What is the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)?
The MSC programme is open to all wild capture fisheries across the world whatever their size, scale, type, location and intensity. The MSC has developed an international environmental standard for fisheries management through an extensive two year stakeholder consultation. This standard is based on the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. The MSC rewards good fishing practice with an eco-label. This recognises responsible fishery management practices and provides consumers with the opportunity to make purchasing choices in support of sustainable fisheries. The MSC encourages responsible fishing practices by: * Creating a standard * Monitoring and accrediting certifiers (who actually carry out the certification) * Rewarding products with the MSC eco-label * Encouraging consumers to buy certified products. A solution that rewards progress The MSC’s programme is voluntary: unlike the imposition of legislation by government. It offers new hope for a solution to the global problem
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an independent, global, non-profit organisation with its head office based in London, UK. In a bid to reverse the continued decline in the world’s fisheries, the MSC is seeking to harness consumer purchasing power to generate change and promote environmentally responsible stewardship of the world’s most important renewable food source. The MSC has developed an environmental standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries. It uses a product label to reward environmentally responsible fishery management and practices. Consumers, concerned about overfishing and its environmental and social consequences will increasingly be able to choose seafood products which have been independently assessed against the MSC Standard and labelled to prove it. This will assure them that the product has not contributed to the environmental problem of overfishing.
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an independent, global, non-profit organisation. It was first set up as a joint effort to solve the problem of over-fishing by Unilever and the WWF in 1997. It became independent in 1999 and continues to work to enhance responsible development of seafood resources, ensure the sustainability of global fish stocks and the health of the marine ecosystem. Its mission is “to safeguard the world’s seafood supply by promoting the best environmental choice”, working to prevent the decline of the world’s most important renewable food source.
The Marine Stewardship Council was first formed in 1997 by Unilever and WWF, the international conservation organisation. In 1999, the MSC became independent from both these organisations to become a global, non profit organisation. The MSC was set up to tackle the problem of over fishing that is damaging fishing industries and marine environments around the world. To this end, the MSC spent two years developing standards for sustainable and well managed fisheries.
