A professor at Wageningen University in The Netherlands says the Marine Stewardship Council’s eco-label does more to prevent overfishing than any agreements made by the World Trade Organization.
Dr. Peter Oosterveer of the university’s Environmental Policy faculty group writes in the December issue of Ocean and Coastal Management that there is a great need for global fishing regulations.
WTO member nations are presently discussing the abolition of subsidies to fishermen, as this leads to unfair competition. Fishing countries such as the United States and New Zealand support such a move, as subsidies encourage unprofitable fishing activities, according to Oosterveer.
“But the negotiating parties have not yet agreed on how to deal with the smaller fishermen and on how much of an impact they have on the fish stocks,” he says.
The London-based MSC certifies fisheries worldwide as sustainable and well managed after a rigorous assessment process. All Dutch supermarkets have agreed to sell only MSC-certified seafood products starting in 2011. But MSC also has its limitations, explains Oosterveer.
“The fish products concerned are sold primarily in wealthy countries in the northern hemisphere,” says Oosterveer. “This is because MSC enters into agreements with fishermen, traders and retailers throughout the chain. This requires the availability of sustainability indicators and supply chain management, which is a difficult issue in developing countries.”
Nevertheless, Oosterveer considers the MSC approach to be a promising one.
“Compared to the WTO approach, which ends up deadlocked on technical and political issues, this private initiative is a much more dynamic one,” he says.
