| 摘要 | In the past two decades, global attention has turned towards the widely reported state of crisis in capture fisheries. Scientific studies detail fish and ecosystem decline, predict collapse and debate current fish population status and management efficacy. Meanwhile, popular literature relates stories of dramatic fisheries collapse, for example of the iconic Newfoundland cod fisheries in the mid-1990s, and the plight of the Atlantic bluefin tuna unfolding today. These examples reflect a more general trend towards steady geographical extension and socio-technical intensification of fisheries extraction and draw broad attention to the future of fish populations, as well as the food security and economic activities that they support. Fisheries, whether saltwater or freshwater, are an important source of animal protein, livelihoods and exchange value in international trade, and are presently undergoing rapid socio-ecological change. A recently published special issue of the Journal of Agrarian Change (edited by Liam Campling, Elizabeth Havice and Penny Howard) examines the political economy and ecology of capture fisheries around the world, the competitive market dynamics of fisheries production and consumption, as well as the forms of social-property relations, social differentiation, labour exploitation and resistance that occur within them. In one of the articles in this collection, DIIS senior researcher Stefano Ponte examines the creation of a market for 'sustainable fish' through certification and labeling. Market-based instruments of fishery governance have been promoted in the past 10-15 years on the basis of two widespread expectations: that complying with standards and guidelines embedded in certification systems will lead to environmental benefits; and that sustainability certifications will not discriminate against specific social groups and countries or regions because they are 'market-based'. Ponte assesses whether these assumptions hold through the analysis of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) label for capture fisheries. So far, MSC has been able to create and dominate the market for 'sustainable fish', but success has also been accompanied by serious challenges: first, MSC has so far failed to convincingly show that its certification system has positive environmental impacts; and second, it has marginalized Southern fisheries, especially in low-income countries. This has resulted in a peculiar configuration of the 'sustainable fish market', where we have a dearth of information on whether it is actually 'sustainable' and where a large majority of MSC-certified fish is captured in Northern fisheries, despite the fact that around half of total global exports of fish originate in the global South. As an institutional 'solution' to the global fishery crisis, MSC seems to be better tuned to the commercial interests of Northern fishing industries and retailers, and to a soft, market-based version of environmentalism - in other words, to the creation of a market for promotion of 'sustainable fish' rather than 'sustainable fisheries'. Stefano Ponte (2012) “The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the Making of a Market for 'Sustainable Fish'” Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 300-315 |
