Certification as a Conservation Tool in the Marine Aquarium Trade: Challenges to Effectiveness

Certification of products as environmentally-preferable is a conservation tool developed to create market incentives for products to be produced in an environmentally responsible manner. It has been part of the conservation toolbox for commercial fisheries, forestry, and other sectors, including the marine aquarium trade, for more than a decade. In the marine aquarium trade, live fish, coral, and invertebrates are collected from coral reefs throughout the world, and sold to marine aquaria hobbyists in developed countries. Much of this is collected illegally, with the use of cyanide to stun fish, making them easier to collect. Cyanide increases the stress and mortality on fish, can kill non-targeted species on the reef, and encourages destruction of the reef as collectors pry stunned fish out of crevices. Lax management in major source countries allows for overfishing to occur as well. Most of the world’s marine ornamentals are collected in the Philippines and Indonesia, and sold in the United States and Europe, two regions in which ecolabels for certified products have had significant traction. But the marine aquarium trade presents substantial challenges to effective certification. This report explores these challenges and considers the extent to which they can be overcome. It does not evaluate the existing certification program (the Marine Aquarium Council) specifically. Rather, this report looks at the marine aquarium trade as a whole, examines whether the essential conditions are in place for meaningful certification to succeed, and outlines efforts that might need to be taken to achieve success. It examines three key components of effective certification in the context of the marine aquarium industry in Indonesia and the Philippines: (1) Satisfying the environmental claim (2) Verifying the chain of custody (3) Responding to economic incentive