Fisher and Trader Responses to Traceability Interventions in Indonesia

Calls for increased traceability of seafood have been frustrated by a poor understanding of the social dynamics shaping the flow of fish and information in global value chains. Contrasting with utilitarian and regulatory approaches, this article proposes a social practices intervention framework to understand the effect of traceability interventions ensuing from the EU IUU regulation and Fair Trade USA seafood certification program on fishers and traders operating in remote tuna landing sites in Indonesia. The framework demonstrates how the success or failure of traceability interventions depends on both alignments with (1) the performance of “targeted” and (2) “non-targeted” value chain practices as well as (3) “non-targeted” practices adjacent to the value chain. We conclude that the social practices intervention framework can provide improved insight and guidance on the uptake of traceability and other market-based governance approaches across a range of locally embedded fisheries landing sites.