The Effectiveness of Eco-labelling and Certification in Sustainable Aquaculture and Fisheries (EECSAF)

Potts, Tavis (2015). The Effectiveness of Eco-labelling and Certification in Sustainable Aquaculture and Fisheries (EECSAF). [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-851666

In recent years three trends have become apparent with marine resources: an increase in demand for seafood, an emerging crisis in the state of global harvests, and a rapid increase in aquaculture. Statistics highlight the capacity of the oceans to produce wild harvests are nearing a sustainable limit. Within this context, certification and ecolabelling of seafood has become a popular means to inform consumers of the quality of a product. Consumers are increasingly requesting assurance that marine resources are being managed in a sustainable manner, above and beyond assurances from government. Over the last 10 years these approaches have grown in scope and have become increasingly visible with several key fisheries becoming certified as 'sustainable'. This research aims to unravel some of the key questions surrounding the ecolabelling process. The first phase of the research examines organisations that certify fisheries or aquaculture and investigates their processes of certification. The second phase explores the market effectiveness of selected eco-labels. Do they influence consumers? The final phase examines whether improvements to management have occurred within certified operations as a result of the process. This project is innovative as it looks at fisheries and aquaculture certification systems together and investigates the fundamental questions surrounding the effectiveness of ecolabelling as market based environmental policy tools.

Data description (abstract)

Data sets produced in this study included in-depth interviews with the senior management of CEOs (electronic and transcribed); case study analyses; UK consumer survey data; and interviews with the fishing industry (transcribed). In addition a number of teaching materials and reports were finalized over the impacts reporting period (Dec 31 2010). In phase 1 of the research semi-structured interviews, archival, web and document search were used to gather information on the implementation of aquaculture sustainability standards, the organisations behind the standards and the application of product ecolabels in the context of environmental policy. Such data was gathered from organisations. 15 interviews were transcribed. In phase 2 survey data were gather from a face to face consumer survey and UK scope, displaying data on individual consumers' and producers' views and practices concerning certification and ecolabelling. Phase 3 used unstructured in-depth interviews to gather data from some senior management of CEOs. 10 interviews were transcribed.

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