Measuring the Success of Seafood Ecolabelling - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 239

Table 10.1 ( continued )

Criterion Performance indicator Intent

3. Transparency 8. The institutional and

governance structure
backing the programme
is public domain
information

All key aspects of the identity, institutional
arrangements and the governance of
the incentive programme are freely
available, including details of key
personnel, the standard, verification
system, certifiers, company boards,
industry, research and technical
advisory systems, and funding sources

9. All assessments and
reports prepared to
determine compliance
with the standard are
public domain

All the assessments and reports prepared
about fishery or producer performance
in relation to the standard or the
programme are freely available to the
public; only confidential financial reports
would be exempt

4. Independence 10. Compliance of the

venture with the
standard is verified by
an independent
third-party certification
system

To ensure that the potential for
motivational bias in the verification
process is minimised

11. The standard-owner
and any related
organisations are
financially independent
of seafood products and
have no conflicts of
interest

The organisation owning the standard and
implementing the programme should
have no cross-links (no common staff or
board members etc.) with seafood
organisations, nor derive any financial
benefit from the sale of endorsed
seafood

5. Public input 12. The public is notified

widely of the
engagement of a
venture with the
assessment
programme, and
outcomes widely
publicised

To ensure that there is a broad awareness
of the assessment process, and the
opportunity for public involvement

13. Stakeholder input is
actively sought from all
sectors into the
verification process for
the purpose of ensuring
that community norms
are maintained

To ensure that any interpretations,
judgements or decisions made in the
verification process can be set in the
context of community norms and
acceptability

10.6.3 Dealing with uncertainty and gaps in knowledge
The issues surrounding the environmental impacts of fishing and aquaculture are
highly technical, and many lack detailed information. In most situations, the in-
formation is inadequate to make reliable decisions about the nature of impacts,
except for the gross impacts (such as gross damage from trawling in sensitive