Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Leveraging Legitimacy: How Alaska Circumvented Salmon Sustainability By Creating Their Own Eco-Label, Monique Couture

WWU Graduate School Collection

Eco-labelling programs have become an important market mechanism of environmental governance. The Alaska salmon eco-certification case study provides a rich opportunity to analyze whether industry created eco-labelling programs can foster legitimate resource sustainability. This paper investigates the motives of the Alaska industry in the withdrawal of the salmon fisheries from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification, and creation of an Alaska label in 2011. It is argued that Alaska circumvented salmon sustainability by creating its own eco-label. This paper suggests the motive for the emergence of a new fisheries eco-certification initiative was to gain an eco-label through less stringent conformance …