Defining Best Practice in Global Stakeholder Consultations: Lessons learned from the Marine Stewardship Council's Fishery Standard Review

The Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) Fisheries Standard is a voluntary standard that sets requirements for wild capture fisheries to be assessed against, indicating sustainability to the supply chain and consumers. The MSC programme has always sought to engage stakeholders in the development and implementation of their standards to ensure a transparent and robust approach to certification. At least every five years, the MSC reviews its Fisheries Standard to ensure it aligns with global best practice and current science. Recognising the participation of stakeholders in standard development is key to an acceptable output, more than 600 were consulted during the latest Fisheries Standard Review (2018 – 2022). With efforts to seek views from a variety of stakeholders from a diverse geographical background, the MSC's approach encompassed consultation through a variety of means, from light engagement through frequent, high-level communications to focussed events to seek input from smaller groups of stakeholders with detailed, technical expertise. Exploring the methods used by the MSC, this paper reflects on the benefits and limitations of each. Further, there were a number of challenges dealing with a complex and often polarised network of stakeholders which are considered for how well they were overcome. Looking to the future, we reflect on ways to further improve stakeholder interaction with the MSC process and discuss learnings that can be applied to stakeholder engagement policy more generally. This is key to creating a seafood standard that has the support of stakeholders, which is essential for the success of voluntary certification schemes.