Labor Violations & Human Rights Abuse in the Southeast Asian Seafood Industry — Part 7: The Blockchain Solution:
By Bowin Lee
It is clear from the previous case studies that international and domestic sea law will have difficulty enacting changes in isolation. The most effective pressure for change is from the demand side, or consumers, who affect both the governments and private companies through their demand for more traceability and transparency. If international governments enact further transparency regulation and fishery laws ensuring sustainable and ethical labor, it is possible for blockchain to play a significant role in mitigating the trafficked labor situation due to the recent transparency laws and anti-IUU laws enacted by international governments. Blockchain’s unique qualities as a digital ledger make it perfect for creating a digital fingerprint of seafood products, allowing it to potentially occupy a key role in increasing transparency for seafood sourcing and human rights abuses.
Researchers and academics have made note of blockchain’s potential as well. A recent study released by the academic journal Science and Professor Frank Asche, much of China’s seafood imports do not originate from Chinese waters. Asche found that almost 75% of Chinese seafood exports are reprocessed and re-exported from Southeast Asia before being sold to other foreign countries. Re-exporting poses many problems for consumers and suppliers who desire sustainable and ethical food, as reprocessing often mislabels catches and obscures seafood from IUU fishing. Finfish species caught at sea, rather than domestic aquaculture are the most likely to be re-processed and it is impossible to discern where their origins once transported to market. High seas IUU fishing is not only a Chinese problem, but is prevalent throughout South East Asia and beyond. To combat this, Professor Asche and his researchers recommended increased accountability in the global seafood system, specifically better international coordination and blockchain technology.
Elements of transparency such as digital certifications, ship logs, crew manifests, and fishing licenses can be uploaded to a blockchain infrastructure, creating a comprehensive compliance monitoring system throughout the seafood supply chain. Blockchain is a perfect solution for the complex seafood industry, in which there are many actors like governments, worldwide consumers, private companies, and concerned NGOS, who each have a vested interest in the situation, but do not necessarily trust each other. No one actor can control an entire blockchain system, making the technology incredibly secure and easily reliable.
Most seafood-based industries in Southeast Asia and other developing nations with both a large seafood industry and human rights abuses can deploy blockchain in their supply chains. The solutions outlined here are not bound by geography or domestic political system and can create greater transparency regardless of industry. The main obstacle to blockchain adoption is awareness, as many malign it as a fraudulent, energy consuming fad that will die out in a matter of years. The same was said about the Internet and its revolutionary capabilities before it became an integral facet of everyday life. Blockchain also faces the obstacle of only being known for the single usage of cryptocurrency, despite its other versatile applications. However, adoption is jumping quickly in the private sector across all industries around the globe, and the future looks hopeful. This trend appears to be strongly linked to the renewed focus on ESG issues taking place around the world. The renewed focus on ESG due diligence mentioned previously is becoming a driving factor in private company supply chain calculus. Companies are eager to be seen as sustainable, ethical, and environmentally friendly in the age of climate crisis, and blockchain is one of the more promising technologies that can deliver on the complex inputs needed to create sustainable and transparent seafood supply chains.
However, like many technologies, blockchain is subject to the problem of “garbage in, garbage out”. A corrupt ship captain or government official could easily simply input faulty numbers or data. A solution for monitoring ship locations and travel are VMS monitoring systems, using satellite and cellular communications that originate from transponders placed on the ship, and is used as evidence in international environmental legal settings. Blockchain can accept this information and upload it as part of an immutable digital ledger. Furthermore, blockchain can accept any digitizable information such as video feed from shipside cameras. This can be used to monitor types of bycatch, crew demographics like migrant or underage labor, and fishing practices in compliance with both human rights and environmental sustainability regulations.
Companies can also add discoverable information such as species type, fish size, fishing permit number, fishing gear, and goes all the way to the individual vessel and the individual fisherman’s story. This information can be made available with a simple QR code scan, allowing the customer to see the entire blockchain verified journey of the product geographically mapped from its origin to end destination. This information is auditable by regulators on the blockchain where visual proof such as video or image documentation of the fishing gear can also be provided, thus offering an extra layer of visibility, security, and authenticity for seafood products. It is blockchain’s ability to accommodate a combination of technologies to create a mosaic of information that ultimately amounts to a comprehensive and verifiable narrative for seafood from its origin to endpoint. Thus, integrating blockchain solutions with existing technology creates a complete and constant picture of vessel fishing activities and what violations are taking place, sharable across borders and organizations for the benefit of all.
At Chainparency, we believe our custom solutions, especially our flagship application GoTrace, can play a vital role in assisting with these trends and shine a stronger light on human rights abuses. We are partnering with seafood, forestry, and agricultural companies to use blockchain for sustainable business and environmental responsibility at every stage of the supply chain. One of our pilot programs is already experimenting with solutions to the problems that we have outlined previously.