The Case of Sustainable Seafood Provision
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
The environmental consequences of the increasing global seafood production and consumption are substantial and drive a search for providing more adequate governance responses. In recent years, market-based approaches to sustainable seafood governance have gained considerable traction. Born in part out of perceived failures of state-based regulations, a range of civil society-led governance approaches have emerged. Private seafood governance arrangements interact with public seafood regulations and this may lead to competition, collaboration or hybridity. This interaction should however not be assessed in general but more closely related to the different stages in the regulatory cycle: agenda setting/negotiation, implementation and monitoring/enforcement. Collaboration between public and private global seafood governance arrangements occurs primarily in the first phase of the regulatory cycle but gets much less prominent in later phases where competition or even separation prevails. Harmonization between public and private sustainable seafood governance arrangements in the near future is therefore unlikely.
1 FAO, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2014, (Rome: FAO, 2014)Google ScholarPubMed.
2 Jacquet, J., Pauly, D., Ainley, D., Holt, S., Dayton, P. and Jackson, J., “Seafood stewardship in crisis”, 467 Nature (2010), pp. 28–29 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 OECD, Globalisation in Fisheries and Aquaculture; Opportunities and Challenges. (Paris: OECD, 2010)Google Scholar.
4 Kelling, I., ““Responsible Retailers”: Policy Challenges Raised by Private Standards in the Seafood Sector”, in Shriver, A. L. (ed.), Achieving a Sustainable Future: Managing Aquaculture, Fishing, Trade and Development (Nha Trang, Vietnam: International Institute of Fisheries Economics & Trade, 2008), pp. 1–12 Google Scholar.
5 FAO, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2014, (Rome: FAO, 2014)Google ScholarPubMed.
6 Jackson, J., Kirby, M., Berger, W., Bjorndal, K., Botsford, L., Bourque, B., Bradbury, R., Cooke, R., Erlandson, J., Estes, J., Hughes, T., Kidwell, S., Lange, C., Lenihan, H., Pandolfi, J., Peterson, C., Steneck, R., Tegner, M. and Warner, R., “Historical Overfishing and the Recent Collapse of Coastal Ecosystems”, 293 Science (2001), pp. 629–637 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.
7 Pillay, T., Aquaculture and the Environment, (Oxford: Fishing News Books, 1992)Google Scholar.
8 Belton, B. and Thilsted, S., “Fisheries in transition: Food and nutrition security implications for the global South”, 3 Global Food Security (2014), pp. 59–66 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Folke, C. and Kautsky, N., “Aquaculture with its environment: Prospects for sustainability”, 17 Ocean & Coastal Management (1992), pp. 5–24 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Islam, M., Confronting the Blue Revolution. Industrial Aquaculture and Sustainability in the Global South, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014)Google Scholar; Primavera, J., “Overcoming the impacts of aquaculture on the coastal zone”, 49 Ocean & Coastal Management (2006), pp. 531–545 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
9 Allison, E., “Big laws, small catches: global ocean governance and the fisheries crisis”, 13 Journal of International Development (2001), pp. 933–950 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Barkin, J. and DeSombre, E., Saving global fisheries: reducing fishing capacity to promote sustainability, (Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 2013)Google Scholar.
10 Some B2B schemes take efforts to engage other societal actors as well. See for an example on GlobalGAP: Tallontire, A., Opondo, M. and Nelson, V., “Contingent spaces for smallholder participation in GlobalGAP: insights from Kenyan horticulture value chains”, 180 The Geographical Journal (2014), pp. 353–364 CrossRefGoogle Scholar and on the RSPO: Cheyns, E., “Multi-stakeholder Initiatives for Sustainable Agriculture: Limits of the ‘Inclusiveness’ Paradigm”, in Ponte, S., Gibbon, P. and Vestergaard, J. (eds.), Governing through Standards; origins, Drivers and Limitations (Houndmills, Palgrave MacMillan, 2011), pp: 210–235 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
11 Hakon Hoel, A., Sydnes, A. and Ebbin, S., “Ocean Governance and Institutional Change”, in Ebbin, S., Hakon Hoel, A. and Sydnes, A. (eds.), A Sea Change: The Exclusive Economic Zone and Governance Institutions for Living Marine Resources (Dordrecht: Springer, 2005), pp. 3–16 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shaw, M., Theory of the Global State. Globality as an Unfinished Revolution, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12 FAO, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2014, (Rome: FAO, 2014), at p. 81 Google ScholarPubMed.
