Anecdotes and Lessons of a Decade - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 419

d'etre - 'The MSC seeks to reverse the decline of fish stocks, safeguard livelihoods
and deliver improvements in marine conservation worldwide' (www.msc.org) - the
MSC does not appear to recognise that documenting the direct ecological impacts
of the ecolabel is probably the single most critical challenge for the future of the
MSC.
Product marketing will continue to be a major objective of certification and eco-
labelling programmes, rather than directly creating environmental change. Even
so, this will most likely have to be delivered in partnership with the more tradi-
tional measures for management of fisheries and aquaculture to develop and main-
tain credibility with consumers. The certification and ecolabelling programmes of
the future will therefore need to be explicitly designed to engage directly with
the existing fishery management policies and practices, and most likely on an
issue-by-issue and a fishery-by-fishery basis, to promote improved environmental
outcomes.

21.3 The motivations for certification

21.3.1 Voluntary assessment systems

The motivations for fisheries to voluntarily seek to be certified and ecolabelled are
many. In the MSC programme - the best current example of voluntary certification -
motivation appears to have evolved through three clear phases:

1. The Unilever policy decision : To secure fish supplies and create a market per-

ception of concern for environmental issues, Unilever actively adopted and
promoted a sourcing policy to mainly purchase certified seafood. Unilever's
decision was founded on their judgement that they needed to secure resource
allocations, and maintain market standing, or better, provide leadership. For
fisheries to become certified in the transition phase where there was little direct
market-place benefit, costs of the MSC certification process were covered by
Unilever, wholesalers or by foundations, not by the fisheries themselves.

2. Major retailers choose certified seafood : Major retailers across Europe and the

US recognised the early signs of emergence of a significant marketing tool
and marketplace competition, and moved to develop and implement sourcing
policies similar to those adopted earlier by Unilever (discussed in Chapter 20).

3. Keep up with the pack : In the third phase, yet to come, many more resellers

will recognise the need to maintain market parity with the major players
and adopt similar sourcing policies. Other companies, including investment
sources such as banks and insurance companies, will treat the seafood certifi-
cation issue as another form of corporate governance issue and adopt corporate
social responsibility principles in relation to their investments and business
ventures.