Progress report for
Incentivising Sustainable Fisheries Through Certification
Achievement at a glance
Fisheries that are MSC certified target stocks that are sustainable or rebuilding. In this way the MSC program contributes to the SDG 14 goal of ending overfishing by 2020.94% of MSC certified fisheries have been required to make at least one improvement to strengthen or further monitor the sustainability of their practices. To date, this has resulted in nearly 1500 examples of change.
The volume of MSC certified catch has increased from 9.76 million tonnes in 2016 to 11.9million tonnes in April 2020. A further 0.98 million tonnes are currently undergoing MSC assessment. This represents 16% of global marine wild capture fish catch (as estimated by the FAO) engaged in the MSC program and contributing towards MSCs commitment of 20% by 2020.
Additionally, 6.6 million tonnes of catch are in Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) that have explicitly stated MSC certification as an end objective. Including FIP catch with the total catch engaged in the MSC program, would represent 19.48 million tonnes of catch or 24% of global marine wild capture catch that is MSC certified or working towards certification. The MSC has made significant progress toward MSCs its commitment to having 20% of global catch engaged with the MSC program by 2020 and will continue to strive to meet this target.
The MSC aims to be a leading catalyst for improved fisheries management and market transformation, contributing to the sustainable use of our oceans, supporting resilience, food security and livelihoods, with a new commitment of a 1/3 of global marine catch certified engaged in the MSC program by 2030.
Challenges faced in implementation
The majority of MSC certified fisheries are in the developed world. Small scale and developing world fisheries have historically struggled to meet the MSCs strict sustainability requirements or have encountered other barriers to entry, for example, fishery data deficiency or management and technical capacity constraints. The developing world is home to 97 percent of the worlds small-scale fishers and 73% percent of the global seafood supply is now caught there. While the number of fisheries in the program from the global south has increased from 59 in 2017 to 127 in 2019, there is a need to increase engagement of developing world fisheries in the MSC. Greater engagement of the developing world and small-scale fisheries is thus one of the most significant challenges for the MSC.Beneficiaries
Fisheries: as the most credible and globally recognized standard for sustainable fishing, the MSC provides a platform to demonstrate that fisheries have high standards of environmental performance. The MSC is also committed to improving accessibility and building capacity in small scale and developing world fisheries and here the MSC Standard can serve as a framework for improvement
Processor and distributors: MSC certification provides a platform to meet a growing global demand for sustainable, traceable seafood.
Retailers: In a world where people increasingly care about where their food comes from, MSCs globally recognised and market-leading certification program and ecolabel gives retailers and customers added confidence and trust in seafood products.
Consumers: in a world where people increasingly care about where their food comes from, the MSC label makes it easy to select sustainable, traceable and wild seafood that consumers can trust.
Actions
-The MSC continues to work closely with stakeholders around the world to promote sustainable fisheries and supply chains and to improve access for small scale and developing world fisheries.- At the 2018 Our Ocean conference in Bali, MSC launched a US $1.3 million Ocean Stewardship Fund to support promising small-scale fisheries to improve their fishing practices and management, opening the door for potential MSC certification.
- From 2015-2017 the MSCs Global Fisheries Sustainability Fund provided 400,000 to 11 projects supporting sustainability initiatives in small scale and developing world fisheries.
- Initiated by the MSC and supported by the Dutch Postcode Lottery, the four-year Fish for Good project has so far mapped and evaluated more than 50 fisheries across Indonesia, South Africa and Mexico and established regional advisory groups to explore the gaps between current performance and the level required for sustainability and develop action plans that will put them on the pathway to sustainability.
- The MSC is involved in a research project on data-limited fisheries management and developing a decision-support tool and a user-friendly fishery simulation tool. These will help fisheries understand their options and decide which management approach has the best chance of helping them to meet sustainability requirements.
- In 2018 the MSC released a new streamlined Fisheries Certification Process. Redundancies and inefficiencies within the process have been addressed, so that the process documentation is 25% shorter while still delivering robust assessments. This is easier to understand and more accessible for fisheries. It also aims to facilitate meaningful stakeholder input earlier in the assessment process.
The MSC Global Accessibility program has presented 35 advanced 5-day workshops (Working Towards MSC Certification) since 2015, with 15 undertaken in 2018 and 2019, in countries including Cameroon, India, South Africa, Mexico, Namibia, Chile, China, Tanzania, Peru, South Korea. The Gambia and Indonesia.