ABSTRACT
In the last decade, seafood ecolabels have grown and developed as a market measurement for sustainable seafood. The most popular of these is that of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Nevertheless, MSC faces immense challenges in developing countries such as Indonesia because of issues including high costs, differences in fisheries structures, challenging requirements and lack of support from stakeholders, particularly small-scale fishermen. These issues highlight the problem for MSC itself: lack of social compliance. MSC delivers on the issue of sustainability but does not address social aspects and has a tendency to be exclusively for large companies. If ecolabel certificates are to be consistent with sustainable development principles, they should be inclusive and should not ignore social issues. Some parties in Indonesia propose national seafood ecolabelling to compete with the MSC, but this faces a lack of international recognition. This research aims to find the most reliable seafood ecolabelling for Indonesia from the local stakeholder’s perspective. It uses a qualitative methodology involving the Delphi method to obtain views from panels of experts. The variables employed include support from government, the private sector, fishermen and national Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). The result shows that a national seafood ecolabelling scheme is regarded as the best option for Indonesia from the stakeholders’ perspective.
