Aquaculture Certification - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 108

Unfortunately sustainability is not a measurable entity in itself, so its analysis re-
lies on indirect criteria or sustainability indicators. Ideally, sustainable development
should be the result of fair negotiations among those who have a stake in the con-
cern for sustainability. Consequently, because stakeholders play a pivotal role in
sustainable development, a definition of sustainability based on a 'consistent' set
of sustainability criteria may be unattainable, mainly because public concern will
be subject to change. If sustainability criteria change, then the emphasis in sus-
tainable development will change accordingly, severely limiting the possibility of
quantitative 'prediction' of future sustainability. The fact that public concern is
easily subject to change is illustrated by the Nitrofen affair in Germany (EC 2002).
After traces of the forbidden herbicide Nitrofen were found in eggs and chickens
originating from organic farms in Germany, consumer organisations issued warn-
ings, organic farms were temporarily closed and the credibility of certified organic
agriculture was seriously damaged.
Considering the importance of the concept of sustainability for development
strategies as well as its temporal dynamics, it seems more useful to continuously
monitor sustainable development than to try and predict sustainability. Thus, al-
though it may not be possible to come up with a precise definition of sustainability
that satisfies all interested parties, attempts at monitoring sustainability through
the use of a broad set of well-designed indicators are still valid and they can
help to build a consensus among stakeholders. This realisation has driven initia-
tives to identify sustainability indicators for many systems including aquaculture in
Scotland (SEERAD 2003) and aquaculture in Europe overall (CONSENSUS 2006).
However, identifying suitable indicators is just the starting point and major obsta-
cles, largely in the form of inconsistent and costly methods of data collection,
remain. Herein lies one significant advantage of voluntary certification schemes.
They typically require the collection of environmental impact data in a consistent
format and, if they are well designed, these data can be compiled to generate infor-
mative environmental indicators - indicators that will be essential in the long-term
quest for sustainable aquaculture practices.

5.3 Environmental pressure

The emergence of numerous certification schemes aimed at addressing the negative
impacts of aquaculture is more than a reflection of the magnitude of the problems
in the aquaculture industry. The abundance of schemes (Tables 5.1 and 5.2) is
also based on the fact that they can capitalise on the industry's ability to react
positively to environmental pressures and they thus hold out good prospects for
reducing negative impressions of the aquaculture industry. Put simply, aquaculture
can and does change for the better in response to environmental pressures (Asche
et al. 1999). In this regard, as a means of producing seafood, it has some fundamental