Aquaculture Certification - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 117

be unsustainable, will the public begin to rely more on the non-governmental
groups for information?
(b) Governments, representatives of the people in many countries, have a respon-
sibility to manage society's public sector resources. Some standards systems,
as a condition of certification, require government actions to be taken to rem-
edy problems in certain areas. However, government is required to treat all
demands on its resources evenhandedly and determine for the common good
which challenges must be addressed first. Is government ceding its respon-
sibilities to manage public sector resources when acceding to demands for
corrective actions demanded by third-party certifiers?
(c) The Rio Declaration on the Environment and Development encourages assis-
tance for developing countries. Seafood certification systems, though, require
a higher level of performance than is sometimes required by governments.
By requiring more stringent standards for production, are developed countries
creating non-tariff barriers to trade? Are the certification systems designed so
that only developed countries have the infrastructure to support companies'
certification efforts? Or are developed countries shifting additional costs onto
developing countries, at a time when they are trying to alleviate poverty in
those countries? How can certification systems balance the consumer nations'
need for ensured sustainability with producer nations' needs to develop an
aquaculture industry without excess costs?
(d) Conversely, by creating new trading categories of higher value (certified prod-
ucts) are developed countries simply downgrading the bulk of existing, uncer-
tified products and holding their prices down? This could effectively create a
two-tier system and result in trade distortions.
Despite these important policy caveats, many international bodies such as the FAO
recognise that BMPs play an important part in the sustainable development of
aquaculture, for both large-scale and small-scale producers (FAO 2005). At the same
time, third-party certification of these practices can help improve public confidence
in the management of aquaculture facilities, provided that the certification systems
function independently of the standard-setting organisations. Hopefully the rapidly
expanding and evolving aquaculture industry, with the assistance of certification
schemes, will continue to learn lessons from other industries and will increasingly
follow the path towards environmental and social sustainability.

5.7 The alliance

The Global Aquaculture Alliance, Inc. (GAA) is an international NGO with a mis-
sion to promote environmentally and socially responsible aquaculture to meet world
food needs. The alliance was founded in 1997 with 59 founding members, widely
scattered across the globe, including Europe and Asia, with a core of support in