diff --git a/ckanext/spatial/lib/csw_client.py b/ckanext/spatial/lib/csw_client.py
index 0ac075e5..1791f083 100644
--- a/ckanext/spatial/lib/csw_client.py
+++ b/ckanext/spatial/lib/csw_client.py
@@ -10,6 +10,12 @@
 
 log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+# Py2 vs Py3 encoding
+if six.PY2:
+    _enc='utf-8'
+else:
+    _enc=str
+
 class CswError(Exception):
     pass
 
@@ -178,13 +184,13 @@ def getrecordbyid(self, ids=[], esn="full", outputschema="gmd", **kw):
         md = csw._exml.find("/{http://www.isotc211.org/2005/gmd}MD_Metadata")
         mdtree = etree.ElementTree(md)
         try:
-            record["xml"] = etree.tostring(mdtree, pretty_print=True, encoding=str)
+            record["xml"] = etree.tostring(mdtree, pretty_print=True, encoding=_enc)
         except TypeError:
             # API incompatibilities between different flavours of elementtree
             try:
-                record["xml"] = etree.tostring(mdtree, pretty_print=True, encoding=str)
+                record["xml"] = etree.tostring(mdtree, pretty_print=True, encoding=_enc)
             except AssertionError:
-                record["xml"] = etree.tostring(md, pretty_print=True, encoding=str)
+                record["xml"] = etree.tostring(md, pretty_print=True, encoding=_enc)
 
         record["xml"] = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n' + record["xml"]
         record["tree"] = mdtree
diff --git a/ckanext/spatial/model/harvested_metadata.py b/ckanext/spatial/model/harvested_metadata.py
index a7225185..5ed6db77 100644
--- a/ckanext/spatial/model/harvested_metadata.py
+++ b/ckanext/spatial/model/harvested_metadata.py
@@ -4,6 +4,12 @@
 import logging
 log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
+# Py2 vs Py3 encoding
+def _encode(element): 
+    if six.PY2:
+        return element.encode('utf-8')
+    else:
+        return str(element)
 
 class MappedXmlObject(object):
     elements = []
@@ -91,9 +97,9 @@ def get_value(self, element):
                 value[child.name] = child.read_value(element)
             return value
         elif type(element) == etree._ElementStringResult:
-            value = str(element)
+            value = _encode(element)
         elif type(element) == etree._ElementUnicodeResult:
-            value = str(element)
+            value = _encode(element)
         else:
             value = self.element_tostring(element)
         return value