The introduction of a voluntary sustainability assessment scheme in the Belgian fishery based on the VALDUVIS tool

The Belgian fishing fleet, mainly composed of beam trawlers, has faced numerous challenges in the past decade. As a consequence the number of fishing enterprises decreased considerably. One of these challenges was the increasing demand for sustainable seafood. Due to the nature of the fishery, fishermen could not get MSC certified unless they made drastic adjustments. All the main stakeholders agreed on the necessity to define goals to reach a sustainable fishing fleet by 2020 and with it a need to assess and monitor the sustainability of the Belgian fishery. This led to the development of a sustainability assessment tool called ‘VALDUVIS’ (Kinds et al., 2016). It would be able to measure the progress made to reach these goals and to visualise and to communicate the efforts and achievements of fishers to the market. A participatory approach involving fishers and their representatives, government officials, NGOs, fish auctions, distributors, processors, retailers and researchers remained a strong focal point throughout the process. The aim has been to apply a step-by-step approach with progressively increasing thresholds for participation and to gradually convince and prepare fishers to change their current practices. This would enable the entire fleet to evolve in a more sustainable direction that would benefit everyone in the long-term. We explore the participatory process that shaped the tool and its subsequent applications and assess its effectiveness as a new governance framework for the Belgian fishery.