Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
sources. This is particularly true in Europe, where major corporations have built
entire food sourcing campaigns around sustainable seafood initiatives. Some ex-
amples include Unilever's Fish Sustainability Initiative, a commitment by the
UK supermarket chain J. Sainsbury to source all its wild fish from sustainable
sources, Royal Ahold's (Netherlands) Ecosound project and the 'Fish for Our
Future' programme sponsored by Whole Foods Markets in the United States.
Whilst these examples would appear to indicate a trend, at least in the developed
world, towards corporate demand for sustainable fish products, we do not know
what the true effect of these trends is on the market. Not enough research has
been done to establish whether corporate demand for sustainable fish is driven
by consumer demand for sustainable products, or whether corporate interest is
driving consumer demand.
The Task Force is less sanguine about the effectiveness of other trade and
market place measures. Instinctively, a combination of the exercise of corporate
social responsibility, sound purchasing choices by major wholesalers, chain-of-
custody schemes and consumer action, backed up by government action to support
enforcement of conservation rules would appear to offer a solution to limit the
ways in which IUU [
Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported
] product can reach the
market, but there remain serious questions about the application of such measures
to developing countries and major new markets, such as China. There is also a
need to assemble hard evidence with which to test the effect on the market, as
well as on sustainability that voluntary ecolabelling schemes such as the Marine
Stewardship Council initiative really have. Research also needs to focus on the
actual economic costs of such schemes, including the direct, indirect, one-off
and recurring costs of compliance, as well as the potential WTO implications of
government funding for independent schemes.
From High Seas Task Force, 2006.
10.4
The nature of success
The two key aspects of ecolabelling success are: first, the extent of market accep-
tance and penetration by the ecolabel and the supporting certification system; and
second, the extent to which ecological changes are created through the market-based
incentive of the ecolabel. Market penetration is typically assessed and reported as
the number of certified or labelled products, the amount of product and the extent
of coverage of the intended market (e.g. see Chapter 4 for the market penetration by
the MSC ecolabel). However, assessing and reporting on ecological achievements
of an ecolabel is considerably more difficult. Since ecolabels are only one tool
being used to improve management of fisheries and aquaculture ventures, it may
be difficult to identify the contribution ecolabelling makes to any ecological im-
provements that might be observed. Also, ecological improvements may take many
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