3. The MSC Certification Scheme and the Precautionary Approach

The MSC Fisheries Certification Scheme, i.e. the Fisheries Standard and the Fisheries Process Requirements, includes both substantive and procedural requirements to precaution. First, the application of the approach is evaluated as such for fisheries under assessment. Second, it serves as a general interpretation device in the application of the Standard. Third, the Standard is designed to assist in the operationalization and application of precautionary biological reference points. Fourth, certification is not only a question of the status of the (target) stocks. The scheme involves a thorough assessment of the fishery’s impacts on the marine ecosystem, including bycatch species, endangered, threatened and protected species (ETP species) and habitats—as well as management components such as a well-functioning legislative base and institutional set-up, transparency and stakeholder participation, compliance and enforcement, and review of the management system.