Benefits of Certification for Small-scale Fisheries - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 308

of addressing overfishing globally and for WWF to significantly protect marine
eco-regions, small-scale fisheries need to have access to MSC certification and be
successful in the certification process.
Since the creation of the MSC, WWF has taken a special interest in advanc-
ing certification as a conservation tool to benefit small-scale fisheries and coastal
communities. In 1999, WWF started the Community Fisheries Program (CFP),
which was tasked with helping small-scale fisheries in both developing and devel-
oped countries through the MSC certification process. Through the work of this
programme WWF has played a variety of roles including conducting outreach,
fundraising, networking, providing advice and strategic direction, and providing
transitional help to fisheries interested in moving from pre-assessment to full as-
sessment. Since beginning this work the programme has grown to 15 projects
worldwide. The fisheries involved with these projects range from artisanal com-
munity fisheries in developing countries to larger volume fisheries in developed
countries where fishing is conducted from small boats with only a few crew mem-
bers. In all these projects the CFP works with the MSC staff responsible for the
region and local partners on the ground, either the local WWF office or another
non-governmental organisation (NGO) partner. In these partnerships WWF presents
our goals and our perceptions of the benefits of entering the MSC programme, and
the MSC represents their programme and the technical aspects of the certification
process. Outreach is conducted in this way to ensure that each organisation is speak-
ing for itself and thus miscommunications are minimised and autonomy is main-
tained. This joint approach has turned out to be essential to the success of the CFP
projects.
The projects of the CFP tend to fall into three categories: (i) fisheries that WWF
has approached; (ii) fisheries that have approached WWF and (iii) scoping projects
to identify possible candidates for certification in WWF priority eco-regions. With
our global network of organisations and its partnerships with local NGOs, the CFP
is well equipped and has been successful in promoting and facilitating certification
of small-scale fisheries in both developing and developed countries. Along the
way, we have learned a number of important lessons that led to changes in how
we approach new projects. We now have a better understanding of how small-scale
fisheries can benefit from MSC certification.

15.2 The certification dilemmas

Early projects of the CFP tended to be fisheries that were identified as having
potential by other WWF offices or by partner NGOs. In many cases these fisheries or
communities were already working with WWF or our partners on other conservation
projects. Through this connection, outreach about MSC certification was conducted
and interest from the fishery determined. The problem with this approach was that
often these fisheries were not ideal candidates for certification, but this was only