Specification for services to the Marine Stewardship Council February 2018
Title of work: BluFish project
Client: Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
Deadline for Tender: 31st of March 2018; 10.00 am GMT+2
Starting date for the work: 15th of April 2018
Period of contract: around 11 months from starting date – see below for detailed timeline
A. Project Summary
The project BluFish is a three years project aimed at driving at least 10 Italian Mediterranean fisheries on the path to sustainability through pre-assessing the selected fisheries against the MSC standard and then identifying the action plans to achieve sustainability.
A pre-assessment project has been run in Spain and France since 2015, the MedFish project (http://www.project-medfish.com/) has led to the selection of 14 fisheries that will now led to the development of fisheries improvement action plans.
These pre-assessment projects are inspired by the Project Inshore undertaken in the UnitedKingdom (PIUK) (http://www.seafish.org/industry-support/fishing/project-inshore).
The primary aim of the project is to carry out an MSC pre-assessment on a selection of Italian fisheries (see note 1) operating within the GFCM areas (see note 2) 10, 11.2, 16, 18, 19. Based on the results from the preassessment, identification of gaps (e.g. by-catch and discard levels, knowledge gaps, habitat damage, management gaps, etc…) will be produced in order for action plans to be formulated for fisheries previously selected.
By mapping fisheries, giving them and management bodies a roadmap to sustainability and building stakeholder engagement, this project will improve the understanding of Italian fisheries and drive performances improvements in the selected fisheries. It will result in accelerated changes in fisheries management, data availability, gear impact mitigation and many other fields relevant to the MSC program. On the long term these changes toward sustainability will improve fisheries state, fish stocks and marine ecosystem status, thus contributing to preserve the fragile Mediterranean environment. This project is restricted to commercial fisheries only.
B. The Client
The Marine Stewardship Council is the lead partner of this project. The MSC’s mission is to use its ecolabel and fishery certification program to contribute to the health of the world’s oceans by recognising and rewarding sustainable fishing practices, influencing the choices people make when buying seafood, and working with partners to transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis.
The MSC will act as a coordinator for this project and will carry out the major part of the outreach work to stakeholders and communication activities. Project partners will be also play an active role in the project and the contractor will be requested also to liaise with partners when requested during the project implementation.
C. Details of contract available for tender:
The outsourced activities of the project are divided into two elements described as Stages: I) Fisheries scanning and mapping; II) Pre-assessment. This contract specification is intended to help the contractor and provide clear milestones in the work programme for the Stage I “Fisheries scanning and mapping”. A separate tender will be release for Stage II of the project at the end of Stage I. Familiarity with MSC standard and MSC pre-assessment process will be an asset.
The staff members undertaking the work should be able to communicate fluently in Italian (see also Section H). Please, note that the client warmly encourage and value a close collaboration with local experts for the delivery of this work.
D. Quotations shall include:
Financial part:
i. Financial figures for each stage identified separately;
ii. VAT treatment.
Technical part:
i. A suitable plan of intended work (e.g. Gant Chart) including milestones;
ii. Team composition: how many staff members-experts, what competencies (CVs), location;
iii. Estimate of time required for meetings with the client (MSC) and project partners involved in the project (see Section B);
iv. Supporting documentation that addresses all aspects of the services specification (including a schedule of intended elements of report and supporting letters);
v. Plan of engagement with relevant local stakeholders and experts.
E. Services Specification:
Fisheries scanning and mapping:
To scan all the existing Italian fisheries operating in the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea (GSA 10), Sardinian Sea (GSA 11.2), Strait of Sicily (GSA 16), Southern Adriatic Sea (GSA 18) and Ionian Sea (GSA 19), to establish a rough number of potential Units of Certification (UoC) operating in the scope area. This first overview will be used to inform a selection of about 50 UoC to focus on for a deeper mapping. This scanning and mapping phase is a preparatory work, essential to gather all the necessary information and knowledge to inform the next Pre-assessment Stage II.
a. Fast scan:
The first scan is intended to establish a broad overview of the number and importance of different fisheries operating in the scoped areas. The report of the first scan will be used by the project partners to select a batch of 50 fisheries that will then undergo a deeper mapping.
