Incentive-based approaches to sustainable fisheries

Abstract

Abstract:The failures of traditional target-species management have led many to propose an ecosystem approach to fisheries to promote sustainability. The ecosystem approach is necessary, especially to account for fishery-ecosystem interactions, but by itself is not sufficient to address two important factors contributing to unsustainable fisheries: inappropriate incentives bearing on fishers and the ineffective governance that frequently exists in commercial, developed fisheries managed primarily by total-harvest limits and input controls. We contend that much greater emphasis must be placed on fisher motivation when managing fisheries. Using evidence from more than a dozen natural experiments in commercial fisheries, we argue that incentive-based approaches that better specify community and individual harvest or territorial rights and price ecosystem services and that are coupled with public research, monitoring, and effective oversight promote sustainable fisheries. 710 Résumé : Les échecs des aménagements traditionnels centrés sur les espèces-cibles ont incité plusieurs chercheurs à proposer des approches halieutiques basées sur les écosystèmes pour favoriser les pêches durables. L'approche écosys-témique est nécessaire, en particulier, pour tenir compte des interactions pêche-écosystème; elle ne suffit pas, cependant, par elle-même pour régler deux facteurs importants qui contribuent à rendre les pêches non durables : les incitations insuffisantes pour les pêcheurs et la gestion inefficace souvent présente dans les pêches commerciales déve-loppées qui sont régies principalement par des limites à la récolte totale et par des contrôles d'entrée. Nous croyons qu'on doit mettre beaucoup plus l'accent sur la motivation des pêcheurs dans la gestion de la pêche. En utilisant des données provenant de plus d'une douzaine d'expériences naturelles de pêche commerciale, nous cherchons à démontrer que des approches fondées sur les incitations qui précisent mieux la communauté, les récoltes individuelles et les droits territoriaux et qui évaluent aussi financièrement les services de l'écosystème, couplées avec de la recherche gouvernementale, de la surveillance et de la gestion efficace, promeuvent les pêches commerciales durables.[Traduit par la Rédaction] Grafton et al.

The right incentives enable ocean sustainability successes and provide hope for the future

“…This approach provides motivation for fishers to act as stewards of the resource and allows fished populations to increase (34). The switch to RBFs has seen successes at the local and national levels, further illustrating how this approach, if appropriately used, can be scaled to strengthen the feedbacks that lead to desired economic, social, and environmental outcomes (13,35).…”

Ecosystem-based fisheries management requires a change to the selective fishing philosophy

“…Most restrictions imposed to reduce bycatch result in some economic cost to the industry, usually through lower catch rates of the targeted species (59,60). Incentive-based management systems (e.g., taxes or quotas) may be well placed to limit bycatch of vulnerable species (e.g., turtles, seabirds) without imposing undue restrictions on fishing activities (61). In addition to less selection, reducing fishing effort on target species will also result in lower levels of incidental fishing mortality.…”

Kanak coastal communities and fisheries meeting new governance challenges and marine issues in New Caledonia

“…The decimation of the Atlantic fishery to the point of non-sustainability has changed global perceptions of the need to control fisheries exploitation. Such control requires the cooperation of all parties in a system essentially based on voluntary compliance in the absence of effective monitoring and policing of the vast offshore expanses of the Pacific Ocean (Grafton et al 2006). Pacific societies are now taking the lead in reconceptualising fisheries as pluralistic objects with environmental, economic, social, and cultural issues to be considered in any management regime at local, national, regional and global levels.…”