Ecolabelling of Seafood: The Basic Concepts - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 19

individual seafood certification programmes may choose to be consistent with.
But the more general umbrella systems provide only superficial overall structure
with limited relevance to seafood and the specific issues of natural resource man-
agement. The three main institutions contributing to governance structures for eco-
labelling are ISO, GEN and ISEAL, and in addition, the FAO has established a set
of guidelines directly relevant to seafood ecolabelling (see Chapter 3).
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is the largest standard-
setting body and its technical committee (TC 207) has helped to develop principles
and environmental standards (the so-called 14 000 series - or revised as the 14 020
environmental management series; ISO 1998). However, there has been some crit-
icism that 'in the design of some schemes either governments, some sectors of
the industry or environmental interest groups have not had the opportunity to ex-
press their interests' (FAO 1998, Deere 1999). It is worth noting that the standards
are largely process oriented and do not provide individual performance measures
against which environmental changes could be estimated.
The International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Al-
liance (ISEAL) and the Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN) are representative
institutions, similar to industry associations, for the main private sector labelling
organisations. They develop policies and frameworks of interest to their members
on the various aspects of ecolabelling, and maintain a communications network
amongst the various private sector entities. For example, ISEAL has recently com-
pleted an analysis of the likely effectiveness of evaluation systems used to assess
the effect of certification, and has proposed an ISEAL approach to this notoriously
difficult problem (Hassell 2005).
These various governance systems discussed above provide only limited specific
guidance for the development and implementation of seafood ecolabelling systems.
Therefore, seafood ecolabels, ratings and guides are probably best considered as
creatures of the marketplace, where the various pressures of stakeholders, gov-
ernments, the industry and consumers are interpreted into functional ecolabelling
systems. However, without any clear form of strict global governance that may re-
assure consumers of a consistency of approach and outcomes, the success or failure
of any specific ecolabel programme will be determined by the ability of each pro-
gramme to create benefits for seafood producers, markets and, most importantly,
for consumers. Although they may choose to adhere to various aspects of one or
more of the general ecolabelling frameworks, this alone is unlikely to have a big
impact on consumer acceptance of any specific ecolabelling programme.
Adherence to the basic properties of one of the widely accepted frameworks (such
as the ISO, ISEAL and FAO frameworks) will probably assist with acceptance of
individual ecolabelling programmes by governments and by the private sector,
but this will confer only limited additional credibility in the eyes of consumers.
In the final analysis, market acceptance and impact of an ecolabel programme
will probably determine the success of any specific ecolabelling programme (see
Chapter 10). Thus, consumers will have the final say in how such programmes