Market-Based Mechanisms – Improving Fisheries Management? - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 196

Consortium (IWMC) World Conservation Trust (a sustainable-use oriented NGO)
in response to environmental NGO campaigns for a ban on the trade in caviar (and
see Chapter 7). Little information is currently available on how the SSC operates,
and the website is now inactive. The Maine (USA) Lobster Council operates a logo
that is available to all lobster fishers as the council believes that all its products are
taken in an environmentally friendly manner (www.lobstersfrommaine.com). In-
deed, a growing number of companies and industry groups are making self-claims
about sustainability.
Concern over wider aspects of fisheries impacts than just on dolphins has resulted
in the creation of more comprehensive ecolabelling programmes. The MSC is
an international accreditation and standard-setting body established to promote
good fisheries management via certification and labelling (Phillips et al. 2003, and
see Chapter 4). The MSC's Principles and Criteria give equal weight to issues
surrounding stock sustainability, acceptable environmental impact and effective
management, and the MSC ecolabel represents a significant move beyond single-
issue labels.
A number of other fisheries ecolabelling programmes have been proposed or de-
veloped in recent years. Probably the simplest is operated by the Friend of the Sea,
based in Italy (www.friendofthesea.org). Until recently, this programme allowed
a candidate fishery to download a self-assessment form from the internet to de-
termine if the Friend of the Sea logo can be used. Another programme was put
forward by the Denmark-based Danish Society for a Living Sea but there has been
little development since it was first proposed in 2000 (www.levendehav.dk/politik/
oekoligiske fisk/regler-for-fiskeri.htm).
Rigorous programmes have also been proposed by government agencies. For
example, the Nordic Group of countries has been developing a labelling pro-
gramme for fisheries for a number of years (Nordic Technical Working Group
on Ecolabelling Criteria 2000). The criteria for labelling and the operation of
the programme are suited to fisheries from member countries. In Sweden, the
Association for Control of Organic Production (KRAV) has developed, with the
support of the national board of fisheries, a label and criteria for sustainable fish-
eries (arkiv.krav.se/arkiv/internationellt/draft2-0.pdf). More recently, the German
organic standard owner, Naturland, has created a standard for wild-harvest fisheries
(www.naturland.de), and the Japan Fisheries Association has announced that it will
do the same (and see Chapter 1).
The rapid growth in seafood labels in recent years has resulted in pressure by
some nations on the FAO, which has now developed international guidelines for
ecolabelling of wild caught seafood (FAO 2005b, and see Chapter 3). At this time,
the MSC is the only seafood ecolabelling programme that appears to fully comply
with the FAO guidelines but there is no requirement for others to similarly con-
form. Furthermore, despite the existence of these guidelines there is currently no
mechanism for evaluating and enforcing compliance by the range of wild-harvest
labelling programmes. This is of concern for the MSC and those that may wish to