Aquaculture and fisheries hold promise for supplying a growing world population with healthy food produced without undermining the earth’s carrying capacity. However, just as livestock production and agriculture, seafood production can have negative environmental impacts and if a continuous or even increased supply is to be guaranteed, the pressure on affected ecosystems needs to be limited. Due in part to a perceived failure of other governance mechanisms in improving the environmental performance of the sector, a large number of voluntary market based standards for farmed and wild caught seafood have been developed. Nonetheless, the knowledge base on the extent to which implementation leads to environmental improvements remains limited. Moreover, the role of consumers in driving demand for eco-labeled seafood is presently an under-researched area. This thesis aims at reducing this knowledge gap through an examination of the potential environmental effectiveness of aquaculture eco-certification and internal, psychological variables predicted to be of importance for sustainable seafood consumption. Put differently, what is the potential of eco-certification in greening the blue revolution and fuel ‘turquoise growth’, and how can consumer demand be spurred? In Paper I, the role of eco-certification in improving the growing aquaculture sector at large was explored. Results showed that environmental effects at global scale likely will be limited due to e.g. partial coverage of species groups and environmental impacts, and a lack of focus on Asian markets and consumers. In Paper II the environmental performance of eco-certified and non-certified mangrove-integrated shrimp farms in Vietnam was compared by using Life Cycle Assessment and put in relation to conventional, more intensive farms. While there was no substantial difference between certified and non-certified farms in terms of environmental impacts, emissions of greenhouse gasses were higher for mangrove-integrated than conventional farms due to mangrove land use change. The results from Paper III demonstrated that the body of literature investigating ecological effects of seafood eco-certification is limited. ‘Spatially explicit ecosystem service information’ (ES-information) on e.g. key ecosystem services and biodiversity in a given area is suggested to have potential to improve sustainability standards. Taking guidance from the pro-environmental behavior literature, consumers in Stockholm, Sweden were consulted on awareness of and attitudes towards eco-labeled seafood (Paper IV-V). Two variables, concern for environmental impacts and knowledge about seafood eco-labels were the best predictors for stated eco-labeled seafood purchasing. Moreover, there seemed to be a misalignment between consumers’ expectations on eco-labeled food in general and certification requirements for eco-labeled seafood. From this set of findings, a number of improvements of current seafood eco-certification are suggested. First, include an LCA-perspective in standards to a higher degree than presently done and provide readily available ES-information in the implementation and evaluation phase of certification. Second, introduce standardized mechanisms for capturing potential environmental improvements over time. And finally, stimulate demand by targeting Asian consumers and markets as well as strengthen consumer eco-label awareness and emotional involvement. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 5: Manuscript.</p><p> </p>

Syftet med denna rapport har varit att redogöra för och analysera gällande rätt på internationell nivå, EU-nivå och nationell nivå och att undersöka de styrmedel som verkar för att motverka överfiske. Uppsatsens utgångspunkt har varit att den biologiska mångfalden ska främjas i enlighet med CBD. Det övergripande syftet har varit att undersöka om det förekommer sådana brister som motverkar att konventionens mål uppfylls och att identifiera vilka styrmedel som saknas i dagsläget. En rättsvetenskaplig och jämförande metod har använts. Materialet har främst införskaffats från rättskällor såsom författningar, förarbeten, doktrin samt praxis när detta varit relevant, men även webbaserad information från relevanta myndigheter och organisationer. Havet är en unik resurs genom att dess tillgångar typiskt sett är allmänna, vilket kräver styrmedel som skapar incitament till att vårda havets resurser väl och därmed förhindra att allmänningarnas tragedi uppstår. Resultatet visade att förbättringar har skett sedan EU:s gemensamma fiskeripolitik reformerades 2014, men att det ännu finns förbättringsområden.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Yang-Ming Chang / Innovation is development of new ideas that leads to better solutions to current problems. From an economic standpoint, innovation is the engine of economic growth. The appearance of innovation is not uniform in the market, and neither are its affects. The development of new products and technology is significant in any industry. As a result, understanding the path of progress within an industry is necessary to maximize the benefit from innovation. The focus of this research is to further understand the relationship between producers, consumers, and the environment, in the context of innovation. Three scenarios are evaluated. First, innovation evaluated in the context technology intensive industries with product differentiation. Using an optimal control approach with product differentiation and firm outlook we examine conditions that maximize social welfare. When firm(s) have the same discount rate regardless of market structure, a monopoly will develop more innovative products. However, it is shown that competition may increase innovation if firms alter their outlook in a duopoly market structure. Next, influence of consumers on producer adoption of clean technology is evaluated. A spatial model is developed to analyze welfare implications of environmental policies in a competitive market with production and consumption heterogeneity. Consumers with heterogeneous preferences choose between non-green and certified green products, while firms with heterogeneous production costs decide whether to engage in green production. In order for green products to be recognized by consumers, firms must join a green club. The number of green firms, environmental standard, and overall welfare under the market solution are all found to be socially sub-optimal. Finally, producer innovation in markets characterized by public policy due to emission concerns is evaluated. Using a dynamic approach, we derive a firm’s optimal R&D investment strategy to develop clean technology. Explicitly allowing for the cumulative nature of R&D shows that emissions per unit of output are lowest when the firms cooperate in R&D, and show that a profit-maximizing merged entity will never choose the most efficient investment strategy in clean technology, which has implications for emission tax policy and environmental innovation to improve overall welfare.

