MSC has hired specialist fisheries consultancy MRAG Ltd to undertake a detailed analysis of the environmental impacts that have resulted from the first ten years of MSC’s fishery certification program. Additional expertise will be offered by Poseidon Aquatic Resource Management Ltd and Meridian Prime Ltd.
According to MSC the research was started in mid-September, will be completed in May of 2011 and will deliver the most thorough and rigorous analysis of the MSC program’s environmental impacts to date. Assessment of the impacts in fisheries pre-certification based on an examination of changes that a fishery may have implemented between an MSC pre-assessment and subsequent entry into full assessment.
The pre-assessment process provides a review of a fishery against the MSC standard and it identifies areas where changes and improvements would be needed to meet the standard. MSC informed that the research will establish whether and where environmental improvements were implemented by fisheries prior to entry into certification, and whether these improvements can be attributed to their identification in pre-assessment reports.
MSC also said that the study will assess what environmental impacts have been produced that are directly attributable to meeting these agreed improvements, as well as other changes that may not be associated with agreed improvements. This part of the study aims to develop a methodology for assessing whether and to what extent the MSC program has influenced fisheries and managers currently outside the program, or generated solutions and initiatives, such as voluntary codes of conduct, that have been taken up by other sustainable certification schemes, management authorities or other key agents in fisheries management.
Rupert Howes, MSC Chief Executive said that positive environmental changes are rising within MSC certified fisheries, such as fisheries that have reduced by-catch, changed gear to be more selective, agreed effective stock rebuilding strategies, or increased their investments in better data and research. He added that this study will also provide a rigorous analytical framework for evaluating our work in the future.
