Anecdotes and Lessons of a Decade - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 420

As these voluntary and market-based developments unfold and their uptake spreads,
we expect that ecolabels will proliferate based (mainly) on purchaser-producer
direct arrangements. The flexibility of fishery and aquaculture producers to ignore
certification and ecolabelling will quickly be reduced, and inevitably, the great
majority of seafood will carry some form of certification or ecolabel. We expect
that, as the third phase unfolds, certification will become a normal part of the seafood
business, although the sustainability standards will cover a much greater range than
those applied in the present-day certification systems. This will not be an issue
for consumers, because creating actual environmental change does not matter in
the rapid proliferation phase of ecolabelling. Only after ecolabelling matures will
competition amongst ecolabels become a significant feature of the marketplace,
and this will include consumer confidence about the extent to which the competing
ecolabels can demonstrate direct ecological improvements.
While the involvement of large-scale fisheries in ecolabelling programmes is
largely market driven, the community-based, small-scale and local fisheries may
have a number of different reasons for entering into a voluntary certification or
ecolabelling programme. One common reason is to demonstrate to the government
regulators that their fishery is indeed well-managed, and have this verified by an
external and independent process. Such support is usually sought to ensure that their
fishery is treated favourably in any resource allocation debates or decisions. As was
the case for the Baja lobster fishery (Chapter 12), the major benefits may also be
in other areas of human development, such as better infrastructure provided by
government. Case studies show that MSC certification can secure existing resource
rights for very long periods (as in the South African hake fishery, Chapter 14), and
so the ambitions of small fisheries (such as the Lakes and Coorong Fishery in South
Australia, Chapter 15) to become MSC certified may be well motivated.
A further important reason is one of community pride. Many small-scale fisheries
are based on low technology, and although they may have been operating for many
years, questions always arise about the need for better technology and improved
harvests to maintain the appearance of being a modern and sustainable fishery.
An independent assessment can be used to confirm that such a fishery is indeed
well managed irrespective of gear types etc., and this can be demonstrated to other
communities or fisheries within the region. Small fisheries may produce only limited
product, and there may be no practical option for increasing production or securing
price increases. As a result, the drivers for small-scale fisheries to become certified
therefore may not directly relate to market incentives, but be driven more by non-
market factors. As seafood certification and ecolabelling spreads, it seems likely
that more small-scale fisheries will wish to become certified to secure some of these
non-market benefits. The MSC system is not likely to be the certification system of
choice for small-scale fisheries. The MSC has been accused of marginalising small-
scale fisheries, and there are calls for it to be more open, transparent and inclusive -
all attributes that the organisation itself currently considers it is demonstrating
(Ponte 2007, Chapter 14).