ABSTRACT The cost of doing nothing would be very high on the fragile national ecosystems andultimately on the society of the Seychelles. ’Seychelles National Report 2012 p55 This Minor Field Study, undertaken as a Bachelor’s thesis, aims to research the Seychelleswork with sustainable tourism development and its challenges. The study was conducted onsite for two months in cooperation with the Seychelles Tourism Board. The national strategyfor sustainable tourism development is intended to maintain the uniqueness of Seychelles.Seychelles has for over 30 years been a global leader in protecting biodiversity and naturalenvironment and 51 % of the total land area consists of conservation areas. On the otherhand, Seychelles main source of income is tourism, with 40 % of the inhabitants directly orindirectly depending on tourism. As one of our interviewees put it: “the more tourism, themerrier”. The country will get better infrastructure and more jobs because of it and howcould that spoil the environment? This study looks into hotels perceptions of sustainabledevelopment in the tourism industry, their work with sustainable practices and thoughtsconcerning ecolabelling. Results show dissatisfaction with the government and that betterenvironmental governance is needed. The recent rapid development of new hotels isbecoming a rather problematic situation due to higher competition, infrastructural problemsand lack of labour force. The interest in an eco label is high, although they believe it iscomplicated to implement and is perceived as expensive. On the other hand, hotels are moreor less working in a sustainable way already.Regardless of the sustainable tourism development initiative, our interviewees had afear that Seychelles is becoming a mass tourism destination. They demand that this trend bestopped. We ask therefore, is more really merrier?

Cette thèse développe l’analyse d’une politique économique environnementale appliquée dans le cadre d’une économie ouverte et dans celui d’une économie fermée. Elle étudie les effets sur le bien-être et l’environnement des réglementations volontaire et obligatoire tenant compte de l’hétérogénéité des agents économiques et des pays. Elle s’intéresse en particulier aux différents types d’éco-étiquetages en autarcie (Chapitre 1) et après ouverture au commerce international (Chapitre 2); aux programmes d’apport d’information à plusieurs niveaux (Chapitre 3); et aux taxes sur les émissions et marchés publics écologiques (Chapitre 4). L’analyse montre que non seulement le gouvernement mais également les éco-consommateurs peuvent inciter même les producteurs éco-indifférents à se décider pour l’agir respectueux de l’environnement. Les instruments de politique environnementale induisent auto-sélection et polarisation dans les marchés desservis par des entreprises hétérogènes en termes de productivité. Je démontre que des instruments volontaires peuvent avoir des résultats positifs sur le bien-être et l’environnement. En fonction d’hypothèses précises, ils peuvent également être plus efficaces que des approches obligatoires. Le modèle montre également que quand il y a ouverture au commerce international, la politique écologique a un effet supplémentaire sur le bien-être et sur l’environnement, dépendamment du type de politique et des consciences environnementales des différents pays commerciaux. / This thesis develops an applied environmental economic policy analysis in closed and open economy frameworks. It investigates welfare and environmental outcomes of voluntary and mandatory regulation allowing for heterogeneity across economic agents and countries. Particularly, it focuses on voluntary eco-labels of different types in autarky (Chapter 1) and upon opening to international trade (Chapter 2); multi-tier information provision programmes (Chapter 3); and emission taxes and green public procurement (Chapter 4). The analysis shows that not only the government but also eco-concerned consumers can incentivise even eco-indifferent producers to act more environmentally-friendly. Environmental policy instruments induce self-selection and polarisation in the markets served by firms heterogeneous in their productivity. I demonstrate that voluntary instruments can lead to positive welfare and environmental outcomes. Under particular assumptions, they also can be more efficient than mandatory approaches. The model also shows that upon opening to international trade eco-policy yields additional welfare and environmental effects conditionally on the type of the policy and the environmental awareness difference across trading countries.