The emergence and effectiveness of the Marine Stewardship Council

Market Formalization, Governance, and the Integration of Community Fisheries in the Brazilian Amazon

“…Critics have argued that the great majority of certified fisheries have similar characteristics: They are highly selective, exploit stocks in areas for which they have exclusive national access rights, and are well regulated and managed (Kaiser and Edward-Jones 2006). Gulbrandsen (2009) contrasts this situation with that of most developing-world fisheries in which fishers often share the resource with other fishers and have little control over how fish resources are exploited. He argues that ''this feature of open access resources effectively excludes developing country fisheries that meet most other MSC criteria'' (Gulbrandsen 2009).…”

“…Gulbrandsen (2009) contrasts this situation with that of most developing-world fisheries in which fishers often share the resource with other fishers and have little control over how fish resources are exploited. He argues that ''this feature of open access resources effectively excludes developing country fisheries that meet most other MSC criteria'' (Gulbrandsen 2009). He goes on to emphasize that because most fish stocks are under government control, their conservation depends on government enforcement of fisheries regulations and territorial rights, two major problems that plague artisanal fisheries throughout the developing world (Pomeroy and Berkes 1997).…”

Eco-certification of Farmed Seafood: Will it Make a Difference?

“…Experiences from eco-certification of capture fisheries show that small-scale fisheries to a large extent have been excluded from certification, mainly due to lack of data and monetary resources (Jacquet and Pauly 2008). The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has been criticized for not adequately including small-scale fisheries (Jacquet and Pauly 2008;Gulbrandsen 2009). Initiatives for eco-labeling of forest products have met similar challenges with less than 10 % of the land certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) located in developing countries (Fischer et al 2005).…”

New tuna regimes

“…We observe that the MSC principles have no implication on the measures of the first and second implementing arrangements (see Table 4.1) -including minimum terms and conditions for access to be granted to foreign vessels, maintenance of logbooks, electronic vessel monitoring scheme, and national observers on board -as they came into force with the Nauru Agreement in 1982 and 1990 respectively, before MSC certification program began in the late 1990s and later became global standard towards 2010 (Gulbrandsen 2009) when picked up by the PNA in 2010 (PNA 2010, Aqorau 2014). However, as we argue below, the MSC CoC, which relies on all the monitoring and enforcement measures under the first and second implementing arrangements and has specific traceability requirements, has helped to drive the change.…”

“…However, full adoption of the scheme was delayed until 2012 because of diverse political interests undermining the necessary consensus by PNA members to move to full implementation. The current allocation of days is based on the 2010 effort levels In parallel with the implementation of the VDS, the PNA also initiated steps to move towards MSC certification -widely seen as the 'gold standard' for fisheries management (Gulbrandsen 2009). This was not the first consideration to have the tuna fishery certified.…”