July Circle Update

Seafood Adaptation Strategy – What Next

The Aotearoa Circle has been focused on our marine environment and seafood sector for several years.  We have worked to identify the climate threats to the sector and what needs to happen to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts. 

The latest work in this area is the development of toolkits for three key parts of the sector: deepwater fishing, inshore fishing and aquaculture.  The thinking behind these toolkits is that every part of the sector, every stakeholder, will know what they need to do to play their part in developing a resilient seafood sector.  For example, how do we deliver feed security for salmon farmers, enable legislation that will help hoki fishers to adapt fast to climate change or use technology to improve monitoring and management for snapper fishers.

Our teams of experts in the Implementation Group and Leadership Group are continuing to work on creating this toolkit,  with the  Implementation Group coming together in a workshop in late June to brainstorm its format and begin populating it. We anticipate launching the finished toolkit with you in August. We will keep you up to date with developments in this newsletter and via our social media channels.

Getting the ESG Message to Exporters

On June 18th The Aotearoa Circle was part of the NZTE webinar called A changing landscape – emerging sustainability and trade regulations for NZ exporters. 

This webinar was focused on our report Protecting New Zealand’s Competitive Advantage, which was published at the end of April. The Aotearoa Circle commissioned this report from Chapman Tripp to understand the increasing demands on New Zealand exporters for sustainability reporting. 

The report is essential reading for any New Zealand exporter.  It shows that 80% of our exports by value are going to countries with requirements for ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) reporting either already in place or on their way. 

You can find that report here.  Plus there’s a link to the NZTE summary for exporters here.