Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and certification of the chain of custody between the time the fish is harvested and
the time the fish or fishery product is sold to the final consumer. The chain-of-
custody assessment examines whether adequate measures are in place to identify
fish from a certified fishery at subsequent stages of fish processing, distribution
and marketing. While separate certificates may be issued for the fishery and for
the chain of custody, fish and fishery products that are labelled to indicate to the
consumer their origin from a sustainable fishery require both types of assessments.
As is the case for accreditation organisations, the guidelines lay down the re-
quirements for certification bodies to perform their tasks professionally in a trans-
parent, impartial, independent and accountable fashion. The primary normative
basis include ISO Guide 62, General Requirements for Bodies Operating Assess-
ment and Certification/Registration Of Quality Systems 1996, ISO/IEC Guide 65,
General Requirements for Bodies Operating Product Certification Systems 1996,
and Article 5 of the WTO Agreement on TBT.
Beyond the general ISO requirements appropriately adapted to the case of sus-
tainable fisheries, the guidelines contain specific provisions that acknowledge the
great diversity of situations and conditions under which fisheries are conducted and
managed. To ensure non-discrimination, the access to the services of a certifica-
tion body should be open to all types of fisheries whether managed by a regional,
governmental, parastatal or non-governmental fisheries management organisations
or arrangement. Further, access to certification should not be conditional upon the
size or scale of the fishery, nor should certification be conditional upon the number
of fisheries already certified (paragraph 112).
Non-discrimination in access to certification services is also the intent of the
provision on the certification fee structure (paragraph 125). 'In establishing the fee
structure and in determining the specific fee of a certification assessment, the cer-
tification body should take into account, inter alia, the requirements for accurate
and truthful assessments, the scale, size and complexity of the fishery or chain of
custody, the requirement of non-discrimination of any client, and the special cir-
cumstances and requirements of developing countries and countries in transition'.
Given the highly dynamic nature of fisheries, the guidelines contain detailed
provisions on the maintenance, renewal and possible suspension and withdrawal of
certification. They call for periodic surveillance and monitoring of the fishery and
chain of custody at appropriate time intervals (paragraph 128), prompt notification
by the client of intended changes to the management of the fishery or chain of
custody (paragraph 129), and reassessments in the event of changes significantly
affecting the status and management of the fishery or chain of custody, or if analysis
of complaints and other information indicates that the certified fishery and/or chain
of custody no longer comply with the required standard (paragraph 130).
The period of validity of a certificate should not exceed 5 years in the case of
a fishery and 3 years in the case of the chain of custody (paragraph 131). Given
regular monitoring and auditing exercises and a full reassessment, the validity of
certification can be renewed for the same time periods (paragraph 132).
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