Paper long abstract:

Market-based environmental and social standards and labels have become key features in the trade of agro-food products originating from Africa in the last 15 years. International organizations, government agencies, industry associations, and NGOs behind the formulation of these standards were initially defensive of efforts aimed at critically examining their effects in different settings. They are now making efforts to be more inclusive and to reflect upon past experiences to improve the content, monitoring and management of their standards. However, little movement so far has taken place in acknowledging that standards are developed and applied in specific political economies, within complex power relations, and in extremely diverse local conditions and politics.

This paper examines the political economy of ecolabelling through the analysis of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification of one of the industrial fisheries of South Africa: hake. It places emphasis on the motivations behind the adoption of MSC certification, on verification procedures that follow certification, and on local settings. MSC certification, far from being a neutral and equal instrument yielding better conservation for humanity, is achieved in the context of global and local competition, special interest battles, and local politics. In South Africa, although couched in a discourse of conservation, MSC was a key instrument used to justify positions in debates that had race relations and possible re-dressing of past wrongs under apartheid as the main issues at stake.