Certifying Sustainability: A systems analysis of international certification schemes for salmon aquaculture

This paper investigates how private sustainability certification schemes for salmon aquaculture contribute to the achievement of these SDG goals as a group, thus moving the multiple dimensions of the society towards sustainability. It relies upon a database developed by the SUSTAINFISH research project funded by the Norwegian Resource Council. The SUSTAINFISH database (Amundsen og Osmundsen 2018) includes indicators for eight certification schemes that are generally considered to aim at advancing sustainability. While not all of these explicitly claim to be promoting “sustainability” they each address several issues connected to sustainability. This paper argues that while many aspects of these certification schemes are worthy and address many socio-economic aspects of society, they are best described as aimed at improving conditions on-site and promoting good relations between certified sites and local and national groups and authorities. They may support the SGDs in general ways. However, they do little to directly address the impact of aquaculture sites on local, regional or national communities, such as, for example, what impact an aquaculture society has on other industries in these communities. The one exception is in the realm of the natural environment where there may be requirements to participate in area management plans and for which environmental impact statements may contribute to a systems analysis.