Benefits of Certification for Small-scale Fisheries - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 317

pre-assessment the fishery was concerned about the incidental capture of migratory
birds and the potential impact of this bycatch on certification. The pre-assessment
found that there was little risk of negative interactions with the RAMSAR-listed
birds and that the very limited interactions or bycatch was not of concern for the
consulted stakeholders. With data in hand the fishery entered full assessment and is
now nearing the end of the full assessment process and we are hopeful for a positive
outcome.
The MSC-certified Baja California spiny lobster fishery is made up of nine coop-
eratives in the central Baja California peninsula of Mexico. These cooperatives are
federated together and through this mechanism make group marketing and man-
agement decisions. Each of the cooperatives has concessions, or exclusive rights to
the area that they fish, that were first granted in 1936/1938. These concessions are
reviewed and re-granted as deemed appropriate by the Mexican government every
20 years. When MSC certification was first introduced to the fishing federation,
one of the main reasons that the fishery was interested in certification was that they
saw it as a means to ensure that when their concessions were up for review that
they would be able to demonstrate that they were fishing sustainably and should
be re-granted the concessions (see Chapter 12). There are a number of small-scale
fisheries in Mexico that operate under this concession arrangement, and there is
now interest in MSC certification from some of the other Mexican fisheries, perhaps
for the same reason.

15.3.7 Community organisation and empowerment

One of the greatest challenges in working with small-scale fisheries is the lack of any
obvious form of organisational structure. This is sometimes the result of geographic
distance between communities, but can sometimes also be attributed to a lack of
leadership or the lack of any perceived need for organisation. And sometimes the
lack of formal or informal organisation is simple a reality of the strain of daily
life for people in these communities, who are more concerned about putting food
on the table each evening than ensuring community organisation. The CFP has
found, as have many NGOs working in developing countries, that providing the
mechanism and forum for community organisation leads to empowerment and a
sense of ownership. Through organisation, communities can find their voice, they
can become entrepreneurial, and they may take ownership of their resource, tackle
challenges and find solutions to problems that have previously prevented a cohesive
response to resource management issues. Such empowerment can result in more
sustainable communities and more sustainable resource use (Jayme et al . 2001).
The CFP has found that introducing the concept of MSC certification is a means
for developing community organisation and empowerment. Initially, this was done
informally with individual fisheries that we thought might be good candidates for
certification. With the development of the scoping methodology we now have a
more sophisticated way of seeking and engaging local 'experts' in the process