Marine Stewardship Council Certification in Finland and Russia: Global Standards and Local Practices

• Published in: Sustainability
• Main Authors: Svetlana Tulaeva, Maria Tysiachniouk, Minna Pappila, Minni Tynkkynen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2023
• Subjects: Marine Stewardship Council; certification; MSC; marine governance; governance generating networks; GGN theory; Environmental effects of industries and plants; TD194-195; Renewable energy sources; TJ807-830; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Barents Sea
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054063; https://doaj.org/article/039f1df2a49347dcae562651a0a80a7f

The state of seafood resources around the world has been declining for the last 50 years. There are multiple global, regional, and national regulatory arrangements that make an effort to revert this situation. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a voluntary global instrument, believed to foster sustainability in commercial fishing practices. This paper analyzes the institutionalization of MSC in Finland and Russia, and highlights how MSC as a global standard adapts to the different local contexts. It also shows which other global regulatory arrangements contribute to regulating fish production and what are the specifics of interaction between them. For the analysis of the MSC scheme, this paper uses the governance generating network (GGN) theory, which has been widely applied to the research on the FSC forest certification scheme and oil sector. The GGN lens helps to analyze the generative capacity of multiple global regulatory instruments including MSC in the Baltic Sea (Finland) and the Barents Sea (Russia). Qualitative methodology, such as semi-structured interviews with the same interview guide, document analysis, and participant observations were used in both Finland and Russia. We show that several GGNs are contributing to fishing regulations, e.g., the implementation of MSC in both countries is facilitated by multiple international organizations and conventions, which were signed prior to the creation of the MSC scheme. The limited added value of MSC certification is observed in both Finland and Russia: MSC ensures economic stability of certified companies and contributes to biodiversity conservation.