"Marine Stewardship Council: Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fishing, 2002" [2005] ELECD 291; in Tully, Stephen (ed), "International Documents on Corporate Responsibility" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)

Book Title: International Documents on Corporate Responsibility

Editor(s): Tully, Stephen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843768197

Section: Chapter 68

Section Title: Marine Stewardship Council: Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fishing, 2002

Number of pages: 5

Extract:

68. Marine Stewardship Council: Principles and
Criteria for Sustainable Fishing, 2002

Commentary: The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC, www.msc.org) was estab-
lished in 1997 by Unilever and the World Wide Fund for Nature. It is currently
supported by approximately 100 organisations in more than 20 States. Fisheries irre-
spective of size voluntarily conforming to the MSC Principles and Criteria are eligible
for certification by independent MSC-accredited organisations. The Principles and
Criteria seek to promote sustainable and effective fisheries management, ecosystem
integrity and legal compliance.



Introduction
At the centre of the MSC is a set of Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fishing which are
used as a standard in a third party, independent and voluntary certification programme.
These were developed by means of an extensive, international consultative process through
which the views of stakeholders in fisheries were gathered.
These Principles reflect a recognition that a sustainable fishery should be based upon:

(i) The maintenance and re-establishment of healthy populations of targeted species;
(ii) The maintenance of the integrity of ecosystems;
(iii) The development and maintenance of effective fisheries management systems, taking
into account all relevant biological, technological, economic, social, environmental
and commercial aspects; and
(iv) Compliance with relevant local and national local laws and standards and international
understandings and agreements.

The Principles and Criteria are further designed to recognise and emphasise that manage-
ment efforts are most likely to be successful in accomplishing the goals of conservation and
sustainable use of marine resources when there is full co- ...