Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
bring the focus more intensively onto the robustness of the design of certifica-
tion programmes and directly onto the standards used for certification and product
recommendation.
However, it appears that to achieve 'gold-star' status with consumers an ecola-
belling programme mainly needs to have a good marketing arm, but does not need
to create major changes to ocean ecosystems or fish stocks. The MSC is currently
the world's leading ecolabelling programme for capture fisheries and might be con-
sidered by consumers to be the 'gold-star' programme, yet there is little evidence to
suggest that it has created significant environmental change (Jacquet & Pauly 2007,
Ward 2008). In other sectors the ecological outcomes from market-successful eco-
labelling initiatives are still contested after operational lifetimes of up to 25 years
(Muller 2002, Hassell 2005, Rotherham 2005, UNEP 2006).
If a certification programme cannot directly create a big legacy of actual environ-
mental changes, the unique role of ecolabelling as an agent for change becomes less
clear. There are a number of other policy tools such as national legislation, com-
munity rules, and the more traditional tools of fisheries management that can (and
indeed may be better placed to) drive environmental and fish stock improvements
(Beddington
et al.
2007). So, if there are no direct ecological improvements, the
primary role for an ecolabelling programme may default to maintaining the public
profile of the issues of ecological sustainability rather than directly driving changes
in fishing practices.
If consumers become aware that there may be problems with the stan-
dard/outcomes of certification (such as through the activities of specialist interest
groups), they may demand that the seafood certification and ecolabelling of the fu-
ture must deliver actual verified ecological changes. It seems most likely that such
programmes will need to be narrowly focused, possibly based on specific fishery
types, regions, or types of issues where specific standards can be set and where
changes can be clearly documented in the short term. These programmes would
need a design that explicitly targeted such objectives.
In the beginning, the MSC programme was designed to reward a specified level of
performance across all fisheries (as defined in the MSC Principles and Criteria), but
now the programme has evolved to become an agent for creating change through the
continuous improvement loop - the stepwise improvement of performance through
applying sets of conditions within each 5-year period of certification. The initially
envisaged MSC programme involved comparison of the current conditions in a
fishery with the required standard. However, the present MSC design recognises
the existing conditions and applies incremental change. Whether this has been the
correct response to the many criticisms and issues experienced by the MSC pro-
gramme remains to be seen. But there is no doubt that, as with all other ecolabelling
programmes, the final test in the eyes of consumers (as informed by specialist inter-
est groups) will eventually be - does the programme, either directly or indirectly,
stop the decline of fish stocks and also create environmental improvements? If not,
then the MSC will have a difficult pathway ahead. At this time, despite the raison
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