaging farmers in collective action, the insights from Bangladesh now live on in my work in Ghana, Indonesia, and beyond.