13 Barkin, J. and DeSombre, E., Saving global fisheries: reducing fishing capacity to promote sustainability, (Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 2013)Google Scholar; Freestone, D., “Modern Principles of High Sea Governance - The Legal Underpinnings”, 39 Environmental Policy and Law (2009), pp. 44–49 Google Scholar; Sydnes, A., “Regional Fisheries Organisations and International Fisheries Governance”, in Ebbin, S., Hakon Hoel, A. and Sydnes, A. (eds.), A Sea Change: The Exclusive Economic Zone and Governance Institutions for Living Marine Resources (Dordrecht: Springer, 2005), (pp. 117–135)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
14 http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp/international/rfmo/index_en.htm (accessed 13 June 2014)
15 Hilborn, R., “Moving to Sustainability by Learning from Successful Fisheries”, 36 AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment (2007), pp. 296–303 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
16 FAO, Multilateral Trade Negotiations on Agriculture: A Resource Manual, (Rome: FAO, 2000)Google Scholar; Potts, T. and Haward, M., “International trade, eco-labelling, and sustainable fisheries – recent issues, concepts and practices”, 9 Environment, Development and Sustainability (2007), pp. 91–106 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sumaila, U., Khan, A., Dyck, A., Watson, R., Munro, G., Tydemers, P. and Pauly, D., “A bottom- up re-estimation of global fisheries subsidies”, 12 Journal of Bioeconomics (2010), pp. 201–225 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
17 Binet, T., Fuelling the threat for sustainable fisheries in Europe, (Brussels: WWF European Policy Office, 2007)Google Scholar.
18 Sumaila, U., Khan, A., Dyck, A., Watson, R., Munro, G., Tydemers, P. and Pauly, D., “A bottom-up re-estimation of global fisheries subsidies”, 12 Journal of Bioeconomics (2010), pp. 201–225 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
19 http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/rulesneg_e/fish_e/fish_intro_e.htm (accessed 12 June 2014)
20 Oosterveer, P., “Governing global fish provisioning: Ownership and management of marine resources”, 51 Ocean & Coastal Management (2008), pp. 797–805 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
21 Oosterveer, P. and Spaargaren, G., “Organising consumer involvement in the greening of global food flows: the role of environmental NGOs in the case of marine fish”, 20 Environmental Politics (2011), pp. 97–114 CrossRefGoogle Scholar mention the following examples of consumer guides: the Monterey Bay Seafood Guide, others developed by the Conscious Choice and Seafood Choices Alliance (the United States), the North Sea Foundation (Stichting Noordzee) (the Netherlands), and the Blue Ocean Institute (the United Kingdom);
22 Kelling, I., ““Responsible Retailers”: Policy Challenges Raised by Private Standards in the Seafood Sector”, in Shriver, A. (ed.), Achieving a Sustainable Future: Managing Aquaculture, Fishing, Trade and Development (Nha Trang, Vietnam: International Institute of Fisheries Economics & Trade, 2008), pp. 1–12 Google Scholar.
23 Gulbrandsen, L., “The emergence and effectiveness of the Marine Stewardship Council”, 33 Marine Policy (2009), pp. 654-66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
24 Auld, G., Constructing Private Governance. The rise and evolution of forest, coffee, and fisheries certification, (New Haven and New York: Yale University Press, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
25 Oosterveer, P. and Sonnenfeld, D., Food, Globalization and Sustainability, (London and New York: Earthscan, 2012)Google Scholar.
26 Bush, S. and Oosterveer, P., “Vertically differentiating environmental standards: the case of the Marine Stewardship Council”, 7 Sustainability (2015), pp. 1861–1883 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
27 Kalfagianni, A. and Pattberg, P., “Fishing in muddy waters: Exploring the conditions for effective governance of fisheries and aquaculture”, 38 Marine Policy (2013), pp. 124–132 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
28 Steering Committee of the State-of-Knowledge Assessment of Standards and Certification, Toward sustainability: The roles and limitations of certification, (Washington, DC: RESOLVE, Inc., 2012)Google Scholar.
