Report of the Expert Consultation to Develop an FAO Evaluation Framework to Assess the Conformity of Public and Private Ecolabelling Schemes with the FAO Guidelines for the Ecolabelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries, Rome 24-15 November 2010 | Expert Consultation to Develop an FAO Evaluation Framework to Assess the Conformity of Public and Private Ecolabelling Schemes with the FAO Guidelines for the Ecolabelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries

The FAO Guidelines for the Ecolabelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries, originally adopted by the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) in 2005, were adopted in revised form by the Twenty-eighth Session of COFI in 2009. Following two Expert Consultations held in 2006 and 2008, a third Expert Consultation convened in May 2010 completed the draft Guidelines for the ecolabelling of fish and fishery products from inland capture fisheries for consideration by COFI in January-February 2011. Following discussion in both COFI and the Sub-Committee on Fish Trade of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI:FT) relating to checking claims of compliance of ecolabelling schemes with the FAO Guidelines on ecolabelling of fish and fishery products, the Twenty-eighth Session of COFI requested the Secretariat to present a proposal to address this issue to COFI:FT. The Secretariat prepared and presented a document outlining various options for assessing the conformity of ecolabelling schemes with the FAO Guidelines to the Twelfth Session of COFI:FT. The Twelfth Session of COFI:FT agreed that, as a first step, the FAO Secretariat should convene an Expert Consultation to develop an FAO evaluation framework to assess the conformity of public and private ecolabelling schemes with the FAO Guidelines for the ecolabelling of fish and fishery products from marine capture fisheries. The Expert Consultation was convened in response to this decision. COFI:FT also noted that it would be beneficial to develop a similar evaluation framework to assess the conformity of ecolabelling schemes with the FAO Guidelines for the Ecolabelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Inland Fisheries after their adoption. Moreover, as these draft Guidelines follow very closely the marine Guidelines, the Expert Consultation also considered additional criteria relating specifically to the inland fisheries Guidelines. In the event of COFI adopting the Inland Guidelines, an evaluation framework for ecolabelling schemes certifying fish and fishery products from inland fisheries could readily be produced. The Expert Consultation considered a number of issues relating to the Guidelines and the Evaluation Framework. Inter alia, it noted that the Guidelines, and therefore the draft Evaluation Framework, relate only to the biological sustainability of fishery resources and not to other aspects that might have an impact on sustainability. Also noted were the many commonalities between the Marine Ecolabelling Guidelines and the draft Inland Ecolabelling Guidelines, and that the major difference between them relates to the consideration of enhancement and the use of introduced and/or translocated species in the draft Inland Guidelines. The Expert Consultation noted that in both sets of Guidelines there is insufficient attention given to the chain of custody. The respective responsibilities of States and ecolabelling schemes in relation to assistance to developing countries was also discussed. The draft Evaluation Framework is provided in Appendix D with an explanation of the approach in the body of this report.