Overview of fisheries governance and policy system in the Russian Federation: An analysis against the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard

Abstract

Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) created a scientifically robust standard for assessing whether wild-capture fisheries are ecologically sustainable and well-managed. This paper aims to review the available information regarding Russian's fisheries governance and policy system in the light of, and to assess it against, the first component (governance and policy) of principle 3 (effective management) of the MSC standard, using its Fisheries Certification Requirements V2.0. Previous certification reports of Russian fisheries were reviewed to compare the scoring by different experts. The fisheries governance system in Russia has well-developed legal system which has most of the necessary tools for effective management. Fisheries governance is subject by law to a transparent mechanism for the resolution of legal disputes. The key functions, roles and responsibilities of the main management bodies are explicitly defined and it seems to be well-understood to most of stakeholders. The management system gives the opportunity and encourage stakeholders to participate in the management process. The long-term objective of fisheries management system in Russia puts emphasis on the long-term and sustainable use of the biological resource, the priority of their conservation, based on scientific research and for socio-economic purposes. The last sections discuss the Russian governance system in the light of the MSC implementation and opportunity for Russian fisheries within the blue economy space.