Een geleidelijke transitie in de richting van duurzaamheid in de Belgische visserij: stakeholderparticipatie als een hulpmiddel om een certificatiestandaard te ontwikkelen en te implementeren

The Belgian fishery sector is currently under pressure to convert to more sustainable fishing methods. First, the beam trawl (which accounts for more than 75% of all fishing by Belgian vessels) is contested due to its low selectivity and significant disturbance of the sea bed. Second, several downstream market players demand more information on the sustainability of the applied fishing methods. Finally, increasing pressure on crude oil markets has increased trip costs dramatically and competition from cheap imported fish undermines the price formation for domestically caught fish.
We propose a certification standard for sustainably caught fish to overcome these pressures and to induce a soft transition towards sustainability in Belgian fisheries.
This paper explores how a participatory process can help shape the certification standard so that its adoption is facilitated. The paper focuses on the first steps of the development of the standard (using the Integrated Sustainability Assessment method as a framework); the interviews that were performed to capture the stakeholders’ perception of sustainability and their vision on the certification standard as a tool to initiate the transition towards sustainability. Three questions were investigated: (1) Does the participatory process reveal unforeseen bottlenecks? (2) Does the participatory approach offer possibilities to overcome perceived bottlenecks and differences in opinion? (3) Do these new insights influence the a priori views of standard developers on the development of the standard and the selection of stakeholders.
The first step of the ISA method proved to be successful in identifying potential pitfalls and bottlenecks in the development of a certification standard. The scoping stage of the ISA method was capable of identifying new bottlenecks, fine-tuning perceived bottlenecks and identifying small nuances in stakeholders’ opinions. Furthermore, it influenced our a priori views on the development of the standard on multiple levels. First, by reflecting on these new and confirmed bottlenecks, we came to a better understanding of the context in which we are aiming to develop this standard. Second, the scoping stage helped us to get a better insight in some specific matters that are of concern to the fishery sector (e.g. the alignment of incentives and the case of the beam trawl). All these insights may prove useful in the next stages of the ISA method, and thus for the development of the certification standard.