A tale of two standards: A case study of the Fair Trade USA certified Maluku handline yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) fishery

Abstract

Fishery certification programs and ecolabels have emerged to promote fisheries and seafood sustainability. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification program is considered the largest, most recognized seafood certification program, yet has been criticized for its lack of accessibility to small-scale fisheries in developing countries and its purely ecological focus. New to the seafood industry, and in part filling the accessibility and social sustainability gap, is Fair Trade USA's (FTUSA) Capture Fisheries Program. Sixty percent of internationally-traded seafood products originate from developing regions of the world, so it is imperative to gain an understanding of how to best utilize seafood certifications in developing countries to promote ecological, economic, and social sustainability. This research focused on Maluku, Indonesia, which has a FT Certified™ handline yellowfin tuna fishery and is also working towards achieving wide-scale MSC certification across tuna fisheries, to understand the role of FTUSA in relation to MSC. The relevance and appropriateness of both the FTUSA and MSC standards in relation to the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries was assessed, and focus groups and interviews with key informants were conducted. Results from this study suggest that FTUSA better aligns with the FAO Guidelines, delivers benefits more quickly to fishing communities, and seems to rely less on national level requirements. There is therefore merit in FTUSA standing alone as a credible certification for developing world small-scale fisheries, as opposed to being used as a kind of fisheries improvement project towards MSC, as some currently view it.