Public–Private Governance Patterns and Environmental Sustainability

This paper discusses public–private governance patterns which have emerged in global environmental management. These patterns originate from a spontaneous non-governmental basis or have intentionally been created and constructed by international organisations or states. The paper identifies four patterns of environmental governance between international organisations, governments and private actors. Theoretically governance patterns in which private actors play a prominent role, pose a challenge to state sovereignty and remould the traditional state centric pattern of environmental management. However, the article emphasises the fact that these patterns remain no more than constructs of international organisations, non-governmental organisations and governments, whose first priorities are not always environmental conservation. The paper suggests that the oldest public–private type of environmental governance, in which the environmental organisations are in advocacy roles, reform environmental management in a more concrete and sustainable way than the more recently emerging patterns.     

INTERNATIONAL TRADE,ECO-LABELLING,AND SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES – RECENT ISSUES,CONCEPTS AND PRACTICES

Certification of where, when and how fish are caught is emerging as an important fisheries management tool. The history of eco-labelling in the fisheries sector is relatively short and actual experiences of eco-labelling are limited, although an emerging trend is shaping in European and US markets. Eco-labelling in fisheries gained increased impetus with the development of the non-government Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) in 1996. This paper reviews the emerging importance of certification and eco-labelling in the fisheries sector, the development and operation of the MSC, identifying particularly the role of ‘third party certification’ as promoted by the MSC, and notes the opportunities and challenges for the MSC and eco-labelling in general.