Marine Stewardship Council sustainability certification in developing countries: Certifiability and beyond in Kerala, India and The Gambia, West Africa

Abstract

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) features small-scale and developing country fisheries prominently in promoting its sustainability program, yet the problem of low levels of certification in developing country fisheries is a long-standing and important issue in marine policy. The objective of this paper is to better understand small-scale, developing country fishery experiences with the oldest fisheries certification program globally. It does so primarily through a comparative case study of fisheries that were among the first in their wider regions to engage the program. The paper assesses fisheries in Kerala, India, and The Gambia, West Africa, detailing the evolution of engagement with MSC sustainability certification. Analytically, the paper assesses experiences, successes and frustrations in these cases across ecological, economic, social, and institutional dimensions—categories that have gained widespread appeal in sustainability studies. The paper finds that what makes a fishery certifiable or uncertifiable is not just levels of performance against the sustainability certification standard but also a broader range of relations and interactions that influence paths of development and change in fisheries. We, therefore, call for more explicitly integrated and critical explanatory social science and interdisciplinary evaluations of fisheries certifiability, broadly understood as impacted by diverse ecological, social, economic and political factors and relationships. Technical certifiability, social-ecological certifiability, and uncertifiability will be introduced to broaden our understanding.