Leading sustainable seafood programme expands into Southern Africa

06/17/2008

Cape Town – Nearly 10 million Africans depend on the fishing industry for their livelihoods. In order to secure incomes, the continent’s fish stocks and marine ecosystems need to be preserved. With this in mind, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) [1] has opened an office in South Africa and hired new staff to implement its fishery certification and seafood eco-labelling programme for wild capture fisheries in the Southern Africa Development Community.

Working in partnership with the seafood industry, the MSC’s aim is to use its eco-labelling and fishery certification programme to help transform how the world’s seas and oceans are worked, and to influence the choices people make when buying seafood, so that responsible management is rewarded and the seafood industry contributes positively to the health of the oceans.

“Sustainable fishing in Africa can greatly contribute to food security, poverty reduction and economic development. The MSC is committed to working with Southern African countries on getting African fisheries ready for certification to the MSC standard. Eco-labelled seafood is in great demand and certification to our standard could help Southern African fisheries access markets and contribute to safeguarding fish stocks for the future,” says Oluyemisi Oloruntuyi, MSC’s Developing World Programme Manager.

The new MSC regional office is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and is staffed by Martin Purves, MSC’s Southern Africa Programme Manager. Martin will focus on engaging a broad range of stakeholders, including local fishing communities, government agencies, conservation groups and the private sector in Tanzania, Mozambique, Namibia, Madagascar and South Africa to increase awareness of the MSC programme and its benefits.

Martin comments: “Southern African fisheries play an important role in providing food for domestic markets and generate much-needed export income. The MSC eco-label could potentially increase export returns and thus help raise peoples’ standard of living. I am very excited to be part of the MSC mission to promote sustainable fishing practices, which not only benefits fishing communities but also ensures the long term health of our marine resources.”

Prior to joining the MSC, Martin gained long standing experience working as a fisheries consultant, a research scientist and a scientific observer.

The MSC is especially grateful to ComMark [2] for their support that has enabled the MSC to set up and staff an operational base in Africa.

The MSC’s regional office in South Africa can be contacted at:
Postal Address:
P.O. Box 7107
Roggebaai
8012, Cape Town, South Africa
Physical address:
Unit 19
Foregate Square
Table Bay Boulevard, Cape Town
Tel/Fax: +27 (0)21 4255086
Mobile: +27 (0)83 324 5828
Email: martin.purves@msc.org

Further information:

James Simpson, Marine Stewardship Council on +44 (0)207 811 3315 or email james.simpson@msc.org.

Notes to Editors:
[1] The MSC is an international non-profit organisation that was set up in 1997 to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing. The MSC runs the only widely recognised environmental certification and eco-labelling programme for wild capture fisheries. It is the only seafood eco-label that is consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and UN FAO guidelines for fisheries certification. The FAO ‘Guidelines for the Eco-labelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries’, require that credible fishery certification and eco-labelling schemes include:

- Objective, third-party fishery assessment utilising scientific evidence;
- Transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection procedures;
- Standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and management practices.

MSC has offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Edinburgh, Berlin and Cape Town. In total, over 120 fisheries are engaged in the MSC programme with 28 certified, 73 under assessment and another 20 to 30 in confidential pre-assessment. Together the fisheries record annual catches of over 5 million tonnes of seafood. Of fish for human consumption, they represent over 42 percent of the world’s wild salmon catch, 40 percent of the world’s prime whitefish catch, and 18 percent of the world’s lobster catch. Worldwide, nearly 1,500 seafood products resulting from the certified fisheries bear the blue MSC eco-label. For more information, please visit www.msc.org.

[2] ComMark aims to reduce poverty by putting into practice the development approach known as ’making markets work for the poor’. Please visit commark for further information.