29 Bush, S., Belton, B., Hall, D., Vandergeest, P., Murray, F., Ponte, S., Oosterveer, P., Islam, M., Mol, A., Hatanaka, M., Kruijssen, F., Ha, T., Little, D. and Kusumawati, R., “Certify Sustainable Aquaculture?”, 341 Science (2013), pp. 1067–1068 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Hatanaka, M., “Governing sustainability: examining audits and compliance in a third-partycertified organic shrimp farming project in rural Indonesia”, 15 Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability (2010), pp. 233–244 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
30 Belton, B., Haque, M.M., Little, D.C. and Sinh, L.X., “Certifying catfish in Vietnam and Bangladesh: Who will make the grade and will it matter?”, 36 Food Policy (2011), pp. 289–299 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gulbrandsen, L. H., “The emergence and effectiveness of the Marine Stewardship Council”, 33 Marine Policy (2009), pp. 654–660 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hatanaka, M., “Certification, Partnership, and Morality in an Organic Shrimp Network: Rethinking Transnational Alternative Agrifood Networks”, 38 World Development, (2009), pp. 706–716 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wilkings, A., “Fisheries and Aquaculture Certification: Implications for Southeast Asia”, In: Fisheries Transitions in Southeast Asia, 2011-2014; Working Paper Number 2. (Ottawa: University of Ottawa, 2012)Google Scholar.
31 Bush, S., Belton, B., Hall, D., Vandergeest, P., Murray, F., Ponte, S., Oosterveer, P., Islam, M., Mol, A., Hatanaka, M., Kruijssen, F., Ha, T., Little, D. and Kusumawati, R., “Certify Sustainable Aquaculture?”, 341 Science (2013), pp. 1067–1068 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Hatanaka, M., “Governing sustainability: examining audits and compliance in a third- partycertified organic shrimp farming project in rural Indonesia”, 15 Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability (2010), pp. 233–244 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
32 C. Boyd and A. McNevin, “An early assessment of the effectiveness of aquaculture certification and standards”, in Steering Committee of the State-of-Knowledge Assessment of Standards and Certification , Towards sustainability: the roles and limitations of certification, (Washington: RESOLVE Inc., 2012), pp. A-35-A-69.
33 Miller, A. and Bush, S., “Authority without credibility? Competition and conflict between ecolabels in tuna fisheries”, Journal of Cleaner Production (in press), at p. 1 Google Scholar.
34 Boström, M., “Establishing Credibility: Practising Standard-Setting Ideals in a Swedish Seafood-Labelling Case”, 8 Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning (2006), pp. 135–158 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
35 Auld, G. and Gulbrandsen, L., “Transparency in Nonstate Certification: Consequences for Accountability and Legitimacy”, 10 Global Environmental Politics (2010), pp. 97–119 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Vasilev, S., How do Dutch retailers and importers of shrimp cope with the multiplicity of certification schemes on sustainable shrimp?, (Wageningen: Wageningen University, 2014)Google Scholar.
36 Vasilev, S., How do Dutch retailers and importers of shrimp cope with the multiplicity of certification schemes on sustainable shrimp?, (Wageningen: Wageningen University, 2014)Google Scholar.
37 A. Miller and S. Bush, Authority without credibility? Competition and conflict between ecolabels in tuna fisheries, Journal of Cleaner Production (in press); Ponte, S., “‘Roundtabling’ sustainability: Lessons from the biofuel industry”, 54 Geoforum (2014), pp. 261–271 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Smith, T. and Fischlein, M., “Rival private governance networks: Competing to define the rules of sustainability performance”, 20 Global Environmental Change (2010), pp. 511–522 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
38 Abbott, K.W. and Snidal, D., “The governance triangle: regulatory standards institutions and the shadow of the state”, In Mattli, W. & Woods, N. (Eds.), The Politics of Global Regulation (pp. 44–88). (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009).Google Scholar; Bartley, T., “Transnational Governance as the Layering of Rules: Intersections of Public and Private Standards”, 12 Theoretical Inquiries in Law (2011), pp. 517–542 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gulbrandsen, L.H., “Dynamic governance interactions: Evolutionary effects of state responses to non-state certification programs”, 8 Regulation & Governance (2014), pp. 74–92 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
39 Bartley, T., “Transnational Governance as the Layering of Rules: Intersections of Public and Private Standards”, 12 Theoretical Inquiries in Law (2011), pp. 517–542 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
40 Gulbrandsen, L.H., “Dynamic governance interactions: Evolutionary effects of state responses to non-state certification programs”, 8 Regulation & Governance (2014), pp. 74–92 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
41 de Vos, B. and Bush, S., “Far More than Market-Based: Rethinking the Impact of the Dutch Viswijzer (Good Fish Guide) on Fisheries' Governance”, 51 Sociologia Ruralis (2011), pp. 284–303 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
42 Kelling, I., ““Responsible Retailers”: Policy Challenges Raised by Private Standards in the Seafood Sector”, in Shriver, A. (ed.), Achieving a Sustainable Future: Managing Aquaculture, Fishing, Trade and Development (Nha Trang, Vietnam: International Institute of Fisheries Economics & Trade, 2008), pp. 1–12, at p. 10Google Scholar.
