Promoting Sustainable Trade, Consumption and Production Patterns in the Fisheries Sector Global

UNEP Paris - Project Dates:

Description of Project:
UNEP Division of Technology, Economics and Industry is implementing a project - “Promoting Sustainable Trade, Consumption and Production Patterns in the Fisheries Sector”- which aims at assisting and strengthening the capacities of governments and stakeholders to promote the sustainable management of fisheries and to contribute to poverty reduction.

Jointly implemented by the Economics and Trade branch and the Sustainable Consumption and Production branch, one of the focus of the project is to promote the role and capacity of the private sector, financial institutions, and local fishing communities to adopt appropriate environmental standards and practices in their operations, and construct public-private partnerships that develop effective marketing strategies for a sustainable production and consumption of wild-caught fish products.

Services Provided:
Poseidon's work on this project involved a literature review and questionnaires with the catching, importing/exporting and retailing sectors with those that have been (or are in the process of being) certified under different schemes. This allowed for an analysis of the following: motivations for certification; actual benefits of certification realised; problems in gaining certification; costs involved; specific problems related to certification in developing countries and in small-scale fisheries; whether certification is a powerful-enough tool to actually bring about improved management, as opposed to just certifying fisheries that are already well managed. Project outputs included recommendations about follow-up activities for UNEP.