Global seafood production will struggle to be sustainable if the performance of developing world fisheries and aquaculture is not improved. But how should support be provided and what role can consumer markets play? These are the questions we addressed at the SeaWeb Sustainable Seafood Summit.

1. Meeting the Challenges to
Certification, Traceability and
Consumer Awareness
A view from the Global South

2. The panel
Certification: Challenges from North to South
Geoff Bolan, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
Status of traceability between the Global North and South:
Why the disparity? What levers to improve?
Momo Kochen, Masyarakat dan Perikanan, Indonesia (MDPI)
Insights from Other Commodities
Jo-anne McCrea, WWF Australia.

3. What are the challenges?
Meeting the Challenges to Certification, Traceability and Consumer
Awareness: A view from the Global South
Simon Bush
Associate Professor, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
SeaWeb Seafood Summit
9-11 Feb, 2015 New Orleans

4. International seafood trade
 Growing middle class in the global ‘fishbowl’ of Asia
 From global to regional markets
EU import 65% and US 91% of what is consumed.
Gives leverage – but also makes these markets vulnerable.
FAO 2014
Convergence
of import
volumes

5.  Certification has emerged in
response to over and under
regulation
 Public and private information
requirements are expanding
throughout value chains
 Producers are faced with meeting
requirements with varied levels of
reward
 Consumers are faced with
increased choice – but edited by
retailers and brands
Governing sustainable seafood
Producer
Consumer
Retailer
Exporter
Asymmetrical
power
relations

6. Who makes the grade?
 Producer/harvester capabilities
Cost, literacy, organisational issues
 Self-selection
Danger of not focusing on those with
larger (potential) sustainability gains
 Demonstrating data and
management
Reliance on public and private sources
of information to show improvement
and/or ‘good’ practices
 Networks of support in place
Reliance on intermediaries to improve
– which comes with cost

7. 0
Improvement
Certification threshold
Post-certificationPre-certification
88% global
fisheries
production
12% global
fisheries
production
No. of
fisheries
Bush and Oosterveer (2015) 7(2), 1861-1883, Sustainability

8. Credibility
Accessibility Continual
improvement
‘Devil’s
triangle’
A careful balancing act
Developing
world
fisheries?
Best
performing
fisheries?
Untenable?
Bush et al (2013), Marine Policy

9. Informational needs and challenges
?
??
?
 Eco-certification and IUU regulation
driving new and existing information
demands
 Increased demand on states with
limited capacity
 Increasing involvement of private
actors – companies and NGOs
 But is information also flowing back
to fish producers and harvesters?

10. What role for traceability?
Public regimes Private networks
Hybrid arrangements
Setting transparency requirements in support
of certification and IUU related market
access.

11. Can market demand drive change?
 Difference between supply of certified production and
(current) market demand for sustainable aquaculture
Bush et al 2013, Science 341: 1067-68

12. New trends ... and challenges
 National standards
Lower cost, greater inclusion, a
‘national’ social contract?
 Industrial coalitions
Will they go for certification or claim
sustainability otherwise?
 Industry-led benchmarking
Driving harmonisation or equivalency?
What will be the consequences for
national standards?

13. What are the key challenges?
• What differences between developed and
developing economies?
• What roles do government and industry
play in implementing these systems?
• What solutions can be identified to from
other commodities?
• Which systems are most appropriate for
supporting improved fisheries
management practices?