August 18, 2016 — JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Economist magazine convened a group of investors, government representatives, non-profit organizations and multi-lateral agencies to discuss how to drive investment aimed at addressing the decline of wild fish stocks.
Presenting as a panelist at the South-East Asia and Pacific Regional Fisheries Summit, Jerry Knecht, founder and President of Portland, Maine based North Atlantic, Inc (NAI), reviewed the progress of his team’s community based fishery management model. On the heels of successful fundraising in 2015, NAI broke ground on their first fisheries management center in March. This is one of four planned in Indonesia.
The NAI story quickly became a focal point in discussing how to increase investment in sustainable fisheries. When asked about keys to attracting capital, Knecht explained a fisheries company must first mitigate risk. “[We] work with the value chain. By understanding the whole value chain and working with the fishery itself, we start to distribute some of the rents from the value chain to fisheries, incenting them to follow sustainable practices.” Knecht believes long term sustainability begins with the coastal communities harvesting the fisheries.