Increasingly, sustainability is driven by consumer-processes, these market-based approaches enable consumer choice in seafood purchasing and motivate changes in catching/culturing practices. Numerous certification schemes and recommendation lists exist and this can cause confusion amongst stakeholders concerning the effectiveness of schemes and amongst consumers about expectations for each scheme. MRAG has undertaken systematic industry-wide reviews of certification and recommendation systems, their development, and the standards associated with developing these certification schemes for a variety of clients. These assessments have covered pertinent issues including market-coverage for each scheme, cost/benefit analyses, effectiveness and have provided frameworks for continued research into these schemes.

Clients include certification bodies, international consortiums, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, producers and fishing companies, governmental bodies and NGOs. In addition, MRAG has used its industry experience in developing standards for certification schemes and tools to assist in their implementation such as IT programmes.

Projects

Title Region End Date
Consolidation and review of data from members of Certification and Ratings Collaboration

Members of the Collaboration are global seafood certification and ratings programs…

Global
Scaling-up fishing’s contribution to sustainable development in developing countries: assessing the experience and prospects of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)

This was a forward-looking review of certification’s prospects for improving fishing’s…

Europe
Researching the Environmental Impacts of the MSC Certification Programme

In 2010 the MSC commissioned MRAG, in collaboration with Poseidon and Meridian Prime,…

Global
MRAG Project Implications of international trade standards and Certification Schemes for Aquaculture on Small Scale producers

The objective of this work is to determine what consequences aquaculture certification…

Global
MRAG Project Creating a system for tracking environmental benefits resulting from MSC certification

The purpose of this project was to show the extent to which incremental environmental…

Europe