Social and Economic Outcomes of Fisheries Certification: Characterizing Pathways of Change in Canned Fish Markets

Abstract

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) eco-labeling program provides fisheries a pathway to demonstrate their sustainability by undergoing an environmental certification. Like other standard-setters, the MSC’s ‘theory of change’ presumes that markets use this information to select for sustainable products, providing an incentive for producers to improve their practices and become certified. However, the underlying mechanisms which actually work to link market behavior and participation in the program in different contexts have not been systematically identified. We draw on broad MSC field experience to identify processes that have supported the theory of change in individual fisheries. Then, we develop a broadly applicable rapid assessment protocol, relying on a semi-structured interviews of key informants, to gather systematic evidence for key dynamics within the theory of change: the effects of going through MSC certification on market processes, partnerships in the fishery, and governance. In a pilot test of the protocol, we identify important common and idiosyncratic processes in three canned product fisheries: United States west coast albacore tuna, Brittany sardines, and Portuguese sardines. We find that the harvesters and buyers/processors in these fisheries sought certification primarily to expand or maintain their market share, and that certification was synergistic with stakeholder cooperation. The cases demonstrate how our rapid assessment interviews allow program participants to relate their experience in their own words yet facilitate systematic comparison to identify common mechanisms within the theory of change. We propose its wider application to systematically advance our understanding of social and economic processes that drive of eco-label interventions in different geographies and supply chains around the world.

Marine Animal Co-Products—How Improving Their Use as Rich Sources of Health-Promoting Lipids Can Foster Sustainability

“…The repurposing of marine animal co-products may also represent an extra revenue source for seafood processors and related industries, an opportunity to foster innovation in the form of novel value-added products, and diversification within the seafood industry with additional eco-friendly options. It also aligns with the broader goals of sustainable seafood certification programs and fishery management initiatives [297,298]. Moreover, the exploration of these resources may represent a boost for local economies and lead to the creation of new jobs in the seafood industry.…”

Identifying sustainability priorities among value chain actors in artisanal common octopus fisheries

“…However, this can be especially challenging when several buyers are involved in a horizontal chain compared with vertically integrated or short supply chains where there is more control over activities and any benefits may be enjoyed by a consolidated company (van Putten et al 2020 ). Certification can also lead to greater pricing stability as was found in the Asturian fishery where fishers joined forces in a common organisation, ARPESOS, that allowed them to concentrate, in time and location, the offer from 34 vessels coming from 7 different guilds and thus gained better control of the marketing chain by selling through the future auction system (see also Anderson et al 2021 ). From a value chain analysis perspective, this is a major change, considering that fragmentation is a challenge in the artisanal fishing sector globally, and usually has negative impacts in terms of control of the economic variables of first sales, and therefore capitalization of part of the benefits along the value chain.…”

Data availability and participatory approach: the right mix for enhancing Mediterranean fisheries’ sustainability

“…Undertaking a path towards certification can have additional and unanticipated effects, related to social and governance outcomes, i.e. market expansion, collaboration among harvesters and increased trust and cooperation between the industry and managers (Anderson et al, 2021). Furthermore, recent studies demonstrate that r seafood value chains may have impacts on ecosystems, as consumers' choices are drivers of fishing strategies because they exert pressure on product requirements (Gomez and Maynou (2021b), the idea behind the theory of change, at the basis of the MSC approach.…”

“…The main feature of a PPA is that its intended impact extends beyond the immediate project results, aiming at improving the overall fisheries management. Cooperation between fishers, NGOs, research institutes, international agencies, administrations, public institutions, and retailers increases, indeed, the possibility of accessing the necessary resources, expands skills, strengthens the sense of responsibility of the involved actors and paves a more conscious path towards fish sustainability (Anderson et al, 2021), which may eventually lead to certification, creating further benefits for operators. Participatory methods have, indeed, demonstrated their potential to integrate ecosystem-based management in a community-based approach, involving all actors in a proactive manner and "considering fisheries as a human activity socially and culturally rooted in the environment, which would enhance the effective implementation of fisheries policies" (Gomez and Maynou, 2021a).…”