Deliverables: A report including at a minimum: i. A list of all potential UoC (specie x gear x stock area x management system) operating in the scope of the project; ii. Approximate indication on landings volumes and value for each UoC; iii. Approximate indication on the size/number of boats within each UoC; iv. Geographic locations of UoCs
The deliverables produced for the fast scan of Medfish project (http://www.projectmedfish.com/outcomes-stage-1/) for the fisheries in Spain and France, should be taken as a baseline for the due deliverables above detailed.
Timespan: This first scan should take from 15th of April to 15th of May 2018.
b. Deeper mapping:
Based on the scan report, the MSC and the project partners will select 50 fisheries which will undergo a deeper mapping. This deeper mapping is intended to describe and analyse in details the 50 UoC, the relevant stakeholders, the environment they are operating on, their markets, etc. The results of this phase will help the project partners to select a batch of up to 10 fisheries that will then undergo the next phase of the project.
Deliverables:
A full report should be provided and consist in a description of the 50 UoC per country including at a minimum:
i. Summary of the fisheries;
ii. Species profile factsheets;
iii. Vessel fleet composition;
iv. Gear type information;
v. Landings data (volume, value, points of landings…);
vi. Main markets and selling points;
vii. Main fishery’s regulations measures;
viii. List of relevant management bodies;
ix. Main information on stock status, environmental impacts and fishery management;
x. List of relevant stakeholders;
xi. Sources of information;
Template for these fisheries profiles are available from the PIUK project. Also, the deliverables produced for the mapping of Medfish project (http://www.project-medfish.com/outcomes-stage-1/) for the fisheries in Spain and France, should be taken as a baseline for the due deliverables above detailed.
Timespan:
The deeper mapping should take place from the 1st of June to the 31st of October 2018.
Once the deliverable are finalised, the contractor is expected to present the results during a series of in person meetings with project partners and stakeholders to be agreed with the clients. These meetings tentatively would take place November 2018 and February 2019.
F. Opportunities to discuss with client and partner bodies
In order that there is a clear understanding of the specification described it is intended that all contractors who express interest in tendering have the opportunity to discuss the project with the client via a webinar. The date of the webinar will be mutually agreed and adequate time will be provided to ensure clarity and that all parties understand each other. As a matter of equality any specific questions and responses on the specification will be copied to all potential contractors.
G. Tender requirements
Deadline for Tender: 31st of March 2018 Address for submission: Marked “Project BluFish”. All tenders should be sent to:
Ilaria Vielmini, Fisheries Manager MSC Italy [email protected] C.so San Gottardo, 28 20136 Milano Italy
Contents required (in English):
• Hard & electronic copies of the financial and technical documents;
• A breakdown of work plan and milestones;
• Identifying the individuals responsible for managing the contract & contact for client;
• Cost of contract overall and each stage (VAT element identified);
• Agreement on the start and finish date.
H. Further notes and requirements:
• We reserve the right to not accept any tenders following submission. The assessment process is confidential and will take place within 10 days from the submission deadline. Following assessment of tenders the client may approach any contractor and request them to provide further supporting information as required.
• Please note that the number fisheries undergoing the pre-assessment stage could be increased during the project. In this event, the project partners reserve the right to discuss with the awarded contractors to scale up capacity during the project, or to issue a new call for tender to cover these extra activities.
• The timespans are fixed and should be respected.
• All the deliverables should be built on the template provided. MSC Italy reserve the rights to request improvements and adjustments, should the expected quality not met.
• All the project reports should be available in both hard and electronic copies, suitable for web availability. The report should be appropriately referenced and have a contents section and begin with a two page summary. It may form a section to the full project report covering all stages of work.
• The project reports should be made available in the relevant country’s language and in English.
• In person presentation of the work results based on the reports may be expected at the end of each stage.
Note 1 - Italian fisheries are defined as fisheries constituted of boats operating in Italian waters and under Italian flag.
Note 2 - Geographical Sub-Areas (GSA) as defined by General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean and Black Sea (GFCM) RES-GFCM/33/2009/2 Establishment of Geographical Sub-Areas in the GFCM area