Measuring the Success of Seafood Ecolabelling - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 216

10.4.1 The sustainability standard

For consumers, probably the most important and influential feature of any market-
based incentive programme is the quality and coverage of the standard (Chapter 1).
For incentive systems focussed on the ecological sustainability of fisheries and
aquaculture ventures, setting a high standard of environmental performance poten-
tially creates a greater incentive because of the higher levels of ecological benefits
that will flow and a higher level of market differentiation for their product recom-
mendation. However, the higher the ecological standard and the greater the distance
between the present level of environmental performance and the performance en-
coded within the sustainability standard, the greater the barrier for a seafood venture
in order to become compliant with the standard. This makes it more difficult and
costly for a fishery or aquaculture activity to enter into the incentive system. Also, it
means that fewer ventures and products will become endorsed and be offered in the
marketplace, thereby restricting the potential for consumer 'pull' of environmental
practices.
Setting the standard is therefore a highly complex balancing act that must assess
the specific trade-offs that will be likely to occur within the incentive system, and
establishing the right balance amongst these factors is critical to success. The factors
to be considered, some of which may be opposing, include:
the exact elements of sustainability to be covered by the standard;
the minimum level of performance on each element that will be considered to
have satisfied the standard;
the cost of verification in relation to the capacity of ventures to pay;
the type of product endorsement (internet, advertising, label, card, colours, text,
size, positioning, etc.);
the precise wording of the endorsement;
the details of the verification system, and in particular how to maintain the
independence of the verifier (the certifier) from outside influence;
the grading in performance levels (pass, fail or graduated);
the balance of importance of each element in the assessment process;
how the standard-setting organisation will maintain its funding, independence,
balance, its focus and community norms;
how the sustainability standard will be kept up-to-date, maintain the optimum in-
crement between current industry best-practice and a possibly more aspirational
sustainability standard; and
how to provide for incremental improvement of the standard (elements, perfor-
mance levels).

Every fishery and aquaculture production venture has effects on species, ecosystems
and habitats that are linked to capture and production activities. In determining a
standard, the challenge is to define explicitly what are the types of effects that
will be covered by the standard, and the acceptable levels of such effects, because