43 Foley, P., “National Government Responses to Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Certification: Insights from Atlantic Canada”, 18 New Political Economy (2012), pp. 284–307 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
44 Ponte, S., “‘Roundtabling’ sustainability: Lessons from the biofuel industry”, 54 Geoforum (2014), pp. 261–271, at p. 263CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
45 IOB, Riding the wave of sustainable commodity sourcing. Review of the Sustainable Trade Initiative IDH 2008 – 2013, (The Hague: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Policy and Operations Evaluation Department, 2014)Google Scholar.
46 B. de Vos, A. Bikker and K. Soma, Eco-labels voor visserij en viskweek. Benchmark aan de hand van FAO-richtlijnen, (The Hague: LEI-Wageningen UR, 2010).
47 See: http://www.msc.org/newsroom/news/western-australian-government-14.5million-fund-for-fish-and-fisheries (accessed 19th June 2014). ‘Western Australian Government announces $14.5 million fund to secure a prosperous future for fish and fisheries’. The fund is split in $8 million for research and management and $6.5 million for assessment to gain MSC certification.
48 R. Bosma, C. Hanh and J. Potting, Environmental Impact Assessment of the Pangasius sector in the Mekong Delta, (Wageningen and Hanoi: Wageningen University and Ministry Agriculture and Rural Development / Department of Aquaculture Vietnam, 2009); Bush, S., Khiem, N. and Sinh, L., “Governing the environmental and social dimensions of Pangasius production in Vietnam: a Review”, 13 Aquaculture Economics & Management (2009), pp. 271–293 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tran, N., Bailey, C., Wilson, N. and Phillips, M., “Governance of Global Value Chains in Response to Food Safety and Certification Standards: The Case of Shrimp from Vietnam”, 45 World Development (2013), pp. 325–336 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
49 Foley, P., “National Government Responses to Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Certification: Insights from Atlantic Canada”, 18 New Political Economy (2012), pp. 284–307 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
50 Auld, G. and Gulbrandsen, L., “Transparency in Nonstate Certification: Consequences for Accountability and Legitimacy”, 10 Global Environmental Politics (2010), pp. 97–119 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Boström, M., “Establishing Credibility: Practising Standard-Setting Ideals in a Swedish Seafood-Labelling Case”, 8 Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning (2006), pp. 135–158 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; C. Boyd and A. McNevin, “An early assessment of the effectiveness of aquaculture certification and standards”, in Steering Committee of the State-of-Knowledge Assessment of Standards and Certification, Towards sustainability: the roles and limitations of certification, (Washington: RESOLVE Inc, 2012), pp. A-35-A-69.
51 Fuchs, D., Kalfagianni, A. and Havinga, T., “Actors in private food governance: the legitimacy of retail standards and multistakeholder initiatives with civil society participation”, 28 Agriculture and Human Values (2011), pp. 353–367 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
52 Oosterveer, P., “Authority and legitimacy in governing global food chains”, in Havinga, T., Waarden, F. v. and Casey, D. (eds.), The Changing Landscape of Food Governance. Public and Private Encounters (Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar), pp. 117–133 Google Scholar.
53 Bartley, T., “Transnational Governance as the Layering of Rules: Intersections of Public and Private Standards”, 12 Theoretical Inquiries in Law (2011), pp. 517–542 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
54 Verbruggen, P., “Gorillas in the closet? Public and private actors in the enforcement of transnational private regulation”, 7 Regulation & Governance (2013), pp. 512–532 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
55 Jacquet, J., Pauly, D., Ainley, D., Holt, S., Dayton, P. and Jackson, J., “Seafood stewardship in crisis”, 467 Nature (2010), pp. 28–29 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.
56 Ponte, S., “Greener than Thou: The Political Economy of Fish Ecolabeling and Its Local Manifestations in South Africa”, 36 World Development (2008), pp. 159–175 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
57 Bartley, T., “Transnational Governance as the Layering of Rules: Intersections of Public and Private Standards”, 12 Theoretical Inquiries in Law (2011), pp. 517–542, at p. 524CrossRefGoogle Scholar.